The Mismeasure of Man

1. Gould defines biological determination as shared behavioral norms, and the social and economic differences between human groups- primarily races, classes, and sexes- arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology.
2. The major sources of data to support this theme are craniometry and certain styles of psychological testing.
3. Determinists have invoked the traditional prestige of science as objective knowledge, free from social and political taint.
4. Biological determinism is useful for groups in power.
5. For the adherents of biological determinism, changes to a social and political system based on a race caste system seen as an extension of nature is an enormous cost for individuals psychologically.
6. Gould’s arguments against biological determinism begin by attacking reification and ranking.
7. Gould writes his book about the abstraction of intelligence as a single entity, its location within the brain, its quantification as one number each individual, and the use of these numbers to rank people in a single serious of worthiness, invariably to find that oppressed and disadvantaged groups- races, classes, or sexes – are innately inferior and deserve their status.
8. In most cases discussed in this book, we can be fairly certain that biases- though often expressed as egregiously as in cases of conscious fraud- were unknowingly influential and that scientists believed they were pursuing unsullied truth.
9. Gould describes biological determinism as a theory of limits. It takes the current status of groups as a measure of where they should and must be, even while it allows some rare individuals to rise as a consequence of their fortunate biology.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

1. The problems with laws designed to keep races separate were that it created racism and segregation through making the white race more dominant than the black race.
2. Albion Tourgee wanted the Supreme Court to enforce education for all races, for the whites the reduce racial prejudice, and for freedom to have the ability to increase economic opportunities and to allow blacks to become citizens.
3. Homer Plessy was chosen as a test case because he was born free and was biracial.
4. Justice John Ferguson ruled in favor of Daniel F. Desdunes because it was an interstate train which made the law unconstitutional because of federal government rule over it.
5. Social rights represent the relationships between human beings within society, political rights are the relationships with political entity that govern over us, and civil rights is in the middle of social and political rights.
6. Congressed passed a civil rights act to enforce protection on the rules that were stated by the act.
7. The 14th Amendment abolished slavery and provided protection for African Americans.
8. White butchers from the Slaughter House Case was the first group to bring a case before the Supreme Court citing a violation of their rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments.