Biology Class of '88 Lecture: "On The Racialization of Biology", Dr. Shay-Akil McLean

Race/ism was created by European colonizers in order to seize land, labor, & gain control of the means of production. For every capitalist crisis, market disaster, & form of resistance that colonizers met from colonized peoples, they created a “new race”. Many scholars’ approach to battling the racist wielding of biological essentialism by European scientists has focused on highlighting the dangers of the biologicalization of race. Dr. McLean argues that this is an ahistorical misunderstanding of the problem at hand & that scientists, along with the public, should be combatting the racialization of biology. Using a historically grounded analysis of race/ism & Darwinian evolutionary biology, Dr. McLean discusses the roles that racist colonial capitalism played & continues to play in producing knowledge about human & non-human life.

Please register in advance here. For more information visit: www.middlebury.edu/academics/bio

Sponsored by the Biology Class of ‘88 Lecture Fund.