And as Angela Saini convincingly argues in her new book, Superior: The Return of Race Science, published May 21 by Beacon Press, the “problem of the color line” still survives today in 21st-century science. The post-war era saw scientists on the right-wing fringe find ways to cloak their racist views in more palatable language and concepts. It would take the Holocaust to show the world the logical endpoint of such horrific ideology, discrediting much race-based science and forcing eugenics’ most hardline adherents into the shadows.
It was the century when the scientifically backed enterprise of eugenics-improving the genetic quality of white, European races by removing people deemed inferior-gained massive popularity, with advocates on both sides of the Atlantic. Du Bois once wrote, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” His words were borne out, in part, by science. But such views of scientific neutrality are naive, as study findings, inevitably, are influenced by the biases of the people conducting the work. Scientists, including those who study race, like to see themselves as objectively exploring the world, above the political fray.
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