The book The Emperor's New Clothes; Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium, by Joseph L. Graves Jr. discusses the concept of race throughout human history. He discusses how humans perceive race before Darwin’s discoveries, in colonial America, and looks at eugenics. He presents common theories and “truths” about race for the era in each time period. He starts the book by comparing the story the Emperor's New Clothes to how humans perceive race. He makes the connection through the mass majority going along with who is in charge, this being the king, and the children who speak the truth. He shows through his book that race is a ‘recent social and political construction” (Graves Jr. 1). He wants to show the reader that there is no scientific support to separate humans into races. I agree with him that people are not born to view race. It is something learned through the social atmosphere and practiced through generations. He begins with pre-Darwinism where the people depending on their religion and where they were geographically, shaped how they viewed other races. During this time people believed that humans were the best species and the best product of evolution. In the ideology of the Greeks and Romans slavery had nothing to do with race. They stood by the law that “any and all captured people could be enslaved” (Graves Jr. 20), instead of one single race. He then moves onto the Darwin era where the theories of race through a biological standpoint are discussed. In this section of the book, science is used to support their racial views. Darwin’s view on human evolution is through natural selection. His general theory was the basis for others in this era to form their own ideas about race. Many believed that through natural selection certain races were stronger and more advanced than others. This is how they formed a social hierarchy within the human species. Anthropologists weighed in on the argument and stated that they had found “similarity of apes and humans” (Graves Jr. 64), this led to the belief that Africans were more like an ape and Europeans were less apelike. This led to a new theory where people looked at the physical features of a person and supported their argument that Africans facial structure was closer to an ape than humans. Graves Jr. moves onto the last section in human history in the Americas and the belief of eugenics. In the Americas, the concept of race stemmed from European views. These racial views carried into the idea behind slavery. They had Native Americans to enslave, but they resisted and became more of a burden. Africans were easier to enslave and use as a labor force. The ideas of race did not change in the colonies, they were parallel with the views many had in Europe. It wasn’t until the beginning of the Civil War that people began to change how they viewed the Africans. It wasn’t a change in a belief in race, it was a change by noticing that they are people and not property. Going further into modern human history the belief of Eugenics started to rise. This was the belief that some people needed to be fixed. Hitler stood by this belief against the Jews, Gays,Africans, and Gypsies. They were seen as a
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It has been carried and passed down through generations and has had a major influence on the social construct of society. I agree with the question and the two futures Graves Jr. poses in his final thoughts. In order for the future society in America to get rid of racial thinking, our thinking needs to change. We can have a future that is a healthy environment where is accepts the expression of the different genes that are present in the nation. The second is to rid the belief that the environment in which a person is raised is a direct connection to their characteristics. The bulk of the book showed the different theories of race through the different eras of human history. The author only provides his thoughts at the very beginning and at the end. This book was a harder read mainly because it was theory after theory as to why people in history viewed race and superiority the way they
It has been carried and passed down through generations and has had a major influence on the social construct of society. I agree with the question and the two futures Graves Jr. poses in his final thoughts. In order for the future society in America to get rid of racial thinking, our thinking needs to change. We can have a future that is a healthy environment where is accepts the expression of the different genes that are present in the nation. The second is to rid the belief that the environment in which a person is raised is a direct connection to their characteristics. The bulk of the book showed the different theories of race through the different eras of human history. The author only provides his thoughts at the very beginning and at the end. This book was a harder read mainly because it was theory after theory as to why people in history viewed race and superiority the way they