Racist Science: Then and Now
Scientific reasoning and statistics are sometimes manipulated in order to prove a predetermined hypothesis. Historical intellects often used ‘crack pot’ sciences to give their racial prejudices validation and therefore justify horrendous acts of racism. This post will explore the influence of bigoted scientists who attempted to portray the white race as supreme and distinct from others, as well exploring racial discrimination that is still prevalent in modern medicine.
The use of science to support racial politics is a concept that can be dated back to the father of western medicine, Hippocrates, who stated that people with darker skin were born cowardly whereas lighter skin expressed bravery. Another classical thinker, Galen, held the belief that dark skin showed inferiority, as he reasoned that darker skinned people possessed less blood and therefore lacked white features. Racist conjecture like this continues to be prevalent throughout history as pseudo-sciences provided justification for horrific crimes such as slavery, eradication of races and colonisation. For example, the Indigenous people of America were deemed inferior to European settlers and were consequently subjected to mass genocide and still are. The 20th century also witnessed “racial cleansing” in Germany between 1933-1945 of those who were labelled as a threat to the Aryan race. Yet it was the 19th century that saw a golden age of head and neck discovery with the rise of phrenology and craniology; studies that not only differentiated race types as separate species but also endorsed brutality and ownership of enslaved Black people using “science”. The 1800s was a time where racism was not only widespread but also scientifically theorised.
Phrenology and Craniology
Phrenology is the study of bumps on skulls that were believed to define an individual’s attributes and intelligence. Needless to say, phrenology is recognised today as a ‘crack pot’ science; however, during western slavery of Africans (1619-1865) this study was significant in removing conscience from slave owners. Doctor Samuel George Morton (1799-1851) used comparative anatomy of skulls to rank the intelligence of races based on cranial size; he concluded that Caucasians of German Anglo-Saxon decent were most intelligent, then Mongolians, Native Americans, Malays and ultimately Africans. Of course, this is nonsense and unproven, if cranial size was proportional to intelligence, blue whales and elephants would be in charge, although who’s to say they wouldn’t do a better job?
Phrenological ideas, along with physiognomy (using facial features to make judgements of character) were also used to convict criminals by Italian physician Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909). As the first to inspect biological causes for crime, Lombroso is regarded today as the father of modern criminology despite actually contributing very little to the field. Nowadays we can almost all agree that people commit crimes as a mixed result of genetic and environmental factors; Lombroso emphasised the contribution of physical features that he believed determined guilt and these features often showed racial prejudice against non-white folk.
Some examples of Lombroso’s racial profiling:
- “The projection of the lower face and jaws (prognathism) found in negroes.”
- “Oblique eyelids, a Mongolian characteristic.”
- A nose with a “tip rising like an isolated peak from the swollen nostrils, a form found among the Akkas, a tribe of pygmies of Central Africa.”
Despite the 13th amendment abolishing slavery in 1865, the debunking of phrenology was not mutually exclusive. Racial profiling is just as common and widespread as it was in the 19th century, with disproportionate figures of Black and ethnic minorities being arrested, with the notion that these groups are more violent. In the UK, Black men are 40 times more likely to be stopped and searched. This policy bases criminal judgment by police on physical characteristics of a racial group rather than on individual suspicion and acknowledgement of socio-economic factors; sound familiar? I’m sure Lombroso would have been a fan of stop and search, I however am not.
These fallacious judgements were even believed by the respected Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880) who is highly regarded today for his neurological research and discovery of the speech area in the brain, named the ‘Broca’s area’. Despite his great contributions to neuroanatomy his influence on racist science should not be forgotten or diluted. Broca was vocal about his ethnocentristic views, which placed his Caucasian race superior to others and was interested in the popular field of craniology; a study that primarily aimed to create racial divisions based on differences in the sizes and shapes of skulls. Broca used the study to theorise that the brains of females and dark-skinned individuals were smaller and denser when compared to their white male counterparts. When tremendous amounts of discrepancies where brought to him against this he responded with weak reasoning. For example, a study showed German brains weighed more on average than French brains and as a French born scientist he disregarded the research on the basis that the brains belonged to old people making the results faulty. The greatest irony to Broca’s racist theory is that upon death his own brain was measured as smaller than average. A satirical tale.
