Lessons in our faults: Fault lines on race and research ethics

Since the publication of the now infamous paper ‘Ageand education-related effects on cognitive functioning in Colored South African women’ by Nieuwoudt and colleagues where they claim the cognitive functioning of coloured women is defective in some ways,1 there has been renewed doubts about the legitimacy of race in research at Stellenbosch University and the controversy has become a matter of concern for universities and research ethics boards across the country. Because of the harms the Nieuwoudt paper has caused, the question of the use of race in research has re-emerged as a central concern. What researchers want to know is how to assess whether race is relevant to some question(s), how to use racial classifications if race is relevant, and when to leave race out.