# Reckoning With Human Zoos

**URL:** <https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/reckoning-with-human-zoos/1568>\
**Category:** Peaceful Science\
**Tags:** Society\
**Created:** [September 9, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/reckoning-with-human-zoos/1568 "2018-09-09T15:27:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![swamidass](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.peacefulscience.org/swamidass/32/3_2.png) [@swamidass](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/swamidass)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/reckoning-with-human-zoos/1568/2 "2018-09-09T17:05:12Z")

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> [@Nathan Lents: My Experience With Discovery](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/nathan-lents-my-experience-with-discovery/1513/58):
>
> 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.

This is one of those moments we should step back from polemics. Let us pause and deal with our past sin for a moment. At that time, there was open racism everywhere, including in religious communities and among scientists. The thing about racism is that it can twist both science and scripture to its purposes. This is the inheritance of everyone, including scientists and christians.

Right now, there are people bemoaning the human disaster in the Catholic Church because of it’s affect on the institution, rather than morning the victims. One can bemoan both, but the victims are not mere rhetorical pawns. They demand our respect. The same is true here. That is why is important to pause from polemics at times, especially when greater things intrude.

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

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