People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and support groups expressed shock over the supposed mercy killing of an ALS patient that led to the arrests of two doctors on suspicion of murder.

I hold strong concerns about some of the responses that have appeared on the internet indicating the posters would have done the same thing, Yasuhiko Funago, an ALS patient who won a seat in the 2019 Upper House election, said in a statement released on July 23. That makes it even more difficult for those with uncurable diseases to hold the feeling that they want to continue living.

Funago, a member of the Reiwa Shinsengumi party, said he also initially felt like dying when he was first diagnosed with the degenerative muscle disease.

However, through peer support, I realized that my own experience was beneficial to other patients and I made the decision to continue living, Funago wrote. What is most important is creating a society that protects a right to live rather than a right to die.

Hiroki Okabe, an ALS patient who heads the nonprofit organization Sakai wo Koete (overcoming boundaries), touched upon the fact that the woman who died had contacted the two doctors through social media.

Because ALS patients suffer from a strong sense of loneliness and isolation, they may turn to social media as a way to seek out connections with others, Okabe said. Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, I am worried about the greater possibility of becoming isolated.

Taku Watanabe is a member of the Kyoto-based Japan Center for Independent Living, which provides support to those with uncurable diseases or disabilities.

He mentioned the case of Satoshi Uematsu, who was sentenced to death for murdering 19 disabled people at the Tsukui Yamayurien care home in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Uematsu had argued that people with serious disabilities should be euthanized.

If euthanasia is thought of in a more positive way, that could lead to eugenics, Watanabe said. I believe it is the responsibility of society to provide support to allow for continued living regardless of what situation an individual is placed in as well as to change the environment that may force some to feel that they would rather die.

Doctors in the past have been found guilty of murder for carrying out what they thought constituted euthanasia through, for example, lethal injections. However, the halting of life-prolonging treatment has not been treated in the same way.

Although some doctors who removed respirators from patients who eventually died were referred to prosecutors, those cases have ended up without murder indictments.

But such cases have prompted medical professionals to become more hesitant about carrying out requests from patients to stop treatment.

And even with an increase of patients with uncurable diseases and requests from their families to end treatment, the national debate on euthanasia has not deepened.

The health ministry in 2007 released guidelines for end-of-life care that called for sufficient discussions between the patient and doctor as well as keeping a record of what was discussed.

The Japanese Association for Acute Medicine and the Japan Geriatrics Society have issued guidelines that also include the procedures for stopping medical treatment and nutritional support.

The emphasis in both sets of guidelines is for the medical team to make what it believes is the best choice for the patient.

Shoichi Maeda, a professor of medical ethics at Keio University, said there were many puzzling aspects about why the two arrested doctors acted in a manner that clearly goes against generally accepted wisdom among medical professionals.

He added that legal precedent makes clear that the use of drugs leading to death is not allowed, even if the patient had a desire to be relieved of suffering as soon as possible.

(This article was compiled from reports by Yoko Tanaka, Atsuko Hatayama, Miki Morimoto and Senior Staff Writer Tokiko Tsuji.)

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ALS patients fear 'mercy killing' case will promote death over life : The Asahi Shimbun - Asahi Shimbun

After nearly 50 immigration policy changes since COVID-19 arrived at our shores, and an untold number since President Trump came into office, he has brought immigration to the United States to a near standstill.

In 100 days, the American people will decide how long the darkness will last.

The presidents ruminations on DACA and merit-based immigration should not lead us to believe he now thinks immigrants and immigration are a benefit to the nation. There is significant evidence showing that Trumps re-election campaign will rely on anti-immigrant fabrications. And it is unlikely he will cast aside build the wall, bad hombres or any of his other favorite applause lines.

We have come full circle to a century ago. In the 1920s, nationalism, global conflict, and simmering racial hostilities combined to pave the way for the Immigration Act of 1924. The laws national origin racial quotas curtailed immigration from southern and eastern Europe and halted arrivals from Asia. With few exceptions, the door to America had slammed shut.

The ensuing 40 years was a fight for the future of America, as Jia Lynn Yang describes in her new book, One Mighty and Irresistible Tide. It was a period that shamefully included a burgeoning eugenics movement, the United States turning its back on displaced Jews fleeing death, and McCarthyism that quickly stretched beyond fighting communism to target political opponents who supported, among other ideas, a more expansive approach to immigration.

Podcast July 24 2020

On today's Bulwark Podcast, Bill Kristol joins Charlie Sykes to discuss the conventions, the debate on policy vs. punish...

As we move into the 2020s, the presidents spectacular mismanagement of multiple crisesrising nationalism, a global pandemic, and exploding racial hostilitieshas created a dangerous environment for America to close its door to the world.

It is getting harder and harder for the vulnerable to seek protection in the United States from persecution of any kindreligious, political, or social. Attorney General William Barr is reopening asylum cases to potentially remove protections. Children as young as 1 year old, are being detained in hotels. Our immigration courts are stacked with leadership focused on denying cases and curtailing due process. Enforcement at the border now means deporting people without following the law. Under the presidents April proclamation even family members of lawful permanent residents may not be able to enter the country, and also affects recipients of diversity visas. And, barring action from Congress, the administrations approach to immigration is in danger of bankrupting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before the summer is over.

America is clearly better than this. Because, much to his chagrin (and political peril), President Trump has forged a new consensus on American immigration.

In polling completed at the end of May, as the nation continued to be racked by COVID-19 and as George Floyds death was launching a new kind of conversation about racial justice, Gallup found that more Americans wanted an increase in immigration than a decreasea first since Gallup started asking this question in 1965.

Look closely and you see something surprising: a 7-point rise since 2018 in independents support for increased immigration. Among people older than 55, 63 percent want the present level or an increase and 73 percent think immigration is a good thing. The numbers are 77 percent and 80 percent among those with some college education, and 79 percent and 86 percent among moderates.

