I found Keon’s writing style very easy to follow, and although he is often quoting from scientific research, it is presented in an easily understandable format. It is a book which I think should be read by anyone who claims they are not racist – this includes me! It soon became clear, as I’m sure it will to all open minded readers, that the unpalatable truth clearly documented by Keon is that we are all guilty of unconscious bias.

Brilliantly illuminating evidence for racism
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Full of sick burns —“If your hypotheses can’t make any predictions at all, then you’re not even doing science and you should just leave.”—this is not the book you think it is. It’s an entertaining yet shocking and serious history and presentation on the evidence of racism at every level, with studies from all over the world.

I can’t tell you how good this book is: well-written on the scientific evidence (not opinions or anecdotes, just cold hard facts), but also shocking in its dissection of real-life cases of racism and what exactly are the factors behind them. Examples include: when in an individual’s life implicit racism can be measured; how racism affects basic social structures such as health, education, policing; how politics enshrines racism behind other judgements; and others too numerous and too saddening to mention.

Five shocked stars.

I found this an absolutely fascinating book that was incredibly disheartening in parts but succeeds in offering hope and a plan of action we can all implement. West writes in such an engaging way often finding humor and wit while delivering hard data facts. I found parts surprising such as the lack of effectiveness of diversity training on changing attitudes towards racism, West does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, he shows the reader the scientific proven facts. This is such an important read that challenged my preconceived ideas and really highlights the need for scientific research and continued data collection.

Really interesting book, especially in the current climate, i.e. 2025. It provoked thought and made me wonder what other studies had been done to draw out other theories, however some of this was explained at the end..

This was a really interesting, if difficult to read, study of how racism impacts every aspect of our lives. From recruitment, to healthcare, to education, and even dating, prejudice exists everywhere. This book gave me a good opportunity to challenge my own beliefs, and the most shocking thing I learned was the strong link between colour-blindness (where you don’t see someone’s race) and racism. Lots to reflect on. I recommend this book highly.

Thanks to NetGalley, Picador and Keon West for an advance reader copy, in return for an honest review.

This book is brilliant!
It is so accessible, and allows the reader to question their own thoughts, perspectives and morals.
I really liked the hypothetical situations that you are put in while reading this. It really helps to put things into a new perspective.
No matter your race or religion, this book will definitely open your eyes!

"It would be a piss-poor form of anti-racism that only benefited middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, cisgender, non-immigrant men of colour."

There are lots of books about race and racism around, and many of them quote scientific studies. Those studies are known out in the world, too: I would imagine many if not most of us have heard of the experiments where the same CV is sent to companies, just with the name changed to imply the "race" of the applicant and how people with White-sounding names are treated prefentially. What West does which is different is, after explaining that he is a well-respected social scientist with numerous publications himself, he explains the scientific method in detail before he goes on to confirm that racism does, in fact, exist, then looks at what efforts such as unconscious bias training and "colourblindness" have on people's racism, other aspects such as whether Black to White prejudice, internal racism and inter-global majority people prejudice is racism or not, and, finally and thankfully, the scientifically proven ways of reducing racism in individuals (while calling for more policy and institutional changes). He treats intersectionality, as we see in the quote above, and also, while he includes of necessity a lot of facts and figures and not a lot of anecdotes, he does have a light touch and a sense of humour, as the quote above also indicates. I did know about the scientific method from my work but it's a great text for explaining this and justifying the view only apparently around half of us have that racism exists in the world today, as well as offering fascinating insights, challenging us to think about our assumptions and providing some solutions.

Blog review: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2025/01/24/book-reviews-two-books-on-race-the-science-of-racism-and-mixed-other/

As the title suggests, The Science of Racism is a chronicle of the science behind racism. In Keon West’s own words from the introduction: “Our values are the blueprint for the world we’d like to live in. Our politics are the roadmap directing us to that world. That much, I will leave up to the reader to sort out for themselves. But science is the best way we have of understanding the world as it is. Over the course of this book, I ask the reader to leave that to me.”

With each chapter, Keon West asks and answers some of the biggest scientific questions about racism. While the depth of research can occasionally feel a little dense, West balances this with well-placed humour and a few interactive elements where he invites readers to take part in imagined scenarios inspired by - or directly pulled from - some of the studies he outlines.

As a white person who is constantly seeking opportunities to learn, unlearn, and become more intentionally anti-racist, I am grateful to add this book to my toolkit and recommendation list. For fellow UK-based readers, I would recommend this book alongside Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga and Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. While these three books overlap at times, each stands firmly on its own in approach, perspective, and takeaways.

I was personally drawn to this book due to its UK-centric perspective, although Keon West also delves into research from across the globe. I appreciated West’s ability to remain grounded in research while being unapologetically honest about the realities of implicit racism. That said, I was disappointed by his discussion of one particular study, and I would be remiss not to mention it here. When discussing a study conducted in Occupied Palestine (note: the author uses the country name of the colonisers), West makes a pointed decision to withhold “personal opinions” and discusses the study in the context of the “conflict.” While this choice may have been outside the author’s control, I couldn’t help but feel discomfort at West’s willingness to comment on other atrocities of racism and colonisation, rooted in hard fact, while shying away from the unequivocal reality of the colonisers’ relentless genocide of the Palestinian people.

