In her book "Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century," Dr. Dorothy Roberts argues that America is once again at the brink of a virulent outbreak of classifying population by race. Roberts will discuss this latest project in connection with the “Understanding Race” theme semester.

Fatal Invention is a provocative call for us to affirm our common humanity. By searching for differences at the molecular level, a new race-based science is obscuring racism in our society and legitimizing state brutality against communities of color at a time when America claims to be post-racial. Moving from an account of the evolution of race–proving that it has always been a mutable and socially defined political division supported by mainstream science–Roberts delves deep into the current debates, interrogating the newest science and biotechnology, interviewing its researchers, and exposing the political consequences obscured by the focus on genetic difference.