Race is an intellectual taboo, and racial explanations for human traits are seen as scientific non-starters. From The Biological Jew (which indulged the racist metaphor of host and parasite) to The Bell Curve (which posited a genetic hierarchy for intelligence and aptitude, from Asians down to blacks, via whites and Latinos), historical racist classifications based on traits like physiology, skin colour, temperament, or intelligence are all more or less extinct or marginalized. Terms like “half-breed” and “mulatto” are as archaic and obsolete as “quadroon” and “octoroon.”
In the age of the genome, a resurgence of racial thinking suggests the old habits remain.
Read the full, original story: The science taboo: There may be genetic realities to race, but not along the lines we expect