"I'm [not] a gene believer"

In another one of my history classes, we began our class discussion by watching a compilation of Trump speeches that are all related to his discussion of genes and their affect on human performance. In a multitude of speeches he states that he is a “gene believer” and also claims to “have great genes and all that stuff.” He repeats that he thinks there are genes that allow some humans to possess more favorable qualities than others. In the opinion of Trump, these innate qualities then make some humans better than others from birth.

In my Race/Class/Gender/Sexuality class with Dr. Casey, we had a discussion on concept of scientific racism as it was discussed in The White Architects of Black Education. It was a discussion surrounding the concept of scientific racism and how scientific data would be skewed in an effort to make it appear as though African Americans were less intelligent, less successful, etc. than whites. People were more inclined to believe this information as scientists and academics were providing statistical and scientific data to support their claims. People are much more likely to not question information that they perceive as having come from a test, data collection, research, etc. It appeared to be more official; therefore people were much less likely to question it and accept it as fact. In reality, almost the entirety of this type of data was falsified, meaning that the public was being misinformed for an extended period of time.

In my mind, these are two examples of institutional racism throughout time. Even though these are two different examples, they both relate to each other in a few ways. They both have to do with the idea of an entire population of people, specifically African Americans, being born “lesser” than another group. Both are assigning personality and physical characteristics with genes that cannot be necessarily confirmed nor denied whether this is accurate. It utilizes these studies and findings to their advantage in order to make their group appear to be superior to others on the basis of science and fact.

This is one form of racism that can be seen throughout the depths of time. Even in the current time there are examples of institutional racism that can be seen. It is an example of how at times we can feel so detached from the problems of racism that are thought to be in the past. However, in reality, they are just as prevalent and talked about today, people just do not know that they are doing it.

So if these problems of institutional racism are still in play, a few questions come to light. Why do we feel the need to place people below us? Does it have more to do with our insecurities and us than it does with the entire white capitalist society?