Research in the latter half of the 20th century purporting to show significant racial differences in intelligence and social behavior appears to pit civil rights concerns against the freedom of scientific inquiry. The core hypotheses and presumptions of recent research on racial difference are not new, however, but spring from a two-century-old program of research that has sought to demonstrate racial differences in socially valued traits.
Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study
The purpose of this review was to explore the history of racial difference research in order to (1) elucidate the central themes of that research and (2) explore the reasons for the persistence of those themes into modern racial difference research.
Research Design
The investigation is a historical analysis of research on racial differences from the late 18th century to the present.
Conclusions/Recommendations
Both the methodologies and the willingness to express the core hypotheses of a fixed differential between races on socially important characteristics have changed over time, yet adherence to a set of core research questions has remained relatively unchanged across generations of researchers. Although the consistent conflation of its political and scientific aims has, to some extent, compromised the scientific status of racial difference research, consistent links to social and economic policy have also ensured its intergenerational reproduction. Convergent shifts across a number of disciplines suggest that a Kuhnian-type paradigm shift may be under way that will redefine both the strategies and the types of questions that may characterize future research in the areas of race, ethnicity, and culture.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgassizL. (1850). The diversity of origin of the human races. Christian Examiner, 49, 110–145.
2.
American Anthropological Association. (1998). American Anthropological Association statement on “race.” Retrieved October 8, 2008, from http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm
3.
American Psychological Association/American Educational Research Association. (1999). Standards for education and psychological testing. Washington, DC: Author.
4.
AndreasenR. O. (2004). The cladistics race concept: A defense. Biology and Philosophy, 19, 425–442.
5.
BajemaC. J. (1976). Eugenics: Then and now.Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross.
6.
BarkanE. (1992). The retreat of scientific racism. New York: Cambridge University Press
7.
BarringerP. B. (1900). The American Negro: His past and future.Raleigh, NC: Edwards and Broughton.
8.
BlackE. (2003). War against the weak: Eugenics and America's campaign to create a master race.New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.
9.
BlackerC. P. (1952). Eugenics: Galton and after.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
10.
BlausteinA. P., & ZangrandoR. L. (1970). Civil rights and the Black American: A documentary history.New York: Simon and Schuster.
11.
BlumJ. M. (1978). Pseudoscience and mental ability: The origins and fallacies of the IQ controversy.New York: Monthly Review Press.
12.
BlumenbachJ. F. (1997). Degeneration of the species. In EzeE. C. (Ed.), Race and the enlightenment: A reader (pp. 79–90). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. (Original work published 1776)
13.
Bonilla-SilvaE. (2003). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States.Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
14.
BrighamC. C. (1923). A study in American intelligence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
15.
BrighamC. C. (1930). Intelligence tests of immigrant groups. Psychological Review, 37, 158–165.
16.
BruiniusH. (2006). Better for all the world: The secret history of forced sterilization and America's quest for racial purity.New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
CattellR. B. (1950). The fate of national intelligence: Test of a thirteen-year prediction. Eugenics Review, 42, 136–148.
19.
Cavalli-SforzaL. L, MenozziP., & PiazzaA. (1994). The history and geography of human genes.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
CeaserJ. W. (2000). Natural rights and scientific racism. In EngemanT. S. (Ed.), Thomas Jefferson and the politics of nature (pp. 165–189). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
21.
DainB. (2002). A hideous monster of the mind: American race theory in the early republic.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
Darling-HammondL. (2006). Securing the right to learn: Policy and practice for powerful teaching and learning. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 13–24.
23.
DavenportC. B. (1911). Heredity in relation to eugenics. New York: Henry Holt.
24.
DavenportC. B. (1914). The eugenics programme and progress in its achievement. In DavenportC. B. (Ed.), Eugenics: Twelve University lectures (pp. 1–14). New York: Dodd, Mead.
25.
DelgadoR. (Ed.). (1995). Critical race theory: The cutting edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
26.
DonovanM. S., & CrossC. T. (Eds.). (2002). Minority students in special and gifted education. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
EvansS. E. (2004). Forgotten crimes: The Holocaust and people with disabilities.Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
29.
FinkelmanP. (1993a). The crime of color. Tulane Law Review, 67, 2063–2112.
30.
FinkelmanP. (1993b). Jefferson and slavery: “Treason against the hopes of the world. In OnufP. (Ed.), Jeffersonian legacies (pp. 181–223). Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
31.
FredericksonG. M. (1971). The black image in the white mind: The debate on Afro-American character and destiny, 1817–1914. New York: Harper and Row.
32.
FredericksonG. (1988). The arrogance of race: Historical perspectives on slavery, racism, and social inequality.Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
33.
GaertnerS., & DovidioJ. (1986). Prejudice, discrimination, and racism. New York: Academic Press.
34.
GaltonF. (1865). Hereditary talent and character: Part II. Macmillan's Magazine, 12 (71), 318–327.
GaltonF. (1901). The possible improvement of the human breed under the existing conditions of law and sentiment. Nature, 64(1670), 659–665.
