“Getting rid of testing does not get rid of the inequitable policies that systematically deprive some children and adolescents of clean water, nutritious food, green space, safe neighborhoods, sparkling classrooms, stimulating teachers, and enriching cultural experiences. Getting rid of testing just deprives us of a valuable tool for seeing the results of our current policies.”
“The fundamental problem with hereditarianism isn’t that genetics matters for human difference. The fundamental problem with hereditarianism is the idea that society should be structured as a race we all compete in, rather than a building we all have to live in.”
“As genetics knowledge rapidly accumulates by the day, [Audre] Lorde’s challenge to relate across our human differences as equals becomes more urgent. We can’t put off the task of developing an egalitarian anti-eugenics any longer.”
“But just like acknowledging the reality of climate change is necessary to ensure a sustainably habitable planet, acknowledging the reality of genetic differences between people is a necessary step for us to ensure a more just society.”
”The crisis offers us an opportunity to begin, at long last, to spread the luck around, so that everyone shares in our national prosperity and our national struggles, regardless of the outcome of the social and genetic lotteries.”
”If people with progressive political values … abdicate their responsibility to engage with the science of human abilities and the genetics of human behavior, the field will come to be dominated by those who do not share those values.”
“Whenever I hear Oliver Wendell Holmes’ decision in the Buck v. Bell Supreme Court case (‘three generations of imbeciles are enough’), I think about how nauseated Carrie must have felt from the ether. I think about the pink pearly abdominal scars left by obstetric surgery.”
”And when considering achingly complex domains of human achievement, such as music, sport, art and science, it has proved nearly impossible to separate out genetics from the messiness of human history, from colonialism and culture.”