A Short History of Biological Explanations for Poverty
Posted by Jessica Cussins January 2, 2014
Biopolitical Times
The idea that poverty is the result of personal failure and inherent inferiority is relatively new, having taken root only a few centuries ago. But it is an insidious and enduring one. In “The Biological Inferiority of the Undeserving Poor,” University of Pennsylvania Professor of History Michael B. Katz sketches the history of this ideology and its various scientific justifications. The article connects past and contemporary understandings, showing that the argument that poor people are biologically inferior “rises and falls in prominence in response to institutional and programmatic failure,” but that such “hereditarian ideas always have been supported by the best science of the day.”
Katz takes us quickly through social Darwinism, Buck v. Bell, IQ tests, sociobiology, and The Bell Curve. He draws a jarring parallel between the current revival of notions of “faulty heredity” within bioscience and neuroscience, and earlier “ideas that ranked “races”; underpinned immigration restrictions; and encouraged compulsory sterilization.” Katz’s article provides an important reminder that scientific developments do not exist in a void, but are embedded in the cultural and social assumptions of their time, and can be used to “prove” all kinds of problematic ideas. “Indeed,” he states, “every regime of racial, gender, and nationality-based discrimination and violence has been based on the best “science” of the day.”
Katz also discusses how the new emphasis on epigenetics plays into this history with its promise “to move beyond the long-standing war between explanations for the achievement gap, persistent poverty, crime and other social problems based on inheritance and those that stress environment.” He makes the argument that although epigenetics provides “scientific sanction for early childhood education and other interventions in the lives of poor children,” it is still a biologically based theory of human behavior and is susceptible to over-simplifying complex social and behavioral traits to deterministic hereditary explanations. He warns that such research has the potential to “underwrite a harsh new view of the undeserving poor and the futility of policies intended to help them.” As such, his stated goal is to provide “a cautionary note from history about the uses of science and a warning to be vigilant and prepared.” It’s worth reading that note in full.
Previously on Biopolitical Times:
Katz takes us quickly through social Darwinism, Buck v. Bell, IQ tests, sociobiology, and The Bell Curve. He draws a jarring parallel between the current revival of notions of “faulty heredity” within bioscience and neuroscience, and earlier “ideas that ranked “races”; underpinned immigration restrictions; and encouraged compulsory sterilization.” Katz’s article provides an important reminder that scientific developments do not exist in a void, but are embedded in the cultural and social assumptions of their time, and can be used to “prove” all kinds of problematic ideas. “Indeed,” he states, “every regime of racial, gender, and nationality-based discrimination and violence has been based on the best “science” of the day.”
Katz also discusses how the new emphasis on epigenetics plays into this history with its promise “to move beyond the long-standing war between explanations for the achievement gap, persistent poverty, crime and other social problems based on inheritance and those that stress environment.” He makes the argument that although epigenetics provides “scientific sanction for early childhood education and other interventions in the lives of poor children,” it is still a biologically based theory of human behavior and is susceptible to over-simplifying complex social and behavioral traits to deterministic hereditary explanations. He warns that such research has the potential to “underwrite a harsh new view of the undeserving poor and the futility of policies intended to help them.” As such, his stated goal is to provide “a cautionary note from history about the uses of science and a warning to be vigilant and prepared.” It’s worth reading that note in full.
Previously on Biopolitical Times: