Race Psychology between “Guilty Science” and “Innocent Politics”

Abstract

This article will discuss the intricate ways in which, throughout the history of Race Psychology, the “science of race” depended on and reinforced the “politics of race”. A brief presentation of the main moments in the history of Race Psychology will be followed by a closer look into the mechanisms through which politics underpins the discoveries of a “guilty” science and science, in its turn, has been used to justify the “innocent” politics of racism and discrimination. Finally, a critical outlook on the past and present of Race Psychology is proposed, one that would simultaneously consider the many facets of this discipline: scientific, political, institutional and ideological.