Editing Racism (section)

===Heredity and eugenics===
{{Further|Eugenics}}

The first theory of [[eugenics]] was developed in 1869 by [[Francis Galton]] (1822–1911), who used the then-popular concept of ''[[Social degeneration|degeneration]]''. He applied [[statistics]] to study human differences and the alleged "[[inheritance of intelligence]]", foreshadowing future uses of "[[intelligence testing]]" by the anthropometry school. Such theories were vividly described by the writer [[Émile Zola]] (1840–1902), who started publishing in 1871, a twenty-novel cycle, ''[[Les Rougon-Macquart]]'', where he linked [[heredity]] to behavior. Thus, Zola described the high-born Rougons as those involved in politics (''[[Son Excellence Eugène Rougon]]'') and medicine (''[[Le Docteur Pascal]]'') and the low-born Macquarts as those fatally falling into [[alcoholism]] (''[[L'Assommoir]]''), [[prostitution]] (''[[Nana (novel)|Nana]]''), and [[homicide]] (''[[La Bête humaine]]'').

During the rise of [[Nazi Germany|Nazism in Germany]], some scientists in Western nations worked to debunk the regime's racial theories. A few argued against racist ideologies and discrimination, even if they believed in the alleged existence of biological races. However, in the fields of anthropology and biology, these were minority positions until the mid-20th century.<ref>[[UNESCO]], ''[[The Race Question]]'', 1950</ref> According to the 1950 UNESCO statement, ''[[The Race Question]]'', an international project to debunk racist theories had been attempted in the mid-1930s. However, this project had been abandoned. Thus, in 1950, UNESCO declared that it had resumed:

<blockquote>...up again, after a lapse of fifteen years, a project that the [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]] has wished to carry through but that it had to abandon in deference to the [[Appeasement of Hitler|appeasement policy]] of the pre-war period. The race question had become one of the pivots of [[Nazi ideology]] and policy. [[Tomáš Masaryk|Masaryk]] and [[Edvard Beneš|Beneš]] took the initiative of calling for a conference to re-establish in the minds and consciences of men everywhere the truth about race&nbsp;... Nazi propaganda was able to continue its baleful work unopposed by the authority of an international organisation.</blockquote>

The [[Third Reich's racial policies]], its [[Nazi eugenics|eugenics programs]] and the extermination of Jews in [[the Holocaust]], as well as the [[Romani people]] in the [[Porrajmos]] (the [[Porajmos|Romani Holocaust]]) and others minorities led to a change in opinions about scientific research into race after the war.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} Changes within scientific disciplines, such as the rise of the [[Franz Boas|Boasian]] school of anthropology in the United States contributed to this shift. These theories were strongly denounced in the 1950 UNESCO statement, signed by internationally renowned scholars, and titled ''[[The Race Question]]''.