Columbia University Press, June 2018In two opinion pieces that ran earlier this year in The New York Times, David Reich, professor of human genetics at Harvard University, discussed the genetics of race and racial differences. In the first piece, Reich addressed race and the genetics of complex behavioral and anatomical differences among humans. In the second piece, Reich responded to the “hundreds” of letters to the editors provoked by his first essay. Here, we hope to tease apart this highly visible exchange on race between a preeminent scientist and the public.
We find Reich’s two editorials controversial because they seem to further the concept that race is a genetic, biological construct. His underlying claim is embodied in the following quote: “[M]any traits are influenced by genetic variations, and . . . these traits will differ on average across human populations.” It is impossible to argue that this statement is false, so Reich asserts that scientists who deny the genetic basis of race are “anti-scientific, foolish, and absurd.” But do these genetically controlled traits that differ across populations characterize the people that carry them?
At the heart of Reich’s argument is not a fact of nature, but the human mind’s interpretation of what it perceives. Statistician John Gower was quoted as saying in a 1972 symposium: ‘‘The ...