The very coalition that boosted Trump to victory in 2016 is cracking under the weight of his hardline immigration policies.

Not only have a handful of Trump-skeptical evangelical leaders, such as Russell Moore of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, criticized Trump on immigration, but even the staunch Trump supporter Franklin Graham said in 2018 of the administrations efforts to separate families at the border, I think its disgraceful, its terrible to see families ripped apart and I dont support that one bit. All of this is seared into the minds of suburban women.

And the rescission of DACA looms large for business leaders. The expansion of interior enforcement operations leads farmers to worry if their skilled workforce will make it to work. The end of refugee resettlement and asylum processing leaves people of faith asking if their government shares their values. Patients in Appalachia hope their foreign-born doctor will be there the next time they need care.

If the United States is to avoid decades of nativism and nationalism that could result from a second Trump term, the deciding factor will be moderate and independent voters who may have supported Trumps vision of America in 2016 but now reject it for what it is: an agenda that skirts the rule of law, champions authoritarianism, and strips all of us, immigrant and native-born, of our dignity.

Restoring Americas dignity begins on November 3.

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100 Days Out from the Election, Immigration is on the Ballot - The Bulwark

NEW YORK (AP) Planned Parenthood of Greater New York will remove the name of pioneering birth control advocate Margaret Sanger from its Manhattan health clinic because of her harmful connections to the eugenics movement, the group announced.

Sanger, one of the founders of Planned Parenthood of America more than a century ago, has long provoked controversy because of her support for eugenics, a movement to promote selective breeding that often targeted people of color and the disabled.

The removal of Margaret Sangers name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthoods contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color, Karen Seltzer, the chair of Planned Parenthood of New York, said in a statement. Margaret Sangers concerns and advocacy for reproductive health have been clearly documented, but so too has her racist legacy.

Officials with the national organization said they supported the move.

Planned Parenthood, like many other organizations that have existed for a century or more, is reckoning with our history, and working to address historical inequities to better serve patients and our mission, said Melanie Roussell Newman, a spokesperson for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Planned Parenthood dates its beginnings to 1916, when Sanger, her sister and a friend opened Americas first birth control clinic in Brooklyn.

Although Sanger has long been viewed as a feminist hero for championing womens right to decide when to bear children, her support for the then-popular science of eugenics is troubling by contemporary standards. She wrote in 1921 that the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.

Sangers defenders say she was not racist, citing her relationships with Black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois and her work to provide contraceptive services in Black communities not for eugenics, but to give Black parents the ability to choose how many children to have.

Linda Gordon, the historian who first revealed Sangers eugenics collaboration in her 1976 book, Womans Body, Womans Right: the History of Birth Control Politics in America, said Sanger was no more racist than many progressives of her time.

To treat Sanger as we treat defenders of slavery and segregation does not help us understand the history of racism in this country, Gordon said in an email.

The move by Planned Parenthood to distance itself from its founder takes place amid a nationwide reckoning with the legacies of once-revered figures whose views on race are now seen as abhorrent.

Princeton University announced last month that it would remove the name of former President Woodrow Wilson from its public policy school because of his segregationist views.

Opponents of Planned Parenthood welcomed the removal of Sangers name from the Manhattan clinic. Abortion rights foes have long invoked Sangers name in contending that Planned Parenthoods provision of services, including abortion to Black communities, is racist.

The anti-abortion group Students for Life of America said in a statement that Sanger should not be honored anywhere.

Margaret Sangers intense campaign to push contraception and the abortion mentality on minority communities to ensure that fewer black babies would be born deserves our condemnation and demands that she be removed from places of honor, said Kristan Hawkins, the organizations president.

The clinic that had been named after Sanger will now be known as the Manhattan Health Center. Planned Parenthood of Greater New York said it is also urging New York City leaders to remove Sangers name from a street sign near the clinic.

Continue reading here:

Margaret Sanger's Name To Be Dropped from NYC Clinic Over Eugenics Connection - Snopes.com

But the new eugenics also presents dissimilarities with the old one, which are not due only to an improvement of techniques, but which reflect the difference between a non-Christian society, and an apostate society. Apostasy descends more abjectly than paganism, because the negation of Christian values leads to the negation of natural values accessible to reason, which the ancient world had more or less discovered. Take away the supernatural, it will not even remain natural.

The first traces of a new eugenics can be found during the Renaissance with authors such as the skeptic Montaigne (1533-1592), the humanist Rabelais (1494-1553) or even the Dominican Campanella (1568-1639) - who passed a good part of his life in the prisons of the Holy Office. All three show a concern for the selection of the best. Fr. Franois-Joseph Thonnard wrote that the humanists of this period were indeed captivated by the assimilation of the past in the order of beauty more than truth, and also a return to nature exalted by pagan Hellenism Just as artists renewed ancient forms, philosophers revived most of the ancient systems.

As for Francis Bacon (1561-1626), one of the thinkers who opened the modern period, in his book New Atlantis, he depicts a society organized according to a policy guided by science and reason, where the constitution of couples must be a State affair aimed at the procreation of a strong and intelligent race. For this philosopher, it is no longer on God that moral life must be regulated, but on social and human utility. The goal of a moral life is therefore the good of humanity: is good, that which is useful to humanity. This morality therefore inevitably tends toward utilitarianism. This formula, repeated, amplified, and distorted, will have many consequences a few centuries later.

What comes into being is a positive eugenics attached to the idea of human quality.

The first legislative intervention took place in Sweden, a Protestant country which prohibited the marriage of epileptics in 1757. And it was in Germany, where Protestantism was also widespread, that Dr. Johann Peter Frank in 1779 published his Complete System of Medical Policy in which he states: I firmly believe that there is no more powerful means to stimulate the vigor and the health of the human species, than a severe selection among those who, nowadays, spread exclusively the bad seed on the field of collective life, and to make it impossible for all the degenerates and the miserable to continue to sacrifice half of humanity, according to their unreasonable impulses (G. Banu).

