Category Archives: Race and Racism

MLK on anthropology

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Matt Thompson

As some of you many know, Dr. Martin Luther King began his academic career as a sociology major at Moorehouse College in Atlanta. In honor of his birthday this past Jan 19, Huffington Post ran a piece on King and … Continue reading →

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Structural inequality and race

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Matt Thompson

In last week’s class on human variation we stressed how race is never about biology. It is however an idea deeply rooted in the western intellectual tradition from Linneaus and Blumenbach in the eighteenth century, through Galton in the nineteenth, … Continue reading →

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Race and Comedy

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Matt Thompson

However you slice it you can’t deny that race makes for good jokes. In fact joking behavior was one of the first topics I became interested in as an anthropologist and before I went into field I spent a lot … Continue reading →

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Scientifc Racism

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Matt Thompson

This post contains encyclopedia entries on the American eugenics movement, biological determinism, Johann Blumenbach and Carols Linnaeus, Francis Galton, genocide, and racial taxonomy.

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