The Science of Racism : Everything you need to know but probably don't - yet

Author: Keon West

Data analysis: general

Published on 29 January 2026 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 352 pages
129 x 196 x 23 | 244g

Polls show that over fifty per cent of us don’t believe racism exists. In a world made for White people, The Science of Racism uses clear scientific research to expose what we know about racism, exactly how we know it, and what we can do about it.

‘Charismatic and funny’ - The Guardian'Illuminating, surprising, unnerving, moving' - Sathnam Sanghera'Short circuits the brain' - The Independent*British police are nine times more likely to use their tasers on Black people.

*An item being advertised on eBay will sell for approximately twenty per cent less if a dark-skinned hand is shown in the photos.

*Black Caribbean applicants have to apply for around fifty per cent more jobs in order to receive a positive response.

Professor Keon West cuts through the divisive anecdotes and rhetoric with decades’ worth of science – the data that reveals truths about racism that are shocking and tragic, but also (somehow) funny and entertaining.

Whatever you’ve read before, this book will ensure that you never see racism in the same way again.