Dunsworth: It Is Unethical To Teach Evolution Without Confronting Racism And Sexism

[Patrick]

It Is Unethical To Teach Evolution Without Confronting Racism And Sexism

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

I’m not sure it is unethical, precisely, though I am sympathetic. The conversation on Human Zoos from earlier this year is important:

A Reckoning on Race

The Discovery Institute published a piece announcing the movie Human Zoos, which argues evolution as inextricably linked to racism. One of our own, author @NLENTS, responded,

@NLENTS

This “human zoos” documentary is a brilliant piece of attack journalism on the troubling past in the scientific community. But, to be fair, we have never fully or properly reckoned with that past, and because we didn’t, we left it open for them to come in and combine an accounting of our past sins with an all-out attack of evolutionary theory.

I continued…

@swamidass

I want to ask everyone on these forums to take this seriously. Honor the dead for whom we cannot make things right. Say something, don’t just let it pass unacknowledged.

@NLENTS

@nlents, what would it look like for scientists to fully reckon with this history?

I really don’t know besides the fact that it needs to be acknowledged, taught, and discussed and not just in history of science courses, ethics courses, but in science curricula.

What Would Be Unethical?

I want too add, however, the same applies not to just evolution, but all the things that have been used for racism in the past. The unethical behavior I am concerned of here is in selectively raising concerns about racism against ideas we don’t like, while selectively ignoring similar histories in ideas we do like. It turns out that Polygenesis began a religious concept long before, Darwin, and long before evolution. If we are going to take falsified views of evolution to task on racism, we should also tell the full story.

Racism is real, and this is why it should not be used selectively as a tool to disparage ideas with which we disagree. If anyone wants to have a frank and open conversation about race, we would welcome it. Let us begin that conversation as soon as they are ready.

A Better Way?

I want to highlight @Jordan’s response to the dialogue on
Human Zoos. He is a professor a Christian school, and he writes:

@Jordan

@swamidass, yesterday at lunch I talked to my my biology and chemistry colleagues about human zoos. None had heard of of it, including one who had worked at the Bronx zoo for a time. It was kind of a “wait, what?!” moment.

We are redesigning our science Gen Ed course (taken by 1/2 the students on campus) this year and I think I’ll try to include this topic somewhere.

@swamidass

Thank you @Jordan. I am glad educators like you are stepping up to the plate. This question is a great guiding light for a general Ed course: what does it mean to be human?

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

I’ve invited the anthropologist and author of this article, Holly Dunsworth, to join us. Please read the article linked in the original post to engage with her with kindness and care.

https://web.uri.edu/soc-anth/meet/holly-dunsworth/