For Protestantism, material prosperity is a mark of divine blessing; the Protestant therefore naturally goes towards the things of the earth and cares about it almost exclusively. And since his morality is constantly evolving, he is not repelled by these new ideas.

The concern for positive eugenics underpins the work of the revolutionary Condorcet (1743-1794): Can we have any other goal than to multiply well-formed beings, capable of being useful to others and making their own happiness? Influenced by Lamarck (1744-1829), he believed in the inheritance of acquired personality and turned towards social action. He was among the first to apply statistical methods to the study of social phenomena and populations, founding what he called social mathematics.

And so the quantitative notion appeared for the first time, oriented however towards the measure of quality. This work will be continued by Adolphe Qutelet (1796-1872), the founder of biometrics, which he called social physics. But he too is more interested in environment.

It was in 1798 that the Protestant cleric Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) published his famous An Essay on the Principle of Population. This book marks the true birth of modern concerns about population regulation. Beginning at that point there will exist a current called Malthusianism and then Neo-Malthusianism, which seeks above all to decrease or stabilize populations, and which can be called quantitative eugenics. For Malthus, it is in the nature of things that the rich cannot help the poor indefinitely; that they have no right to be maintained at the expense of society.

This is the refusal to accept the word of Our Lord: For the poor you have always with you (Jn. 12:8). Selfishness, the fruit of materialism, is the origin. It takes on the appearance of a false goodness: helping the poor to become less poor by limiting their offspring. This current, distinct from qualitative eugenics, comes from the same background. They will eventually meet.

In 1803, in France, Robert le Jeune published his Megalanthropogenesis which describes the practice of marrying eminent men to distinguished women in order to give birth to intelligent children. It is the return of an old Greek idea: While nothing is spared in Europe to enhance the beauty of horses, improve the beasts of wool, and perpetuate the race of good bloodhounds, is it not a shame that man is abandoned by man? In other words, the progress of qualitative eugenics.

Quantitative eugenics also continued to grow. As early as 1821, John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the utilitarian philosopher, adhering to the theses of Malthus, wrote in the Encyclopedia Britannica: The great problem of the hour is to find the means of limiting the number of births. In 1848, he specified that one can hardly hope that morality will make progress, as long as one does not consider large families with the same contempt as intoxication or any other bodily excess. If he himself does not propose immoral means, he leaves the door open for them. As early as 1822, the Englishman Francis Place launched neo-Malthusianism by publishing his Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population which marks the beginning of birth-control (BC). He anonymously distributed his Diabolicals handbills where he recommended the use of all the contraceptive methods known at the time.

The development of Malthusian theses continued in the Anglo-Saxon countries, because the Latin countries, which remained Catholic, strongly opposed these methods. The United States saw the publication in 1833 of Dr. Charles Knowltons book, The Fruits of Philosophy: or The Private Companion of Young Married People, which likewise describes all contraceptive methods in the wake of Francis Place. In 1854 in England, Dr. Charles V. Drysdale published his Elements of social science, a treatise on contraception considered from the economic, philosophical and medical point of view. He saw in the institution of indissoluble marriage a degradation of women, and he added that poverty is a sexual question and not a question of politics and charity.

A degree is crossed when feminism joins the eugenic struggle. In 1877, the English Malthusian League was founded by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant: neo-Malthusianism entered social life. The following year the worlds first birth control clinic opened in Amsterdam, Holland, a Protestant country, at the same time as a Malthusian league started up there. In 1896, Paul Robin founded the League for Human Regeneration in Paris, which in 1900 organized the first International Neo-Malthusian Conference in which the union of the two currents took shape.

Certain currents follow the logic of the same starting principles. In 1851 Gobineau (1816-1882) published his Essay on the Inequality of Human Races which founded racist theory. This would be received with enthusiasm in Germany, in particular by Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927), for whom all the rules of aesthetics, morals, and politics can be summed up in one: Preserve and promote the purity of Aryan blood.

These theories are contained in potential in eugenics. An improvement implies a standard, which necessarily establishes a position in relation to itself. From there to contempt for those who are below this standard, is only one step which soon leads to elimination. The standard itself can be variable depending on the criteria set by the selector. So the racist element fits into any eugenics.

The work of Charles Darwin (1809-1882) marks a turning point in qualitative eugenics, because it offers, in his book On the Origin of Species, published in 1860, the first scientific support. Darwin sees in inheritance and in the struggle for life the means for the fittest to perpetuate themselves at the expense of the unfit. This conception bears the seeds on the one hand for the extension of positive eugenics to the whole of society, selection being a factor of evolution, and on the other hand for the elimination of the unfit. It was during the same time period time that Gregor Mendel published his Essay on Plant Hybrids (1865) which laid the foundations for genetics, a science which experienced rapid development from the start of the 20th century, and which provided the means long awaited by eugenics.

It is to the Englishman Francis Galton (1822-1991), cousin of Charles Darwin, that we owe the creation of the term Eugenics or the well-born. As early as 1869 he published Hereditary Genius, whose title shows that he intended to bring eugenics to the field of heredity, in order to improve human intelligence which would follow its laws. Here is what he said in his memoirs: When I understood that the inheritance of mental qualities, on which I had done my research, was real, and that heredity was a means of developing human qualities much more powerful than the environment, I wanted to explore the scale of qualities in different directions, in order to establish to what extent childbirth, at least theoretically, could modify the human race. A new race could be created, possessing on average a degree of quality equal to that encountered so far only in exceptional cases.

And he adds: Far be it from me to say anything that could underestimate the value of the environment in itself, since it includes, for example, all kinds of health improvements. I wish to proclaim that all these improvements are powerful auxiliaries of my cause; nevertheless I consider the Race as more important than the Medium. Race has a double effect: it creates smarter and better individuals.