37.
GaltonF. (1909). Eugenics: Its definition, scope and aims. In GaltonF. (Ed.), Essays in eugenics (pp. 35–43). London: Eugenics Education Society.
38.
GibsonR. A. (1979). The Negro Holocaust: Lynching and race riots in the United States, 1880–1950. In AgnewJ. C. (Ed.), Themes in twentieth century American culture (Vol. 2). New Haven, CT: Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Retrieved March 16, 2009, from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html
39.
GoddardH. H. (1912). The Kallikak family: A study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness.New York: Macmillan.
40.
GordonR. A. (1987). SES versus IQ in the race-IQ-delinquency model. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 7, 30–96.
41.
GossettT. F. (1997). Race: The history of an idea in America.New York: Oxford University Press.
42.
GouldS. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man. New York: W. W. Norton.
43.
GrantM. (1918). The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European history. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
44.
GratzerW. (2000). The undergrowth of science: Delusion, self-deception, and human frailty.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
45.
GravesJ. L. (2001). The emperor's new clothes: Biological theories of race at the millennium.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
46.
HallG. S. (1905). The Negro in Africa and America. Pedagogical Seminary, 12, 350–368.
47.
HallG. S. (1909). Education in sex-hygiene. Eugenics Review, 1, 242–253.
48.
HallerJ. S. (1995). Outcasts from evolution: Scientific attitudes of racial inferiority, 1859–1900.Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
49.
HannafordI. (1996). Race: The history of an idea in the West.Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
50.
HegelG. W. F. (1975). Lectures in the Philosophy of World History. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. (Original work published 1837)
51.
HerrnsteinR. J., & MurrayC. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life.New York: Simon and Schuster.
52.
HilgardE. R. (1987). Psychology in America: A historical survey.San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
53.
HitlerA. (1971). Mein kampf.Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (Original work published 1925)
54.
HoffmanF. L. (1896). The race traits and tendencies of the American Negro. Publications of the American Economic Association, 11(1), 1–329.
55.
HolmesA. (1914). The first law of character development. In DavenportC. B. (Ed.), Eugenics: Twelve university lectures (pp. 177–212). New York: Dodd, Mead.
56.
HumeD. (1997). Of national characters. In EzeE. C. (Ed.), Race and the enlightenment: A reader (pp. 30–33). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. (Original work published 1754)
JacksonJ. P., & WeidmanN. M. (2006). Race, racism, and science: Social impact and interaction.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
59.
JeffersonT. (1829). Notes on the State of Virginia.Boston: Wells & Lilly—Court Street. (Original work published 1787)
60.
JensenA. (1969). How much can we boost IQ and scholastic achievement?Harvard Educational Review, 39, 1–123.
61.
JensenA. R. (1972). Genetics and education. London: Methuen.
62.
JensenA. R. (1998). The g factor: The science of mental ability.Westport, CT: Praeger.
63.
JordanD. S. (1911). The heredity of Richard Roe: A discussion of the principles of eugenics. Boston: Beacon Press.
64.
JordanW. J. (1968). White over black: American attitudes toward the Negro, 1550–1812.New York: Norton Press.
65.
KantI. (1997). On the different races of man. In EzeE. C. (Ed.), Race and the enlightenment: A reader (pp. 38–48). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. (Original work published 1775)
66.
KlineW. (2001). Building a better race: Gender, sexuality, and eugenics from the turn of the century to the baby boom. Berkeley: University of California Press.
67.
KnoxR. (1850). The races of men: A Fragment.Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard.
68.
KozolJ. (2005). The shame of a nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America.New York: Crown.
69.
KuhlS. (1994). The Nazi connection: Eugenics, American racism, and German National Socialism.New York: Oxford University Press.
70.
KuhnT. S. (1996). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1962)
71.
LakatosI. (1980). The methodology of scientific research programmes: Philosophical papers (Vol. 1). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
LewontinR. (1972). The apportionment of human diversity. Evolutionary Biology, 6, 391–398.
74.
LindqvistS. (1997). The skull measurer's mistake.New York: New Press.
75.
LinnaeusC. (1970). Systema naturae (A general system of nature: Through the three grand kingdoms of animals, vegetables, and minerals: Systematically divided into their several classes, orders, genera, species and varieties with their habitations, manners, economy, structure and peculiarities). London: Lackington. (Original work published 1735)
76.
LynnR. (2001). Eugenics: A reassessment.Westport, CT: Praeger
77.
MarksJ. (1995). Human biodiversity: Genes, race, and history. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
MieleF. (2002). Intelligence, race, and genetics: Conversations with Arthur Jensen.Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
80.
MillerM. D. (1996). Terminating the “socially inadequate:” The American eugenicists and the German race hygienists, California to Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island to Germany.New York: Malamud-Rose.
81.
MilnerH. R., & FordD. Y. (2007). Cultural considerations in the underrepresentation of culturally diverse elementary students in gifted education. Roeper Review, 29, 166–173.
