Meet the Editors of Are We Born Racist?

Join us to hear Jason Marsh, editor-in-chief of Greater Good, and UC Berkeley psychology professor (and Greater Good editorial board member) Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton discuss the GGSC’s latest book, Are We Born Racist?

UC Berkeley’s Education/Psychology Library will be hosting a discussion of the GGSC’s latest book, Are We Born Racist?: New Insights From Neuroscience and Positive Psychology, led by two of the book’s editors, Jason Marsh, editor-in-chief of Greater Good, and UC Berkeley psychology professor (and Greater Good editorial board member) Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton. Marsh and Mendoza-Denton will talk about the book and the issues it addresses, with a Q&A to follow.

Are We Born Racist? explores the psychological roots of prejudice and considers how to overcome it. The book brings together leading scientists, journalists, educators, and many others to shed light on why and how our brains form racial prejudices and their negative impact.

The research suggests that although propensities for racism are deeply ingrained, there are research-tested ways to keep our knee-jerk biases and prejudices in check. It’s possible to teach others how to do the same. The book is edited by Marsh, Mendoza-Denton, and Greater Good contributing editor Jeremy Adam Smith.

Claude Steele, one of the country’s leading researchers on prejudice, calls the book “one of the most important treatments of human prejudice to appear in years,” adding:

Revolutionary insight follows revolutionary insight in this broadly accessible book, accumulating to nothing less than a paradigm shift that will change how we think about everything from how prejudice affects our own lives to how laws and institutional practice can be used to reduce its ill effects. And it does it all with a brevity that I hope will insure what it deserves most: to be broadly read.

Please join us on Thursday, September 30, 2010, 4:00 pm in the UCB Education/Psychology Library in Tolman Hall.