Was Charles Dawins book The Origin of the Species racist ?
Darwin used the term ‘race’ in its scientific sense – a subdivision of a species with specific and heritable characteristics. In domestic animals the word ‘breed’ is often used to the same effect. Poodles, alsatians, pekinese, dachshunds and mastiffs are, for instance, all races (breeds) of the species dog. They are totally interfertile, and hence only one species, but a mastiff is as distinguishable from a pekinese as an African ne gro from a Swedish blond caucasian. Like races of dog, races of man can and of course often do interbreed. Darwin was further correct when he pointed out that isolation can produce speciation: populations of one species if not in contact can evolve divergently to the point where they can no longer interbreed, and form distinct species. We can observe the end product of this: leopards and jaguars are not now the same, though they had common ancestors at the time when the Americas separated from the Old World. We can observe the change actually in process: th