82.
MortonS. G. (1839). Crania America: or; a comparative view of the skulls of various aboriginal nations of North and South America.Philadelphia: J. Dobson.
83.
MurrayC. (1996). Afterword. In HerrnsteinR. J. & MurrayC., The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
84.
NashG. B. (2000). Red, White, and Black: The peoples of early North America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
85.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (1969). Thirty years of lynching in the United States, 1889-1918. New York: Negro Universities Press. (Original work published 1919)
86.
NoelD. L. (Ed.) (1972). The origins of American slavery and racism. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.
87.
NottJ. C. & GliddonS. G. (1871). Types of mankind.Philadelphia: Lippincott.
88.
PaulD. B. (1995). Controlling human heredity: 1865 to the present.Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
89.
PearsonK. (1909a). The scope and importance to the state of the science of national eugenics.London: Dulau.
90.
PearsonK. (1909b). The groundwork of eugenics.London: Dulau.
91.
PearsonK. (1912a). The problem of practical eugenics.London: Cambridge University Press.
92.
PearsonK. (1912b). Social problems: Their treatment, past, present, and future.London: Cambridge University Press.
93.
PickeringC. (1863). The races of man; and their geographical distribution.London: M. G. Bohn.
94.
ReimersD. M. (1998). Unwelcome strangers: American identity and the turn against immigration.New York: Columbia University Press.
95.
RobinsonD. L. (1971). Slavery in the structure of American politics, 1765–1820.New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
96.
RossE. A. (1914). The old world and the new: The significance of past and present immigration to the American people.New York: Century.
97.
RoweD. (2005). Under the skin: On the impartial treatment of the genetic and environmental hypotheses of racial differences. American Psychologist, 60, 60–70.
98.
RushtonJ. P. (2000). Race, evolution, and behavior: A life history perspective (3rd ed.). Port Huron, MI: Charles Darwin Research Institute.
99.
RushtonJ. P., & JensenA. R. (2005). Thirty years of research on race differences in cognitive ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 11, 235–294.
100.
ShueyA. (1958). The testing of Negro intelligence.Lynchburg, VA: J. P. Bell.
101.
SkibaR. J., HornerR. H., ChungC. G., RauschM. K., MayS. L., & TobinT. (2011). Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Review, 40, 85–107.
102.
SmedleyA. (1999). Race in North America: Origin and evolution of a worldview (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
103.
SmithJ. D. (1985). Minds made feeble: The myth and legacy of the Kallikaks.Rockville, MD: Aspen.
104.
StoddardL. (1940). Into the darkness: Nazi Germany today. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
105.
TermanL. M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence.Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
106.
TermanL. M. (1922). Were we born that way?World's Work, 44, 655–660.
107.
ThorndikeE. L. (1914). Eugenics: With special reference to intellect and character. In DavenportC. B. (Ed.), Eugenics: Twelve university lectures (pp. 319–342). New York: Dodd, Mead.
108.
TichenorD. J. (2002). Dividing lines: The politics of immigration control in America.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
109.
TillinghastJ. A. (1902). The Negro in Africa and America. Publications of the American Economic Association (3rd Series), 3(2), 1–231.
110.
TrepagnierB. (2006). Silent racism: How well-meaning White people perpetuate the racial divide.Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
111.
TuckerW. H. (1994). The science and politics of racial research. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
112.
VaughanV. C. (1914). Eugenics from the point of view of the physician. In DavenportC. B. (Ed.), Eugenics: Twelve university lectures (pp. 41–76). New York: Dodd, Mead.
113.
VidalM. R. (1996). Genetic rationalizations and public policy: Herrnstein and Murray on intelligence and welfare dependency. In KincheloeJ. L., SteinbergS. R., & GressonA. D. (Eds.), Measured lies: The Bell Curve examined (pp. 219–226). New York: St. Martin's Press.
114.
WebberJ. (1914). Eugenics from the point of view of the geneticist. In DavenportC. B. (Ed.), Eugenics: Twelve university lectures (pp. 139–176). New York: Dodd, Mead.
115.
WeinsteinR. S., GregoryA., & StramblerM. J. (2004). Intractable self-fulfilling prophecies: Brown v. Board of Education. American Psychologist, 59, 511–520.
116.
WhiteC. (1799). An account of the regular gradations in man and in different animals and vegetables; and from the former to the latter.London: C. Dilly.
117.
WolcottR. H. (1914). Eugenics as viewed by the zoologist. In DavenportC. B. (Ed.), Eugenics: Twelve university lectures (pp. 15–40). New York: Dodd, Mead.
118.
WolpoffM., & CaspariR. (1997). Race and human evolution: A fatal attraction.Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
119.
WullenH. V. H. (1937). Eugenics in other lands: A survey of recent developments. Journal of Heredity, 28, 269–275.
120.
WymanD. (1984). The abandonment of Jews: America and the Holocaust.New York: Knopf.
121.
ZackN. (2002). Philosophy and science of race.New York: Routledge.
