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  • How to Argue with a Racist

  • History, Science, Race and Reality
  • By: Adam Rutherford
  • Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
  • Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (742 ratings)

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How to Argue with a Racist

By: Adam Rutherford
Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
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Summary

The Sunday Times best seller.

As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

Racist pseudoscience may be on the rise, but science is no ally to racists. Instead science and history can be powerful allies against bigotry, granting us the clearest view of how people actually are, rather than how we judge them to be. How to Argue with a Racist dismantles outdated notions of race by illuminating what modern genetics can and can't tell us about human difference. It is a vital manifesto for a 21st-century understanding of human evolution and variation and a timely weapon against the misuse of science to justify racism.

Please note: the updated edition includes a new preface from the author.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Adam Rutherford (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
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Critic reviews

"The ultimate anti-racism guide." (Caroline Criado Perez)

"Seriously important." (Bill Bryson)

"A fascinating debunking of racial pseudoscience." (Guardian)

What listeners say about How to Argue with a Racist

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Science writing at its best.

Genes have multiple roles and culture determines performance to the greatest extent. Im inspired to learn more about this subject.

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Should be read by everyone. Very informative.

There is a huge amount of information packed into this consice book. The content is objective, well presented, well structured and well researched.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Skin colour is the start of the investigation

The science of racism- proving its foolishness and why it's both believable more importantly unbelievable

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good but...

Love AR and the book is interesting and honest... But it fails to deliver on the title. The arguments are reason and science based(obviously) you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Great audiobook

If you are frustrated with racists this book is perfect. Despite it being very scientific it's easy to follow.

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essential reading or listening

this should be essential consuming for everyone to dispel a lot of the myths that we all find ourselves parroting.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Superb analysis of science and racism

Thoroughly enjoyed the book highlighting the common myths and misconceptions about race and analysing in depth the questions that many people either believe or have been brought up to believe about racial groups. Adam scientifically disects each belief starting from its origin and takes you through the research and data in an easy to understand way that leaves you to a conclusion that race is not the best measure to categories the human race.

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Genius

I love the way that this book deconstructs the social construct of race and shows how ignorant racists are. Science for the win!

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get ready to concentrate!

I found I was rewinding sections to get a handle on what was so elequently being explained! fascinating, challenging, essential listening for anyone looking to challenge their perceptions about genetics and race. I learned loads, will certainly listen again and again!

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11 people found this helpful

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Highly informative on the issue of race & genetics

I decided to listen to this book after being confronted with arguments from an extended family member that some racial groups are genetically superior/inferior to others with respect to intelligence. The same person had previously told me he thought people from Africa inherently had no work ethic, and that the mentally disabled should be exterminated because they were too much of a drain on resources. I tended to dismiss his comments as dark humour or born from the kind of ignorance and prejudice I grew up around, responding casually and referring to the Wikipedia entry on scientific racism. However, his relentless attempts to quote science as supporting his view that some races are genetically superior/inferior to others, coupled with the fact that he was spreading these views among family members and on his private Twitter feed really got me thinking, I'm 52 and of mixed heritage, and I seriously thought that such attitudes were dying or confined to the closet, but that is clearly not the case.
This book is a modern and scientific rebuke of the scientific racist. It is much needed because overt and covert racism are very much alive and well in our society, and it is not enough to dismiss it, it needs to be challenged wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head. The one thing that I think is missing from this book is a greater emphasis, and celebration of, genetic diversity and the essential role it plays in evolution. All species rely on genetic variation as that is part of the mechanism of natural selection that allows a species to adapt and evolve. Our differences, both genetically and phenotypically, are to be celebrated and valued as such.

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1 person found this helpful