Here we find a new fundamental error which will have repercussions indefinitely in the eugenic system in all its forms: the confusion between science and morals. Eugenics imagine that morality automatically follows intelligence, but that conflates two areas, which, if they have close and necessary interdependencies, are none the less different. The more intelligent an evil being, the more harm he can do. This vice is ineradicable, because the eugenicist thinks of improving man by actions which make abstractions of good and evil, and which only targets measurable qualities, even if it is a question of intelligence.

Galton offers two definitions of Eugenics. The first, in 1883, in his Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development: Science of the improvement of the race, which is not limited to questions of judicious unions, but which, particularly in the case of man, occupies all the influences likely to give the best endowed races a greater number of chances to prevail over the less good races. This definition integrates the medium and the inheritance, because Galton realized the insufficiency of the criteria treating positive eugenicsgenetics is barely justified. The second, in 1904, erases the racist aspect: Study of the socially controllable factors which can raise or lower the racial qualities of future generations, both physically and mentally.

His action is then recognized. Foundations were multiplying: National Chair of Eugenics, Office of Eugenic Registration, Society of Eugenic Education (1908), Eugenics Review (1909), etc. His ideas spread everywhere, which Galton wanted. He wanted to make it a branch of academic studies; thus, to introduce it into the national consciousness like a religion. He even speaks of a holy war!

From that point eugenics was launched. It even obtained the much desired political consecration. However, Dr. Jean Sutter, one of the founders of the National Institute of Demographic Studies, drew up this assessment in 1950: Genetics could not find its own technique and, so to speak, its scientific personality, so much so that at present it seems to disappear as a science to make way for eugenics, which is only a state of mind; it is to be expected that it will meet, more and more, within the various disciplines used by all of the sciences.

This judicious reflection sounds like a true prophecy.

Here is the original post:

Eugenics Yesterday and Today (6): The Origins of Modern Eugenics - FSSPX.News

Posted: Jul. 21, 2020 7:00 am Updated: Jul. 21, 2020 1:54 pm

NEW YORK (AP) Planned Parenthood of Greater New York will remove the name of pioneering birth control advocate Margaret Sanger from its Manhattan health clinic because of her harmful connections to the eugenics movement, the group announced on Tuesday.

Sanger, one of the founders of Planned Parenthood of America more than a century ago, has long provoked controversy because of her support for eugenics, a movement to promote selective breeding that often targeted people of color and the disabled.

The removal of Margaret Sangers name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthoods contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color, Karen Seltzer, the chair of Planned Parenthood of New York, said in a statement. Margaret Sangers concerns and advocacy for reproductive health have been clearly documented, but so too has her racist legacy."

Officials with the national organization said they supported the move.

Planned Parenthood, like many other organizations that have existed for a century or more, is reckoning with our history, and working to address historical inequities to better serve patients and our mission, said Melanie Roussell Newman, a spokesperson for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Planned Parenthood dates its beginnings to 1916, when Sanger, her sister and a friend opened Americas first birth control clinic in Brooklyn.

Although Sanger has long been viewed as a feminist hero for championing women's right to decide when to bear children, her support for the then-popular science of eugenics is troubling by contemporary standards. She wrote in 1921 that the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.

Sangers defenders say she was not racist, citing her relationships with Black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois and her work to provide contraceptive services in Black communities not for eugenics, but to give Black parents the ability to choose how many children to have.

Linda Gordon, the historian who first revealed Sanger's eugenics collaboration in her 1976 book, Womans Body, Womans Right: the History of Birth Control Politics in America, said Sanger was no more racist than many progressives of her time.

To treat Sanger as we treat defenders of slavery and segregation does not help us understand the history of racism in this country, Gordon said in an email.

The move by Planned Parenthood to distance itself from its founder takes place amid a nationwide reckoning with the legacies of once-revered figures whose views on race are now seen as abhorrent.

Princeton University announced last month that it would remove the name of former President Woodrow Wilson from its public policy school because of his segregationist views.

Opponents of Planned Parenthood welcomed the removal of Sanger's name from the Manhattan clinic. Abortion rights foes have long invoked Sangers name in contending that Planned Parenthoods provision of services, including abortion to Black communities, is racist.

The anti-abortion group Students for Life of America said in a statement Tuesday that Sanger should not be honored anywhere.

Margaret Sangers intense campaign to push contraception and the abortion mentality on minority communities to ensure that fewer black babies would be born deserves our condemnation and demands that she be removed from places of honor, said Kristan Hawkins, the organization's president.

The clinic that had been named after Sanger will now be known as the Manhattan Health Center. Planned Parenthood of Greater New York said it is also urging New York City leaders to remove Sangers name from a street sign near the clinic.

___

Associated Press writer David Crary contributed to this story.

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Sanger's name to be dropped from NYC clinic over eugenics - Herald-Whig

Last month, USC President Carol Folt announced that the school would remove former university President Rufus von KleinSmids name from a campus building, citing his leadership role in the racist eugenics movement and his refusal to admit Japanese American students to the university after World War II. In explaining the decision, Folt cited Von KleinSmids actions as being at direct odds with USCs multicultural community and our mission of diversity and inclusion. What Folt did not mention was Von KleinSmids ties to Nazism and anti-Semites.

Von KleinSmid led the university from 1921 until 1947, but it was during the 1930s and early 1940s that his tolerance of anti-Semitism was most evident. We know this in part through reports sent to Leon Lewis between 1933 and 1941 from a network of spies he recruited. Beginning in August 1933, Lewis, founding executive secretary of the Anti-Defamation League, coordinated a group of men and women who went undercover and joined every Nazi and fascist group in Los Angeles. Often rising to positions of leadership, they detailed the activities of local Nazis and their supporters, including faculty and students at USC.

