Is genetic science neutral or shaped by social bias?
How much of our identity is shaped by genetics, and how much by society? In Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins, Shoumita Dasgupta examines how genetic science can…
Tag: race
“Stop This Invader!”—The War on Spotted Lanternflies
An anthropologist reflects on the racist undertones of some U.S. efforts to eradicate the spotted lanternfly, an insect from Asia deemed invasive. ✽ A bright red flash whips…
The Limits of Identity: How Race and Gender Constructs in Biometric Technology Narrow Who We Are
This article provides a brief look into the ways identity can be constrained with regard to biometric technology. It discusses technological limitations where biometric identification systems may fai…
Fighting for Justice for the Dead—and the Living
A group of forensic anthropologists argues their field must reject the myth of pure objectivity and challenge systemic inequities through advocacy and activism. ✽ WHEN A PERSON DIES,…
An Order for My Backpack and Three Stages of Nowhere
A poet moves through rituals of silence and erasure that permeate the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. “An Order for My Backpack” and “Three Stages of…
Doctors Are Taught to Lie About Race
Decades ago, anthropologists dispelled the myth of biological race. Lagging behind in scientific understandings of human diversity, the medical profession is failing its oath to “do no harm.”…
Patricia Ward: Power, Pace, and Place: Local Consultants and Racialized Expertise
Critical scholars recognize humanitarianism as a racializing project rooted in colonial and imperial relations, in which classifications of aid workers as ‘international’, ‘expat’, ‘national’ and ‘loc…
Are People Projecting Racist Stereotypes Onto Squirrels?
Researchers refute a popular idea that black-furred squirrels behave more aggressively than gray ones—and suggest the myth stems from some people’s racist attitudes. SQUIRREL CHATTER A few years…
Malay Firoz and Pedro Silva Rocha Lima: Taxonomies of Difference in Global Humanitarianism
Humanitarian action is marked by a striking disjunction between the universalising humanist vocabulary that undergirds its ethical commitments, and the taxonomies of racialised difference that govern …
Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors Across the Red-Blue Divide
As toxic polarization deepens in the U.S., some global conflict prevention experts are now addressing political violence at home. An anthropologist shares three key insights from a community…
Finding Our Way Forward—by Remembering
In a personal essay, a mixed-race and Native anthropologist draws strength from his ancestors. ✽ Who should I be today? I ask myself this question in the mirror…
Grappling With Guilt Inside a System of Structural Violence
Criminals and Gangmembers Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program, has proliferated in California’s carceral system. An anthropologist investigates the program, which sees criminality as a chronic addic…
Spotlighting Black Women’s Mental Health Struggles
An anthropologist discusses her film that honors and grieves the loss of Kime, a friend who passed away after experiencing physical and state violence. Content Warning: This article…
The Visit
SAPIENS’ 2024 poet-in-residence imagines a wordless conversation with a troubled figure from the past and considers legacies of marginalization during the figure’s life and in archives. The Visit…
Black Influencers Beyond the Screens
Meet Anuli Akanegbu, the host of the BLK IRL podcast and a doctoral candidate researching Black creatives who are contract workers in Atlanta, Georgia. Anuli Akanegbu is the…
How Racism Shapes the U.S. Opioid Epidemic
Public health officials say opioid use and related deaths have reached a crisis point in the U.S. An interview with anthropologist and psychiatrist Helena Hansen unpacks the racial…
Why Shoes Do Not Make the Runner
East African runners wearing “super shoes” have outpaced global marathon records. But the shoe fervor—alongside older stereotypes about African runners’ “natural” abilities—means athletes’ hard work o…
“The Day I Discovered I Was Collaborating on a Eugenics Project”: On Imponderables in Collaborative Research
The title that opens this reflection is a statement by computer scientist Sandra Avila, who is also a co-author of the lines that will flow here. Her account…
How Eugenics Shaped the U.S. Prenatal Care System
Black women in the U.S. are far more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy and birth than White women. Two scholars explore how the discrediting of…
The Urgency of Envisioning a World Without Police
An anthropologist working in Baltimore argues that safety for Black communities requires an end to policing. That also means taking a hard look at how policing intersects with…
Book Review: Gender, Race, Identity & Batman in Gotham City Living
By Alissa Whitmore McCrystal, Erica. 2021. Gotham City Living: The social dynamics in the Batman comics and media. New York: Bloomsbury. Erica McCrystal’s ambitious Gotham City Living:…
Book Review: Beyond colonial futures – Ethnofuturism and World Beyond: An Anthology of Papua New Guinean Speculative Fiction
By Christopher Marcatili McGavin, Kirsten (ed.). 2022. World Beyond: An anthology of Papua New Guinean Speculative Fiction. Sydney, Aus: Hibiscus Three. In the remote mountains of Papua New…
Advocating for Archaeology’s New Purpose
Archaeologists can help communities retake what colonialism and racism tried to erase through a new goal of “archaeological reclamation.” The following individuals co-authored this essay: Lindsay M. M…
How the Early Battle Over Race Science Was Lost
Celebrated 19th-century biologist Ernst Haeckel pushed race science as his little known protégé Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay defended Indigenous rights. A biological anthropologist reflects on the impacts …