Scientific racism

Scientific racism is the use of science to support racism.

Indigenous Races of the Earth (1857), Josiah Clark Nott and George Robins Gliddon implied that "Negroes" were a creational rank between "Greeks" and chimpanzees.

History

In the 19th century, scientists divided humankind into different groups called "races". The ideas of Social Darwinism and eugenics became popular, saying that some races were better than others and that only the best should survive.

19th-century racial "scientists" called black people members of the "Black race" or "Negroid race". Many scientists even said that white people were better than black people. In this way, scientists supported slavery and Jim Crow laws.^[1]

Some scientists said that Jews were a race. People like Houston Steward Chamberlain wrote that "Jews were a danger to other people". Adolf Hitler read some of these books and used their ideas during the Holocaust,^[2][3] in which at least 6,000,000 Jews were killed.^[2][3]

Today

Today, scientists agree that there is only one human race. Modern genetic research shows that humans do not belong to different races.^{[4][5]: 360} They also say that "belief in races" is a bad thing that has caused much damage.^[6]