One final note is that this book does not deeply explore intersectionality. However, the author does address this in detail in the afterword, ending with the following: “It would be a piss-poor form of anti-racism that only benefited middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, cisgender, non-immigrant men of colour.”

As stated above, The Science of Racism is a valuable contribution to the ever-growing library of anti-racist resources, and I am grateful to Keon West for sharing this wealth of knowledge with a world that is very much in need of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Picador for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

How could I describe "The Science of Racism" by Keon West? Essential reading.
The Science of Racism details how our society - or rather the systems that we have built in society are build upon systemic racism. As a white person, I am born with a certain privilege and we must ensure that all white people are educated to understand these privileges that we have from birth. This book is a good resource to begin our journey as it contains concrete data about racism and how we can work together to battle the hatred that leads to racism.

This book exceeds expectations by not only sharing Professor Keon West's extensive knowledge and research on racism but also providing a centralised view of the findings of multitudes of research papers and experiments.

West layers heavy scientific material with his own practical and experienced commentary that speaks of his international background. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in Jamaica and studied in the USA and France before settling in the UK.

The topics covered include conscious and unconscious bias, the complexities and realities of racism, reverse racism, colour blindness, and what science says about how to deal with racism.

However, this book differs from others in that West encourages the reader not to take his words as fact but to research and find out more for themselves. He also reminds the reader that life is more complex than a single book can show.

"The Science of Racism is a one-dimensional book. It deals with racism, and only racism. However, we do not live in a one-dimensional world."

This enlightening read is a fantastic addition to any reference shelf, where it will be picked up and thumbed through frequently.


Please note that I write this review from a position of Western European white privilege but with self-awareness and my eyes, mind, and heart fully open.


*I received an advance reader copy for free, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review*

A clearly meticulously researched, well documented and carefully curated look at the science, the social elements and the story behind how racism has entered and impacted society.

You need to read this, you might not “like it” but you’ll come out knowing something new. I appreciated the deeply uncomfortable but necessary conversations about accepting and unlearning racist, prejudiced behaviours and bias, delving into how bias forms and spreads and why people might believe racist ideas.

After closing a chapter about the framing of unconscious bias, I had to take some time reassess the way I saw the world — I knew unconscious bias wasn’t a justification for anything, but taking it further, was it just an excuse to get someone out of self reflection and making amends? Does it even really exist in the way we’re taught it does?
"I'm sure it feels like we're doing something good with this discussion of unconscious bias. It is, after all, important to acknowledge our biases. However, the research shows that if all we're acknowledging is unconscious bias, then what we're really doing is protecting our own perceptions of innocence, reducing our concerns about the bias we claim to be addressing, and ensuring that nobody is ever held accountable for it. This is not what doing something good likes like. this is doing something bad."

This book covered so much without stretching it, taking a decent amount of pages with subjects from hiring bias, medical disparity, media reporting, and personal relationships.

The author created a warm, welcome space despite the tough subject — with a friendly, conversational and easily understandable tone while conveying the facts and more complicated subjects in a highly accessible style, giving us the clear cut science and then breaking it down and explaining it, and the implications it has while offering their observations in an impartial but impactful way. In one chapter, Keon poses us several scenarios to actively test our thinking and offer insight into how racism can manifest and then explains the different physiological tricks we may use ourselves to justify racist actions and thoughts.

A powerful, highly readable book. I read the whole thing in one day and have already gone back for round two.

There are now many books available about racism but this is one that stands out by drawing on actual data rather than 'feelings' and opinion. It's impossible to argue that racism doesn't exist when faced with the data that shows job applicants by (apparently) white people are far more likely to receive a call back than the exact same job application from someone with a name that could identify them as Black. Shockingly, a white person with a criminal record is more likely to receive a job call back than a Black person with no criminal record.

Even though I know these things through heresay, actually reading the data is shocking. No one could read this book and think that racism is in the past - it's very much alive in today's society and the more knowledge we have the more we can (and should) fight against it.

Definitely deserves to be widely read. My only reservation is that there is quite a lot of repetition - the author goes in to a lot of detail about the scientific methodolgy behind some of the 'tests'/surveys and although I appreciate the reason behind this (to proof the scientific basis of the tests) I wonder if this could have been covered in an introduction, so the detail of each chapter doesn't get quite so overwhelmed.

This book held my interest from start to finish. It is full of the relevant research and real life examples to bring the research to life. I really like how the book is written and the fact it is packed full of information. And most importantly it made me think deeply.

In The Science of Racism Professor Keon West takes a unique approach to first answering the question of whether racism still exists (spoiler alert it does) before then going on to propose how we might eradicate it.

