Just as public debate is hampered, so is an individual’s consideration of these messages’ social implications. In particular, individuals whose preexisting social and racial attitudes might cause them to question and possibly reject direct statements about general or essential racial differences (Morley 1994) may accept these messages and draw broader conclusions about them without a thought, because these messages’ connection to social issues is not apparent. The apparently scientific, objective, nonideological, and apolitical nature of reports of genetically based racial differences and their apparent disjunction from broader racial attitudes and beliefs may thus be an important wedge in opening the backdoor to eugenics. We will refer to media reports with these features, as illustrated earlier by the Associated Press article on prostate cancer, as “backdoor” articles.