According to their reports, Von KleinSmid tolerated and supported pro-Nazi faculty such as Erwin Mohme, the chairman of USCs German department. Mohme, was a frequent speaker at Nazi rallies in Hindenburg Park in La Crescenta, north of Los Angeles, according to Lewis spies. He worked closely with the Friends of New Germany (predecessor of the German American Bund) and was awarded the Order of the Eagle from Los Angeles German Consul Georg Gyssling in 1938, the only Southern Californian to receive such an honor. Yet Von KleinSmid kept him in his position as head of a department.

In the summer of 1933, Von KleinSmid was part of a delegation of American university presidents who visited Germany. According to documents I obtained from Germany while researching my book Hitler in Los Angeles, the German Foreign Office was ordered to extend a warm welcome to USCs head, who had requested a personal meeting with Joseph Goebbels. The Germans believed Von KleinSmid was sympathetic to their cause even if he could not say so in public. Upon his return to the U.S. in September 1933, Von KleinSmid denounced German anti-Semitism; but he took no steps to stamp it out at USC.

The USC president also appeared on podiums with his fellow eugenics enthusiast Baron Ernst Ulrich von Buelow, who was, as I documented in my book, head of Nazi spy operations in Southern California. Von KleinSmid also, according to Lewis spies, lent a hand to Von Buelows protege, Kurt Bernhard, Prince Zur Lippe, a German undergraduate who enrolled at USC in 1933 claiming he wanted to learn more about the United States. In fact, Bernhard was a secret German agent who recruited Nazi supporters at USC. According to Lewis spies, Bernhard bragged about his good relationship with Von KleinSmid, and while on campus founded a Nazi-sympathizing fraternity and wrote for an anti-Semitic student newspaper, the Owl. He also boasted of his ability to pass out Nazi propaganda with no blowback from university administrators. In 1938, Bernhard was finally forced to register with the U.S. government as a German foreign agent.

USCs Nomenclature Task Force is currently looking at Cromwell Field, which bears the name of former USC coach and assistant Olympic track coach Dean Cromwell. During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Cromwell prevented two Jewish runners, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, from competing, something Glickman and many others believed was done in order not to embarrass Hitler by having Jews on the winners podium. After the Olympics, Cromwell spoke at a Nazi-organized German Day celebration at La Crescentas Hindenburg Park, which was filled with swastika flags and storm troopers, according to a report in the American Jewish World. Anti-Nazi groups were outraged by his speech, in which he talked about how few U.S.-born people lived in New York and quipped, Oh boy, if I could only be that handsome boy Adolf [Hitler] in New York for an hour.

Cromwell also marveled that while in Berlin he did not see a single colored man, woman or children. They have all chosen to leave for some reason or other, and I for one certainly dont object to that. Following the speech, the audience gave three shouted Heil Hitlers, the Nazi salute, and a singing of the Horst Wessel song.

When newspaper reporters queried Von KleinSmid about the incident, noting how much it had disturbed the citys Jewish community, USCs leader dismissed reports of Cromwells anti-Semitism and racism as a tempest in a teapot. Cromwells remarks, he insisted, were only facetious. An unrepentant Cromwell responded that the criticism comes from a group of people [New York Jews] that raised a big slush fund to keep our team out of the Olympics.

The USC faculty were silent, but not the Los Angeles community. On September 15, 1936, 1,500 people met at the Knickerbocker Hotel to demand that USC fire Cromwell for his anti-Semitic and anti-Negro remarks. More than 100 telegrams were sent to Von KleinSmid. No action was taken.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Von KleinSmid strongly supported the American war effort to defeat Germany. He built barracks for U.S. troops on campus, and in his 1942 commencement address he asked students to dedicate themselves toward all that we are and must be after victory to the end that righteousness may again reign in the world. But it was too little and too late to undo the anti-Semitic damage he had allowed to happen at USC.

I first began hearing about Von KleinSmid when I left New York to take a job at USC in January 1979. I was told by older Angelenos that Jews didnt go to USC, they went to UCLA. I asked why, and was told about the legacy of Von KleinSmid and a belief that USC was not friendly to Jews. Things have changed dramatically since then, and now President Folt has taken steps to renounce the mistakes of the past. This moment is our Call to Action, Folt wrote, a call to confront anti-Blackness and systemic racism, and unite as a diverse, equal, and inclusive university. You have asked for actions, not rhetoric, and actions, now.

A name change is a step in the right direction, but what happens after those names are changed? What happens to that ugly history? This is a rare moment of reckoning at USC and across the nation to fully air all kinds of past prejudice, including anti-Semitism, and to excise the demons of our collective past. As we have learned from history, silence is never the answer.

Steven J. Ross is a professor of history at USC and author of Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America.

Original post:

Op-Ed: USC's reckoning with its past needs to include how anti-Semitism was allowed to flourish there - Los Angeles Times

The city of Seattle, Washington is lecturing its white employees on the evils inherent in their paying obeisance to objectivity, individualism and the seeking of perfection in their work. The stated reason is to atone for the racism such practices have allegedly wrought through underpinning a white dominant society characterized by individual creativity and upward mobility at the expense of blacks. Lets address this policy in light of two motives behind it, the one expressed, the other a more subtle probability.

The express motive lies in the belief gone viral through the actions of Black Lives Matter that blacks are yet being exploited and relegated to a lower standard of living in the US. Implied here is the view that left to their own devices, blacks cannot rise above their station. The deficiencies in this view may be addressed with a review of two remarkable African American Educators who incorporated the three traits of objectivity, individualism and perfection to ignite success in the early twentieth century amidst a white gentry bent not only on segregation but also on eugenics and the sterilization of the African-American. These educators were Samuel W. Houston of Huntsville and David Abner Jr of Conroe.

Both Houston and Abner were leaders of African American Christian colleges in their respective domains. Each of them realized the link of objectivity, individualism and the seeking of perfection to igniting a sense of creativity and enterprise. Theirs was the path marked by Thomas Jefferson himself as he opined that intelligence linked to Christian-backed virtue was the key to securing the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness enshrined in his authorship of the Declaration of Independence.

