Mosley, Albert - Modern Racism: A Defense

02/01/2008

Unpublished Paper

This is a paper that attempts to unmask a more 'scientific' form of racism. Instead of arguing for essentialism of the races, the new terminology is the 'relative frequency of traits'. One such writer is Michael Levin, who considers the genetic differences between the races to be ones not of essential difference but of relative occurence. However, he also takes on some form of genetic determinism, strongly downplaying environmental or social factors, or arguing more that it was a matter of choice, or stupidity, that maintains the environmental disparities that could be used as alternate explanations to genetic differences. Author picks apart these arguments and shows how they are a dressed up form of old-fashioned racism.

Author argues that the claim that different races have different distribution of intellectual ability dovetails with Stephen Kershnar's conclusion that races with lower intelligence have lower moral agency, and are less capable of self-rule, or obeying laws, leading to a higher level of criminality.

Author discusses the problems with retaining any talk of races, since it can be used by more modern racists to veil their racism in biologically sanctioned categories.