Scientific Racism: The Cloak of Objectivity

This article reviews an application of sociobiological perspectives on “racial” differences, focusing on the work of J. P. Rushton. Rushton has concluded that, as a result of evolutionary processes, the three major “racial” groups may be hierarchically ranked such that Mongoloids > Caucasoids > Negroids. The assumptions and evidence presumably supportive of Rushton's sociobiological perspective are reviewed and critiqued. The concept of “race” is politically defined; the Darwinian arguments are teleological; theoretical constructs are flawed; and the empirical data bases are frequently misrepresented. This area of research is discussed in terms of the ideological underpinnings of social science inquiry, and the goals and functions of scholarship in contemporary society.