Houston and Abner each rejected the eugenics refrain of their time which was accommodated to an extent even by the prominent black leaders of the day, W.E. B. Dubois, Kelly Miller, and in his own way, Booker T. Washington. Houston even attended colleges associated with each of these black leaders: Hampton Institute with Booker T. Washington, Atlanta University with Dubois and Howard University with Kelly Miller; Houston also had personal friendships with all of them. Houston later gained both state and national fame stemming from the high caliber of students produced in his Sam Houston Institute in the environs of Huntsville. Samuel W. Houston, however, gave most credit not to the views of his African American mentors, but to Christianity for igniting a mode of upward mobility in his students.

Like Samuel W. Houston, David Abner Jr. took the reigns of Conroe Normal and Industrial College in Conroe and maneuvered it to heights in its golden years, setting the stage for eventually employing six extensions extending all the way to San Francisco. Like Houston, David Abner Jr. instilled the twin pillars of intelligence and virtue in his students giving them the skills and fortitude for successful lives.

David Abner Jr and Samuel W. Houston, then, demonstrated that blacks could rise on their own, without the thinly veiled racism inherent in Seattles drive to shame the whites into lowering themselves to accommodate them.

Which brings us to the more subtle motive probably endemic to the Seattle project, an embrace of the Malthusian policy of the worlds global elite as indicated recently at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. This is the view that man, like the animals, is limited in his creative abilities. Given this premise, many globalists seek to reduce the expectations of world progress to a realistic level via de- legitimizing objectivity, individualism and perfection. This is the Rest of the Story.

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Seattle, Huntsville, Conroe and the rest of the story - Huntsville Item

In May, Herald columnist Chuck Haga made an appeal: I hope there will be a new respect for science, facts and truth. Agreed. Lets start with the denial of a basic, inalienable right, from which all other rights flow.

CNN aired a June segment that ran afoul of approved pro-abortion talking points and phraseology within corporate news media. They called an unborn baby an unborn baby void of partisan euphemisms. It passed muster because it served the Black Lives Matter insurgency.

The guest was Ebony Chisholm, who had written an op-ed titled A Letter to My Beautiful, Black Unborn Baby in the Hartford Courant. Chisholm read the 750-word piece on air, describing the development of her baby based on medical science shedding light on the humanity of the unborn to an audience that probably rarely gets that perspective.

Im now in the beginning stages of my second trimester. During this time of pregnancy is when youre beginning to move your arms and legs, you have all your fingers and toes, your facial features are becoming more defined and my stomach is starting to become more noticeable. Your Dad and I should be thinking about who you will look like more, when will we feel you kick for the first time.

Any Black child in the womb has a far greater chance of being aborted than murdered by racists. Black babies are aborted at more than three times the rate of white babies. In 2014, 259,336 black lives were snuffed out before they could breathe thats more than the top 15 leading causes of deaths among African Americans combined.

Making up 13% of the population, 40% of the nations abortions are committed on African Americans. What percentage of the dead were female? The bulk of that killing occurs at Planned Parenthood facilities, founded by racist and eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who advocated the selective breeding of the finest flowers to prevent human weeds. Her 1939 Negro Project reflects that perspective.

Bostons Art Commission voted unanimously to remove the citys copy of a statue depicting a formerly enslaved man at the feet of the great emancipator Abraham Lincoln, while a statue of Sanger remains undisturbed in that city. Apparently, an image of Lincoln and emancipation and a freed slave is traumatic, while Sangers appalling racism and the killing of millions of Black babies isnt.

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Letter: Black abortion rate boosts the death toll - Grand Forks Herald

Democrats have a lot

to be proud of

Editor, The News:

Liberal Democrats, conservatives know youre rooting against the country, wishing the economy crashes with President Donald Trump getting the blame and losing in November.

They have tried everything to get him out of office, all with lies and distortion. Here are some questions and facts.

Are you proud of President Barack Obama, who directed the spying of Americans, including Trump, while trying to undermine a national election? Are you proud the former president represented the most corrupt administration in American history? Are you proud he orchestrated a silent coup along with James Comey,John Brennan, Peter Strzok, Hillary Clinton and others to overthrow Trump?

Are you proud of killing full-term babies and selling human body parts, making billions for an evil organization originally founded on using eugenics to purify the population?

Story continues below video

Democrats evidently applaud this because most of them support it financially and verbally.

Even Jesse Jackson said in 1977, What happens ... to the moral fabric of a nation that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?

Are you proud of their anti-police platform? When are the Democrat leaders like Joe Biden going to condemn this fascist anarchy lawlessness? Where are we going to live: in a country of law and order or a liberal lawless society run by mobs and thugs?

Biden has trouble putting coherent sentences together. Hes been in government for five decades and has accomplished nothing. Hes camped out in his basement listening to advisors who fear his gaffes and constant stammering. And he wants to be president. Liberal Democrats the only thing you should fear on Nov. 3 is the truth.

Philip J. Granato

Shenango Township

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Democrats have a lot to be 'proud' of - New Castle News

First, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, when formerly serving of Secretary of State, did everything he could to keep hundreds of thousands of Black and Hispanic voters in Georgia from having their votes counted or even being able to vote at all.

In the months running up to his own race for governor, he conducted massive purges of the voting rolls, closed polling places in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and refused to certify the recent voter registrations of about 50,000 African Americans.

Now it appears hes decided that if he can't prevent Black and Hispanic people from voting he should just help them die.

Kemp, like the entire nation, learned on April 7, when the New York Times and the Washington Post both ran front page stories about it, that Black and Hispanic people were dying at disproportionate rates from Covid-19.

No doubt purely by coincidence, that was also the week that everyone from right wing talk show hosts to major rightwing influencing groups to the Trump administration all pivoted from concern and caution about the coronavirus to the message, "It's time to open America back up and do it now!"

