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54 J. Legal Educ. 365 (2004)
What We Teach When We Teach about Race: The Problem of Law and Pseudo-Economics

handle is hein.journals/jled54 and id is 375 raw text is: What We Teach When We Teach About Race: The Problem of Law and Pseudo-Economics Steven A. Ramirez The pseudo-science of race appears recently to have suffered some fatal blows. For example, in 2003 PBS broadcast a three-part documentary, Race: The Power of an Illusion, that debunked virtually all elements of racial mythol- ogy. It demonstrated that race has no genetic or biological basis; that gross morphological features which traditionally have defined races (like skin color) are determined by insignificant and superficial genetic alleles with no link to any characteristics that matter, such as intelligence, musical talent, or athletic ability; and that race has been socially and legally constructed, despite the lack of any scientific basis for dividing humanity into any set of racial baskets with any generalized genetic meaning.' Although PBS doesn't have the audience numbers of CNN or Fox News, the truth is out and spreading beyond aca- demic journals and into the public's consciousness. Today it is generally accepted science that race cannot be genetically defined and that there is virtually zero genetic significance to skin color or other racial markers.2 Indeed, some have said that people who believe in race as anything other than a social construct might as well believe in the Easter bunny or think that the sun revolves around the earth.' Unfortunately, the law school curriculum Steven A. Ramirez is a professor of law at Washburn University and director of the Washburn Business and Transactional Law Center. This paper benefited from valuable insights from Alex Glashausser, Ali Khan, and William Rich. It also benefited from a presentation at a faculty workshop at my alma mater, Saint Louis University School of Law. 1. Race: The Power of an Illusion (PBS television broadcasts Apr. 24, May 1, 8, 2003). There is a companion Web site at <http://w-w.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm>. 2. Recently leading professional societies in physical anthropology and anthropology have released statements debunking the idea that there is any scientific basis to race and emphasiz- ing its social construction. See Am. Anthropological Ass'n, Statement on Race (May 17, 1998), available at <http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm>; Am. Ass'n of Physical An- thropologists, Statement on Biological Aspects of Race, 101 Am. J. Phys. Anthropology 569 (1996), available at <http://www.physanth.org/positions/race.html>. For a recent analysis of evidence from genetics, archeology, and linguistics, showing that race is socially con- structed, see Steve Olson, Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes (Boston, 2002). For a comprehensive analysis of the law's role in the social construc- tion of race, see Ian Haney L6pez, White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race (New York, 1996). 3. See Steven A. Ramirez, A General Theory of Cultural Diversity, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 33, 40 n.35, 45 n.72 (2001) (citing such statements). Journal of Legal Education, Volume 54, Number 3 (September 2004)

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