A hard-hitting investigation of the racist uses of statistics—now in paperback!

Tukufu Zuberi offers a concise account of the historical connections between the development of the idea of race and the birth of social statistics. Zuberi describes how race-differentiated data are misinterpreted in the social sciences and asks searching questions about the ways racial statistics are used. He argues that statistical analysis can and must be deracialized, and that this deracialization is essential to the goal of achieving social justice for all.

Tukufu Zuberi is professor of sociology and director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Prologue   ix

Acknowledgments    xiii

Introduction: Racial Statistics  xv

PART I
Birth of a Problem  1

ONE
Racial Domination   5

TWO
The Evolution of Racial Classification  17


PART II
Racial Statistics  27

THREE
Eugenics and the Birth of Racial Statistics  33

FOUR
Eugenics and Racial Demography  58

FIVE
Noneugenic Racial Statistics  80


PART III
Beyond Racial Statistics  99


SIX
Challenging Race as a Variable  105




SEVEN
Deracializing the Logic of Social Statistics  123


Epilogue: Toward a New Analysis of Difference  141

Notes   145

Index   185