Trump tweeted "Liberate!" And white guys with guns and Nazi and Confederate flags showed up in state capitols to demand that all those disproportionately minority front-line workers get back to work.

It was as if the racists across the country, and Steven Miller and Donald Trump in the White House, figured out that if they wanted to actually reduce America's Black and Hispanic population, this was their chance. They could use this virus to, "Make America white again."

Call it the "Republican Party's 21st Century Eugenics" program?

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Doubling down on this apparent strategy, yesterday Gov. Kemp officially banned cities in Georgia from enforcing their own face mask requirements.

Georgia cities with large Black and Hispanic populations like Savannah and Atlanta had passed mask ordinances and their mayors were trying to enforce them.

But Kempbacked by Trump's political muscle and authorityjust put an end to all that.

As Georgia's hospitals are reaching capacity and the virus is ripping through communities of people who can't easily telecommute or work from home, the governor is taking an official step that could dramatically increase infection and death rates among low income and minority people across the state.

It's hard to imagine that elected public officialseven those who won with the help of fraud like Kemp and Trumpwould be so craven as to engage in policies that specifically target minority groups for illness and death.

There has to be another explanation, right?

I just can't figure out what it is.

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If You Cant Stop People From Voting, Just Help Them Die? - Common Dreams

A push to change names and remove statues represents a nationwide call by Black activists and others for society to reexamine which historical figures the country lauds, create a more comprehensive understanding of these past leaders beliefs and attitudes, and an understanding of how monuments, eponymously named buildings and other symbols honoring them underpins systemic racism.

But some people have argued that the effort to expunge historical figures from buildings has gone too far.

Take, for example, Long Beachs Wilson High School.

That campus, part of the Long Beach Unified School District, is named for President Woodrow Wilson.

Wilsons legacy, historians say, is checkered: He backed the Ku Klux Klan and screened in the White House The Birth of a Nation, a film that, while revolutionary from a cinematic perspective, presents a revisionist history of the Civil War and early Reconstruction Era.

But when Jon Meyer, an LBUSD school board member, heard of a petition calling for Wilson High to get a name change, he was conflicted.

Meyer graduated from Wilson and met his wife there. His father was part of the first graduating class.

I completely understand the Black Lives Matter movement and this nationwide thrust to get rid of anything that was tainted by racism in the past, Meyer said. I understand that, but to some extent, its a little misguided.

Meyer said he supports removing statues of Confederates, such as former Vice President John C. Calhoun, but questioned how far the country should go.

What about (President Thomas) Jefferson, (President George) Washington and others? It gets more complicated, he said. Rather than attack the name of a high school, lets build a plan where we charge forward from this day and try to make our world better.

But Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said its especially egregious for racially diverse school districts to pay homage to those who perpetuated and condoned racism and oppression.

That includes, Hutchinson said, LBUSD, which also has a Millikan High named after the Caltech physicist Robert A. Millikan and a Jordan High School, which honors David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University and a known proponent of human sterilization.

To have (Wilsons) name on a high school in Long Beach with a near-majority of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and students of color, Hutchinson said, is a travesty and insult to a diverse city such as Long Beach.

Hutchinson said America is currently undergoing a reckoning over who the country honors and schools, which educate the future of America, should be at the forefront.

The line should be drawn by expunging their names from these schools, Hutchinson said.

Questions remain, however, about how much momentum there is at specific schools and districts to change the names.

The Wilson High petition does have more than 3,000 signatures. But its unclear how many of the signatories are local.

And at an LBUSD school board meeting last month, few people during public comment relative to the total number of speakers discussed changing the name of Wilson. And of those who did, most favored keeping the names.

We understand both sides and we understand the importance of symbolism, district spokesperson Chris Eftychiou said. Thats one of the reasons we have changed school names in the past. The question is, how far do we want to go?

The creator of the Wilson High petition did not respond to requests for comment.

LBUSD has, in fact, changed school names in the past, as Eftychiou said. In 2014, the district changed Peter H. Burnett Elementary School, named after the first governor of California and a known racist, to Bobbie Smith Elementary, honoring the school districts first Black board member. Two years later, it changed the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary to Olivia Herrera Elementary, a well-liked local educator.

But the district has no plans, at the moment, to rename its high schools though Long Beach City Councilman Rex Richardson, who is Black, has suggested naming the school after another Jordan, such as musician Louis Jordan, civil rights leader Barbara Jordan or basketball legend Michael Jordan.

Long Beach is far from the only place where the discussion has taken center stage.

Michael Chwe was surprised and motivated to act.

The UCLA economics professor received his bachelors degree from the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, and remembers well the reverence for Robert A. Millikan, a renowned physicist and the universitys first president, around campus.

The Nobel Prize recipient, Chwe said, represented a sort of demigod.

But then, the current racial justice movement sprang up, in the wake of the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd. And Chwe, through various conversations, learned that Millikan was a leader in the Human Betterment Society which actively promoted sterilizing people with disabilities.

Millikan, whose name adorns several Caltech buildings and who has a bust dedicated to him on campus, was an ardent proponent of eugenics and supporter of Nazi Germany.

It wasnt just that he believed in eugenics, Chwe said, but he was a member of a group that actively promoted it. They took pride and communicated with the Nazis.

Chwe knew he had to act. He created an online petition calling for Caltech to remove Millikans name from all buildings, spaces, and programs, as well as the bust of him. The petition which also demands Caltech stop honoring fellow eugenicists E.S. Gosney, A.B. Ruddock, Harry Chandler and William Munro is just shy of 1,000 signatures.

Caltech administrators, for their part, say they created a task force to study and advise on the school policies toward naming buildings.

We take seriously the concerns raised by members of our community on this matter, said university spokesperson Kathy Svitil.

The engraved legacy of Millikan at Caltech, however,

California schools and universities have been among the targets.

From San Juan Capistrano, in south Orange County, to major Southern California cities such as Los Angeles and Long Beach and even as far north as Berkeley education officials have faced campaigns to rename schools dedicated to slaveholders, Spanish colonials and eugenicists.

