User:Fawby/sandbox

First Clause
The current definition has superfluous synonyms, unnecessary explication, and conflicting clauses.

"Scientific racism is the use of ostensibly scientific or pseudo-scientific techniques and hypotheses to support or justify the belief in racism, racial inferiority, racialism, or racial superiority;[1][2][3]


 * (1) - ostensibly scientific, or pseudo-scientific This is entirely redundant, since pseudo-science is, by definition, ostensibly (allegedly, supposedly, mistakenly) scientific.


 * (2) - techniques and hypotheses Unnecessary explication of the defination of pseudo-science.


 * (3) - Racism, racial inferiority, racialism, or racial superiority Synonyms. Racialism is racism, and racial inferiority, and superiority, are its subsets.

The whole first clause can be reduced entirely, with no loss of meaning, to:The use of pseudoscience to ratify racism.

Second Clause
"Alternatively, it is the practice of classifying[4] individuals of different phenotypes into discrete races. This practice is now generally considered pseudoscientific, yet historically it received much credence in the scientific community.[2][3]"

Bamshad, M.; Wooding, S.; Salisbury, B. A.; Stephens, J. C. (2004). "Deconstructing the relationship between genetics and race". Nature Reviews Genetics 5 (8): 598–609. doi:10.1038/nrg1401. .

This page is titled "Scientific Racism", i.e. racism that is of a scientific nature.

Racism - "The Belief that humans are subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behaviour and innate capacities and that can be ranked as superior or inferior" Scientific - "To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning." Scientific Racism - "Empirical or measurable evidence, subject to specific principles of reasoning, that humans are subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behaviour and innate capacities and that can be ranked as superior or inferior."

References: