Race Science Is a Bad Science
Abstract
In this paper, I argue about the misconceptions about race that mislead professional decisions by reviewing Goodman’s article entitled “Bred in the Bone” and news article entitled “Racism levels in US communities predict how many black people police will kill there” written by Buncombe in 2017.
Introduction
It is with no doubts that people do not live in an isolation bearing in mind that they interact with others from various regions of the world. In each and everything we do in our daily lives, we interact with people from different areas and of different races. This is a factor affects the way we live, relate with other, and how we also conduct ourselves. Racism often leads to hatred towards people of different color, and our perception towards them also changes. Skin color does not bring any difference in people’s capabilities, and thus all people should be perceived equally irrespective of the color. It is true that racism has been an issue of concern for many years whereby it affects functionality in every walk of the world. Notably, some professional decisions across the world are based on race where there are always likelihood of fallacies. In this paper I will state and critically explain misunderstandings about race that mislead professional decisions by reviewing two articles.
In Goodman’s article entitled “Bred in the Bone”, he has perfectly dealt with the issue of racism by showing various scenarios where professionalism has been compromised by the skin color conception. He proved that even experienced experts are sometimes lured to make flawed decisions just because they are deeply affected by racism (GOODMAN, 1997). Giving an example of Clyde Snow who was an experienced forensic anthropologist, he clearly shows that racism is a bad disease that interferes with proper functioning of professionals in various field. It is true that Goodman’s article is important in my research topic having in mind that it directly cites examples of flawed professional decisions caused by racism. It is most important to note that the race should not be a base to make any professional decision in the current world. Actually, the race is deeply flawed premises to make a professional decision or conclusion of any investigation. According to Goodman 1997, it is true that some mistakes realized in professional decisions are not as a result of shoddy work done by experts, but it is because most of them base their premises on race which is basically a flawed premises. If experts can base their conclusions on skin color, what about the other members of the society? It is quite shocking when the entire world is made of people who actually perceive other people based on their race; which is simply a skin color.
Furthermore, it is quite unbelievable that experts like experienced forensic anthropologists can at times make wrong conclusions simply because they used race as the premises for their conclusion. In the article “Bred in the Bone?” written by Goodman in 1997 clearly shows that Clyde Snow, an experienced forensic anthropologist arrived at a wrong conclusion in identifying a victim simply because he used race as his reference. It is true that experts are the most reliable people in the society as other members of the world take their decisions seriously. They are in a position of convincing a large number of people in the world. Wrong identification of a victim by an anthropologist should be caused by other aspects of the investigation but the race. As a matter of fact, experts should be in the fore front in fighting against racism in the world.
Another news article entitled “Racism levels in US communities predict how many black people police will kill there” written by Buncombe in 2017 shows some light on how professionals are acting unprofessional by making decisions based on someone’s race. The main argument which I provide in this article, is that the black community treated unfair by the police officers as compared to the whites. The article is quite relevant in my research topic as the discussed issue in the article is all about racism.
Police work is considered to be another field where crime investigation experts can be misled by the race science to make wrong conclusions. It is quite true that racism goes hand in hand with some envy for no reason. For instance, members of the white community will perceives the black community as bad people who should be treated with less respect and vice versa. Buncombe 2017 put it clear that the black community in US is exposed to higher risks of deaths resulting from police shots as compared to the white community (Buncombe, 2017). According to him, the police’s use of force is likely to kill an African-American than a white person.
Moreover, it is quite unimaginable that a police officer who has been trained to serve and care for all citizen changes his or her mentality and start perceiving people in respect to their skin colour. It shows ignorance of highest when an experienced police officer perceives black people as bad individuals who always breaks law. Buncombe says that the study published in 2016 found that a black person in US is three times more likely than a white person to be shot dead by police officers (Buncombe, 2017). This is a clear indication that fallacy about race mislead professional decisions in the police force. This move therefore interferes with the way the police making decisions based on allegations regarding African Americans. Precisely, racism is a bad practice in any professional field as it leads to flawed professional decisions. Actually, professionals should be in the forefront to fight against racism as it adversely affects some groups of people in our society. I strongly believe that the police are mandated with the task of ensuring and maintaining law and order, thus they are not supposed to be bias when offering their services. In addition, all individuals should be treated equally, regardless of their race or otherwise colour, by the police since they are a symbol of peace and law. However, according to Buncombe, racism has taken over the police system, a move which has made it hard for people of different races to be treated equally by the police, this is a factor which really affects the responsibility of the police, and the public perception of the police. Racism has consequently led to division, since African Americans are termed as criminals, by both the police and the society in general, a factor which leads to poor judgement and perception of African Americans in both the courts and the society respectively.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have consequently talked about racism and its effects, based on two articles namely: “Bred in the Bone” by Goodman, and a news article with the title, “Racism levels in US communities predict how many black people police will kill there.” The two articles have aided me in the establishment of the reasons as to why racism has should not be tolerated. As I have provided in the paper, according to Goodman, race undermines the work of the police whereby African Americans are treated as criminals as compared to the whites. This consequently affects the way the police exercise their duties. On the other hand, I have also provided evidence on the reasons as to why the racism undermines the wellbeing of people in the society.
References
Buncombe, A. (2017). Racism levels among white people in US areas predict how many black people police will kill there, study shows. The Independent. Retrieved 3 August 2017, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/police-killing-racial-bias-white-people-us-african-americans-shot-dead-shooting-study-racist-culture-a7863501.html
GOODMAN, A. (1997). Bred in the bone?. In S. D. Scott & D. Perkins & E. Rothwell (Eds.), Intersections: Readings in the sciences and humanities (pp. 41-48).