Polygenism and Monogenism
When digging through racial conjecture pre-Darwinism, you will find many scientists believed in the notion of polygeny. Polygenism is the false idea that racial groups have separate origins and are therefore independent species. To fit this idea with biblical narrative, the story of Adam and Eve was deemed true for Caucasian origin and people of colour were said to have descended from outside of the Garden of Eden. This was backed by the likes of Morton who wrote the popular ‘Types of Mankind’, as well as Broca, who stated in a memoire “I would rather be a transformed ape than a degenerate son of Adam”. Broca even went as far as to conduct experiments on animal hybrids in attempt to prove polygenism by portraying bi-racial individuals as human hybrids made from separate species, essentially stating that bi-racial people were biologically not meant to exist. Outrageous, I know.
This theory opposed monogenism; the notion of a single origin of all species. This argued that all humans were descendants of Adam and Eve. Don’t get it twisted, most 19th century monogenists did not use this theory in argument for equality but instead saw non-white races as ‘degenerative’ subtypes of the white Adam and Eve, due to too much sun and bad food. They even thought that people of colour could revert back to being white under “better” conditions! One small relief is that most monogenists were opposed to slavery. However, this relief remains small as their argument for freedom was that cranial study showed Black people to be submissive and therefore if freed, they would not take vengeance on owners or demand reparations. So, despite arguing for freedom, their racial conjecture using faulty science is still undeniable. An important note to make is that racist stereotypes throughout history often change in order to suppress a group of people in a new way. For example, the enslavement of millions of Black people was rationalised by the false idea that enslaved individuals were born submissive. Modern conjecture argues the opposite. Today Black people are deemed as violent criminals in order to support a racially biased system that can control Black lives in an alternative way; a new narrative that attempts to justify disproportionate incarcerations of Black people.
Modern Medical Racism
One of the most dangerous beliefs amongst historical medical practitioners is that Black people do not feel pain, because it is still believed today by trusted doctors and nurses. Despite huge advances in healthcare and sophisticated research that has come with the 21st century we have failed to debunk this misconception which results in Black women being five times more likely to die during childbirth in the UK; it also means Black patients are 50% less likely to receive pain medication. A study of 222 white medical students in 2016 found that half of these medics believed in false racial differences, for example “Black people’s nerve endings are less sensitive than white people’s nerve endings” and “Whites are less likely to have strokes than Blacks”. As ridiculous as this may seem, errors such as these are inevitable when students are reading textbooks that continue to teach racist science. A textbook published in 2017 (shown below) encouraged future care providers to ignore the concerns expressed by individuals and instead treat patients using racial assumptions and not scientific evidence.
Racial conjecture is deep-seated within UK healthcare, affecting both patients and staff. During the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic, 95% of doctors who died were from BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities despite more than half of doctors in the UK being white. In addition to this, BAME individuals are twice as likely to die from COVID-19.
Public Health England reported that disproportionate deaths are due to many factors including the increased likelihood of BAME workers to hold occupations with COVID-19 exposure and are more likely to require public transport for essential work. The report also stated that “historic racism and poorer experiences of healthcare/work may mean that BAME individuals are less likely to seek care… NHS staff are less likely to speak up when they have concerns about PPE or testing.” This clearly acknowledges the racism that is still faced by BAME staff and patients, a matter that was reiterated by a student nurse who gave me an insight into the “causal racism” she witnesses daily. She explained that hearing frequent racist remarks towards the Asian community made by her co-workers has led her to believe that “COVID has set us back further than we think”. She also described many accounts where she has witnessed discrimination, for example, racist patients often “reject washes from non-white workers”, use racial slurs and harass BAME staff for proof of education and UK residency. A 2018 study found that 36.7% of NHS staff have had to deal with racist comments, abuse and name calling, hence racism in healthcare has potential to discourage hundreds of BAME staff who work tirelessly in the NHS. The greatest danger of racist medicine however is the threat to the life of a patient who may not receive adequate care because of the colour of their skin.
Deeper inspection of our medical past may help to build a healthcare system that is equitable and safe for all. Trying to combat an extensive issue such as racism without properly investigating the history that contributed to it, is like examining a patient without asking for their medical history; foolish and ineffective.
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Chronicles of Science 