Everyday Antiracism proposes four core “principles” of everyday antiracism, based on the research by the 70 scholars who contributed to the book:

1. Rejecting false notions of human difference

2. Acknowledging lived experiences shaped along racial lines

3. Learning from diverse forms of knowledge and experience

4. Challenging systems of racial inequality.

One core “false notion of human difference” that shows up in schools is the notion that race groups are biologically distinct sub-groups to the human race. It is crucial to remember that race groups are groups created by human beings (see my prior post “Race and Biology: Challenging the Myths.”). Race categories are socially real due to nearly six centuries of world history. They are not biologically valid subgroups to the human race.

A world-renowned psychologist colleague at Harvard put it most succinctly in an email to me yesterday:

luckily for the anthropologists, the bio evidence is fitting with the basic thesis that there are no race markers in the genome or so weak as to be uninteresting.

Other false notions of human difference have everyday ramifications in schools. One key one is the dangerous myth that some race groups are “smarter” than others. I’ll do another post on this issue in the near future.