- Sarich, Vincent and Frank Miele. Race: The Reality of Human
Differences. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,
2004. ISBN 0-8133-4086-1.
- This book tackles the puzzle posed by the apparent
contradiction between the remarkable genetic homogeneity of humans
compared to other species, while physical differences between
human races (non-controversial measures such as cranial morphology,
height, and body build) actually exceed those between other primate
species and subspecies. Vincent Sarich, emeritus Professor of
Anthropology at UC Berkeley, pioneer in the development of the
“molecular clock”, recounts this scientific adventure and the
resulting revolution in the human evolutionary tree and timescale.
Miele (editor of Skeptic magazine)
and Sarich then argue that the present-day dogma among physical
anthropologists and social scientists that “race does not exist”,
if taken to its logical conclusion, amounts to rejecting Darwinian
evolution, which occurs through variation and selection. Consequently
variation among groups is an inevitable consequence,
recognised as a matter of course in other species. Throughout, the
authors stress that variation of characteristics among individual
humans greatly exceeds mean racial variation, which makes racial
prejudice and discrimination not only morally abhorrent but stupid
from the scientific standpoint. At the same time, small differences
in the mean of a set of standard distributions causes large changes
in their representation in the aggregate tail representing extremes of
performance. This is why one should be neither surprised nor dismayed
to find a “disproportionate” number of Kenyans among cross-country
running champions, Polynesians in American professional football,
or east Asians in mathematical research. A person who comprehends
this basic statistical fact should be able to treat individuals on
their own merit without denying the reality of differences among
sub-populations of the human species. Due to the broad overlap
among groups, members of every group, if given the opportunity,
will be represented at the highest levels of performance in each
field, and no individual should feel deterred nor be excluded
from aspiring to such achievement due to group membership. For the
argument against the biological reality of race, see the Web site for
the United States Public Broadcasting Service documentary, Race:
The Power of an Illusion. This book attempts to rebut
each of the assertions in that documentary.
June 2004