INHISNEWBOOK,HOWTO
ARGUEWITHA RACIST,GENETICIST
DRADAMRUTHERFORDQUASHES
THE‘PROOF’THATPEOPLEUSETO
JUSTIFY THEIR RACIST BELIEFS
THESE GENES
DON’T LIE
Profile
WHYDIDYOUWANTTOWRITETHISBOOK?
Threeanglesofmycareerandlifehave
collidedinthisbook.Thefirstis thatI’m
a geneticist,soI’minterestedinhuman
variation,thebasisfromwhichhistorical
descriptionsofracehavecome.
Thesecondthingis thatI spentmyentire
careeratUniversityCollegeLondon(UCL),
whichis,inmanyways,thehomeofhuman
genetics.I wasintheGaltonLaboratory,
whichwasnamedafterFrancisGalton.
Galtonwassortofthefoundingfatherof
bothhumanandstatisticalgenetics,butalso
ofeugenicsandsomeprettyawfulideas.
Thethirdthingis thatI’mmixedrace.My
maternallineageis Indian,viaindenture–
whichis a formofslavery– toGuyana.It’s
notbeena majorpartofmypersonallife,
butnow,atthepointinthe21stCentury
whereconversationsaboutraceandgenetics
andnationalismallappeartobeonthe
rise,I thinkthatthereis a reasonablecase
tobemadethatthereis a co-optingof
contemporarypopulationgenetics.
It wasa sortofinevitablethatthisbook
wasgoingtoemergefromme,andI think
needs to be published now more than ever.
WHATDOES‘HUMANVARIATION’REFERTO,AND HOW
DOESTHATRELATETOTHETERM‘RACE’?
Thisis a complexarea,andhistorically,we’ve
beenprettypoorat tryingtounderstand
humanvariation.Peoplethroughoutantiquity
havebeendiscussinghowwearedifferent
allthroughouttheworld,sincehumanshave
existed.Thereis nodoubtthatpeoplelook,
behaveandaredifferentfromeachother.
Aroundthe15thCentury,theseconversations
becameformalisedattemptstopindownthe
differencesbetweenthegroupsofpeoplethat
Europeanswereencounteringastheyconquered
theothercontinents.Whereashistorically,we
could group people by superficial characteristics“ e idea that there could
be racial purity is just
ahistorical, ascientific,
it’s an absolute nonsense”
HOWTOARGUE
WITHA RACIST
ADAMRUTHERFORD
(£12.99, WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON)RADAR