In the wake of the death of George Floyd (an African American man who was murdered by police due to racial profiling) many people reached for books about race to help them understand what happened. What most of those books have in common, however, is that they are based on anecdotal evidence not data. This makes it difficult for them to provide objective analysis, particularly to those who still insist racism is something of the past.

Professor Keon addresses this head-on by basing all of his arguments on research that puts hard numbers against how racist we are as a society. The book covers a range of research from the well-known tests done with children and different race dolls through to more experimental research which analyses implicit bias.

Initially West's insertions throughout the book irritated me. He would add in comments that, at times came across as condescending and patronising. But, as I continued to read, I got used to Keon's sense of humor and I realised it was necessary to have those breaks. Without West's asides and interjections the book would have simply been a regurgitation and summary of research and data sets, which would have been dry and difficult for most readers to access.

Once I got used to Professor West's informal and conversational writing style, I found myself quite enjoying the book and looking forward to picking it back up. As someone who has read a lot around racism, I still learned a lot from this book. I am grateful to Professor West for adding to the conversation around racism and for providing robust analysis and discourse on this very nuanced subject. I hope many readers pick up The Science of Racism, learn from it and most importantly act on what it says. I truly believe our society will be better if we do.

My thanks to the publisher for sending me an advance digital review copy.

An intriguing read, especially getting all the information in one read. We get the "truth" seen through the eyes of for example Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage - they way they think, which according to themselves is of course not racism. The world is filled with these kinds of examples as well as people - I think this way, but its in no way a racist way of thinking, because I can back it up with my chosen facts. If you are interested in what is behind racism, and why it is such a complex issue, this is a good read for you!

An eye-opening read, something which I will definitely recommend to friends and family,

Statistics in this book really help to illustrate the point of how racism is still very much a thing today, and is all around in many aspects of life.
It shows we need to take further action in order to to prevent racism, and this book does an excellent job about one thing that does not happen often - properly educating people on the subject.

An impressive book that really changed my outlook on how I see the world.

5 stars, I'd like to thank the publisher and author for sending me a copy.

So many thoughts - all good ones.

I finished this as Jean-Marie Le Pen's death has just been announced and reading the glee on French Twitter has made me feel nearly hopeful that people, maybe, are tired of racism, although the far right sadly still has a bright future in many countries, France included.

Reading the last few chapters of this book, about what can be done to fight racism, was really interesting, especially when Professor Keon West writes about children's books, the media, and books in general and asks how many books with (and by) Black authors people tend to be familiar with, and how many of these are positive portrayals. I want to read more, or maybe only, BIPOC authors this year exactly for the reasons he so eloquently explained.

The whole book is a compilation and commentary on racism and how it is woven into everything, employment, earnings, dating, friendship... It's very pedagogical and easy to follow, engaging and interesting, and even after reading several books about racism, I learned a lot just from this one. I just can't recommend it enough and I have really enjoyed it.

The Science of Racism is a book which will enable you to have the facts at your fingertips and really understand what science knows about racism. Professor West gets to the bottom of studies which have been done and describes what they prove (and don't prove) about the existence of racism and its effects on people.

A very well thought out and clear book, ensuring that non-expert readers can follow the studies and understand the science without any nonsense. I found the parts about colour blindness and immigration points-based systems absolutely fascinating.

A highly recommended read.

I reviewed The Science of Racism for book recommendation and book selling site LoveReading.co.uk

I’ve chosen it as a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Pick of the Month.

Please see the link for the full review.

I am beyond grateful to Keon West, Pan Macmillan, Picador, and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy. Keep reading for my review of the book.

Keon West’s The Science of Racism is an insightful, thought-provoking, hard-hitting book that helps the reader determine whether they believe racism truly exists. Spoiler alert…it does, and the point of West’s book is to highlight how this can be demonstrated scientifically, whilst presented readers with an overwhelming amount of research techniques, studies, and their findings from across the globe, although, predominantly in the US and UK.

In all seriousness though, whether racism exists or not is a matter of personal opinion. I think I have shown what camp I am in, and it would seem that West is of the same school of thought. However, he does discuss the various degrees of racism and highlights the difference between overt racism, implicit bias, and unconscious bias.

I found the book to be impactful and challenging but welcomed the opportunity to put myself in the firing line and answer the questions that West posed to consider my own level of racism or racial bias. I appreciated the many anecdotes that were shared at the onset that fed into why we were looking at certain types of experiments having been presented with a clear. I also appreciated how West did not expect his views to be taken as gospel and so he provided an extensive list of references as well as further resources and tests for those interested in understanding how they personally contribute to racial discrimination.

Personally, I could have done without all the repetition, however, I understand the need for it and accept that the book probably wasn’t intending to be read cover to cover over a short amount of time. It was likely devised with fellow researchers in mind or readers such as students, parties interested in aspects of human behavior, and lovers of non-fictious, educational text. All in all, I rate the book 4/5 because despite the conversational tone that appeared to draw me in and involve me, I would have welcomed some more directness and less asking to guess outcomes when the overall theme was well established from the start, making the need for guessing void. Quite the divisive text, depending on one’s stance regarding racism, the book is for truth seekers.