On September 8, 1906, Ota Benga, a boyish-looking young man from the Congo, was first exhibited in the Bronx Zoo Monkey House. The exhibit drew record crowds to the zoo while stoking controversy and attracting global attention. More than a century later, accounts of the episode have been distorted by omission, half-truth, and outright deception. The episode highlights the consequences of racial pseudo-science and raises troubling questions about what we know, and what we think we know, about our past.

In recent years, genetic and social researchers have ramped up research and development around the undeniably real effects of race. Yet, the new technologies that we are creating are perpetuating old systems of harm, in particular old systems of racism, in new ways. From genome science, we know that race may not be genetically “real,” yet we experience it as a mundane fact of life, something spinning in the background, constantly shaping us in unseen ways. From social science, we know that race is also deeply politicized—it conditions our ability to access rights and resources—and yet we don’t get to choose our race because how others see us is something physiological that we cannot control. This talk will draw on genetics and sociology to answer the enduring question: If race is a social construct, then what’s real about race?

Join us for a discussion of the China Initiative, a Trump-era - but potentially revived - effort described by panelist Gisela Perez Kusakawa as "inciting widespread fear of racial profiling for Asian Americans across the country." Other panelists include Daniel Tam-Claiborne, author and Executive Director of The Serica Initiative, and Frank Wu, President of Queens College. The panel is moderated by Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, NYU Steinhardt's Vice Dean for Research and Equity.