Genome project found that superficial features like skin, hair and eye color could evolve relatively quickly in different climates. Dorothy Roberts says the genetic variations that do exist among humans within that narrow 0.1 percent of the genome where we differ simply don't line up with our notions of race. People with ancestors from Zimbabwe are very genetically different from people with ancestors from Somalia for example.
Scientists weren’t the first to divide humanity along racial – and and racist – lines. But for hundreds of years, racial scientists claimed to provide proof for those racist hierarchies – and some still do.
Resources for this episode:
Fatal Invention, by Dorothy Roberts
The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter