Description
Book SynopsisAlthough the human genome exists apart from society, knowledge about it is produced through socially-created language and interactions. As such, genomicists' thinking is informed by their inability to escape the wake of the race' concept. This book investigates how racism makes genomics and how genomics makes racism and race,' and the consequences of these constructions. Specifically, Williams explores how racial ideology works in genomics. The simple assumption that frames the book is that race' as an ideology justifying a system of oppression is persistently recreated as a practical and familiar way to understand biological reality. This book reveals that genomicists' preoccupation with race'regardless of good or ill intentcontributes to its perception as a category of differences that is scientifically rigorous.
Trade ReviewWilliams’ Decoding Racial Ideology excavates and reveals the many ways in which genomic studies of racial differences are typically grounded in deep-seated common lay assumptions about race. In so doing, he contributes to a growing body of literature that documents how, in this era of “Post-Genomics”, lay racial thinking persists and remains embedded in much human genetic research. -- Troy Duster, Emeritus Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Table of ContentsForeword, Joseph L. Graves, Jr. Chapter 1: Genomics’ ‘Race’ Legacy Chapter 2: Socialized Interpreters Chapter 3: Racialized Culture—Genomic Nexus Chapter 4: Racialization via Assertions of Objectivity and Heuristic Practice Chapter 5: ‘Bad Science’ Discourse as Covering for Racial Thinking Chapter 6: Reorienting Genomics
