Books like Why Race Matters

Well, I was honestly a little worried that I would end up with people calling me racist for even having read this book, let alone reviewing it. Then I remembered I don't really care. I imagine that most people pick up this book because it *seems* to use pretty good factual evidence to logically confirm their racial biases. There are a multitude of books that run the counter argument to this novel too. It would be interesting to read them side by side. But, I did find this novel interesting and it wasn't really because of the race talk (which is hard to put to the side in a book called "Why Race Matters") it was because of the "unnecessary morality society places on different traits" argument Levin puts forth. "More intelligent and cooperative groups are seen to be just that—more intelligent and cooperative. There is no cosmic perspective from which greater intelligence and cooperativeness are “better,” just as there is no cosmic perspective from which wings are “better” than fins. The (groups) simply differ, in abilities (and) behavior."He went quite a bit more, but I do believe there is an interesting perspective in all this. As a society we often look at any minority group (not just racial, but subcultural, ideological, religious, sexual orientation, etc) and judge whether they are doing well based on income and societal position. There is this idea that if one is not a CEO of a fortune 500 company, a high ranking government official, or a celebrity than you have failed somehow. Levin's argument (without the race bit) is that whether you are living life successfully could be judged by other standards-- self esteem, personal relationships, emotional well-being, satisfaction, health and athletic ability. That maybe we should stop placing such value on money and power as the only way to judge a group's success. There is the counter argument that money and power control everything, and therefore are important in the rubric of success. I get that. But I do think it is also a valid point that maybe we need to change the rubric itself to be more inclusive and to better exemplify what being a functioning, healthy and successful person is. There is more to this book than just this argument, however this is the one that I found most value in. At any rate, I found the book interesting but I can understand why people find it incredibly offensive.