This week I finished:

The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea, by Robert Wald Sussman: Wow! What a fascinating book on the history of the concepts of race (by more than one definition of the term) and the practice of racism.

Sussman was an anthropologist and academic, which are the lenses he mostly looks through. He defines what he means by race and racism, describes some of today’s understandings, misunderstandings, and practices around these concepts and practices, then tells their appearance and development in history. He traces the start of the practice to the Inquisition in Spain: the first time people in power defined a group of people as lesser through intrinsic properties they could never change. In that case, the people being defined were Jews.

He only traces racism in Europe and the US, except brief mentions of Jamaica, Brazil, and a couple other places. I’m not sure what he thinks of the caste system of the Indus Valley or imperial Japan.

He names people and organizations, their relationships, their theories, and what they did. I couldn’t keep track of all the names, but looked a few up, especially the ones he mentioned most. Some of the biggest names in American history supported racism, eugenics, or related actions: Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, several presidents, Sanger.

Whenever I thought he reached the end of the story, he kept continuing, until the time of writing the book. Racism seems less powerful today in the US than when many of its top proponents interacted with, supported, and were supported by Adolph Hitler and various Nazis, including after their atrocities had become well known globally. They loved each other.

He switches from historian or anthropologist to opinion writer gradually as he approaches today, including his personal interactions. I think the work would have been stronger without the editorializing. It seems to me that calling racists “hate-filled” and assigning them motives they might disagree with will lead them to dig in their heels and not listen. I suspect they would say they’re acting out of love and community.

I don’t think he was writing to persuade racists to stop being racist, but I think he would have written a more influential book if he had, but I prefer leading people to solve hard problems, not just to teach them about them.

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