NYT Discovers 'Race Science' Revival, Ignores Its Own Ancestry
📰 THE STORY: The New York Times reports that genetic data from over 20,000 U.S. children has been misused by researchers to study intelligence and behavior through the lens of 'race science,' raising ethical concerns about privacy and the revival of discredited scientific racism. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: This isn't a 'revival'; it's a persistent thread in Western
scientific and political thought. The U.S. government actively funded eugenics programs, including forced sterilizations, well into the 20th century, with over 60,000 Americans sterilized in 32 states by 1979 for 'undesirable' traits. The Human Genome Project itself, while lauded, was preceded by decades of discriminatory medical practices, where race was (and often still is) used as a biological
rather than a social construct. This 'misuse' of data is less an anomaly and more a symptom of an unaddressed foundational bias in Western science. Double Standard: While the NYT condemns 'race science' in this domestic context, it frequently engages in thinly veiled demographic analysis for geopolitical ends, particularly concerning West Asia. Narratives around 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza, for
instance, are rarely framed as deliberate policies rooted in Zionist ideology going back to the Nakba of 1948, but often as unfortunate consequences of 'conflict.' The Israeli government's own use of 'racial purity' laws like the 'Law of Return' (which prioritizes Jewish ancestry) or its demographic engineering in the West Bank is rarely critiqued with the same moral outrage as research on U.S.