Bio: (1936- ) American sociologist. Troy Duster is the grandson of the famous activist and sociologist Ida B. Wells. He received his PhD in 1962 from Northwestern University with a dissertation focused on social responses to mental illness and abnormality. Duster’s first teaching position was at the University of California, Riverside. He later moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Chair of its Sociology Department and as the founder and director of the Institute for the Study of Social Change. In 1999, Duster became director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge and professor of sociology at New York University. He also directed the Diversity Project at Berkeley and was the President of the American Sociological Association.

Duster’s research and writing cover a wide range of topics: race, law, deviance, education, inequality, and science. In The Legislation of Morality: Drugs, Crime, and Law (1970), Duster showed that changes in the demographics of opiate addicts brought about changes in law and its definitions. Earlier, when most addicts were white, middle-class, middle-aged women, addiction was treated as a private health issue. In contrast, later, when addiction became prevalent among minority poor young men problem of drug abuse become huge public threat and a crime punishable with long prison sentences.

Duster, in his Backdoor to Eugenics (1990), with a second updated edition published in 2003, argues that although explicit eugenics movements have declined since the early 20th century, similar ideas are re-emerging in more subtle forms through new genetic technologies. Duster’s central argument is that advances such as genetic screening, prenatal testing, and gene therapy can unintentionally revive eugenic thinking. He shows how these technologies may encourage the belief that complex human traits—like intelligence, behavior, or social problems—are primarily determined by genetics, even though they are shaped by many social and environmental factors. Duster warns of the danger of linking genetic traits to specific social or ethnic groups. Duster explains that identifying “risk populations” for certain genetic conditions can reinforce stereotypes and justify discrimination, especially in societies where power and inequality already exist. He warns that institutions such as insurance companies, employers, and governments could misuse genetic information, potentially creating new forms of social inequality or what he calls “biological stratification.” Duster also emphasizes that science is not neutral, as social values, political interests, and historical inequalities shape how genetic knowledge is produced and used. As a result, scientific developments can unintentionally support existing systems of inequality if not critically examined.

Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society (2003), co-authored by Troy Duster and several other scholars, is a critical examination of the idea that the United States has become a “color-blind” society. The book argues that this belief is largely a myth and that racial inequality continues to shape social, economic, and political life. The central argument is that many people—especially in dominant groups—assume that racism is a thing of the past and that remaining inequalities are due to individual or cultural shortcomings. The authors strongly reject this view, showing instead that structural and institutional racism still plays a major role in producing unequal outcomes. These inequalities persist in key areas such as employment, income, education, housing, healthcare, and the criminal justice system.

The book also critiques the ideology of “color-blindness,” arguing that ignoring race does not eliminate inequality but can actually reinforce it. By refusing to acknowledge how race shapes opportunities and disadvantages, policies and public debates can obscure ongoing discrimination. The authors emphasize that both intentional and unintentional forms of discrimination contribute to enduring racial gaps. Another important theme is the concept of racial privilege, particularly how advantages associated with being white often remain invisible to those who benefit from them. The book illustrates how these hidden advantages operate across institutions, making inequality appear “natural” or based on merit rather than systemic bias. Finally, while acknowledging progress since the civil rights era, the authors argue that meaningful racial equality requires more than formal legal rights. They call for policies and social awareness that directly address structural inequalities rather than assuming that a color-blind approach will solve them.

Main works

Patterns of Minority Relations  (1964);

The Legislation of Morality: Drugs, Crime, and Law (1970);

Aims and Control of the Universities (1972);

Some Conditions of Sustained Participation in Governance (1974);

Economic Development in Berkeley (1983);

Cultural Perspectives on Biological Knowledge (1984);

Backdoor to Eugenics (1990);

Race: Essays on the Concept and its Uses in Multi-Racial and Multi-Cultural Societies (1995);

Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society (2003);

"Social Side Effects of the New Human Molecular Genetic Diagnostics," in Michael Yudell and Robert DeSalle (eds.) The Genomic Revolution: Unveiling the Unity of Life (2002);

"Buried Alive: The Concept of Race in Science," in Alan H. Goodman, Deborah Heath, and M. Susan Lindee (eds.) Genetic Nature / Culture: Anthropology and Science Beyond the Two-Culture Divide (2003);

"Selective Arrests, an Ever-Expanding DNA Forensic Database, and the Specter of an Early Twenty-First Century Equivalent of Phrenology" in David Lazer (ed.) DNA and the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of Justice (2004);