It is not possible for Caltech to retain the names of Millikan, Ruddock, Chandler, Munro, and Gosney on its campus and claim moral decency, Chwes petition says. If Caltech does not act, it admits to being comfortable with lower moral standards than (other) institutions.

In San Juan Capistrano, administrators at JSerra Catholic High School have also said they will stick to the name despite recent controversies surrounding Junipero Serra.

Serra founded the California missions in the 18th century, but also facilitated Spanish colonialism and Native American persecution.

The school, which unveiled a statue of Serra in 2018 on the third anniversary of his canonization, recently had to work with the Orange County Sheriffs Department to prevent potential vandalism, after other Serra statues in California were toppled.

JSerra teaches students the entire legacy of its namesake, school President Rich Meyer said good and bad. Ultimately, he said he believes, Serras legacy is that he gave his heart to the people of California.

Its with great pride we bear Father Serras name, Rich Meyer said. We are not going to shy away from who we are.

Other school districts, meanwhile, acted quickly to excise the names of controversial figures.

In Berkeley, for example, the school board recently voted to change the names of Washington and Jefferson elementary schools because both men owned slaves.

And Fullerton High School recently changed the name of Plummer Auditorium. Its namesake, Louis Plummer a former Fullerton Joint Union School District superintendent reportedly had ties to the KKK.

Yet, other school districts have taken a more methodical approach.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is looking at what to do with its Jordan High School.

We have people looking at these areas, as well as other ways we can directly address the issue of systemic bias and institutional racism, LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner said recently as he addressed issues with campus policing. This moment cannot be about more words and false promises. It has to be about real change based on logic, reason and genuine engagement.

Caltech, with its newly created task force, recently held a virtual town hall to discuss removing the names of Millikan and his brethren.

We are committed to building upon these conversations, Svitil said, and to seizing this moment to take direct steps toward a campus where every member of our community has the access and support to achieve their full academic and professional potential.

Staff writer Jeong Park contributed to this report.

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Push On To Rename Schools, Including In Long Beach - Gazette Newspapers

The names of scientists whose discredited racial theories continue to pervade U.S. society still adorn prestigious college buildings and are attached to awards and prizes, while their statues stand on campuses and their portraits hang in university museums.

To take just one example, the University of Pennsylvanias Institute for Environmental Studies is housed in Hayden Hall, named after Ferdinand Hayden, a geologist famous for his explorations of Yellowstone but who described Native Americans as savages and Wyoming as infested with hostile Indians. He advocated for U.S. expansionism to include the whole of North and Central America from the Arctic Circle to the Isthmus of Darien and promoted and helped enable White settlement of the West. His 1871 US Geological Survey of Wyoming stated that unless Indians are localized and made to enter upon agricultural pursuits they must ultimately be exterminated. More than 40 topographic features are named after Hayden, and efforts are underway by Indigenous activists to rename the Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park as Buffalo Nations Valley.

The history of science is shot through with racism. Ethnology, anthropology, paleontology, archaeology and zoology have all served to support racist theories, doctrines and policies, as have chemistry, medicine, genetics, mathematics and economics. Many scientists who made pioneering advances or whose achievements underpin scientific progress and thinking today held and actively promoted racist views. In their time they were celebrated and honored as important or even great scientists but today it is important that we address their roles in building and perpetuating racist stereotypes, structures and institutions.

University leaders who have been slow to respond to and act upon the legacy of slavery and slave-holding in their histories have been even slower to address the history of racism in science. It was not until 2018 for example, that the University of Pittsburgh stripped Thomas Parrans name from its Graduate School of Public Health. As US Surgeon General from 1938 to 1946, Parran oversaw the infamous Tuskegee biomedical experiment in which treatment for syphilis was withheld from hundreds of Black share-croppers in Alabama who were tricked into participating in the study. He also approved unethical experiments in Guatemala, where female sex workers, prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers were unknowingly infected with syphilis or gonorrhea.

In recent months, as the brutal police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and others sparked unprecedented nationwide protests and support for the Black Lives Matter movement, calls for action to address racist memorialization on campuses haveincreased. In June, after resisting years of pressure, the University of Southern California finally took the name of Rufus von KleinSmida eugenicist who supported forced sterilizationoff the Center for International and Public Affairs building, which had been named for the former university president. At the University of Maine, however, Little Hall still remains named after former university president and eugenicist Clarence Cook Little who supported laws to limit immigration based on race and to prevent mixed-race marriages.

Eugenics is a major thread weaving through scientific racism. Alexander Graham Bell, H.G. Wells and Marie Stopes were all supporters. Francis Galton, the polymath English scientist & statistician coined the term, meaning well-bred,in 1883. Galton advocated the selective breeding of humans to produce a superior race. Eugenics built on Mendelian studies of heredity and Darwinian notions of fitness and extended the principles of plant and animal breeding to humans, with its proponents seeing it as a way to weed out a broad range of undesirable traits including mental and physical disabilities and racial inferiority.

Photo of Sir Francis Galton taken at Alphonse Bertillons Criminal Identification Laboratory in Paris in 1893.

The roots of some statistical techniques lie in the efforts of Galton and other eugenicists to help prove their racial gene theories. Eminent statistician Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher was the founder of the Cambridge University Eugenics Society. Rothamstead Research, the UK agricultural science laboratory where he worked for many years has recently renamed its accommodation block, Fisher Court to AnoVa Court, and the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies retired the R. A. Fisher Award and Lectureship in June 2020 after 56 years. Freshman statistics students at University College of London (UCL) always had their lectures in the Galton Theatre until it was finally stripped of the name in June 2020. However, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge has yet to remove a stained glass window that honors him and has recently been a target of anti-racist activists.

Eugenics was widely embraced in the U.S. scientific and political establishments, and the dean of Harvard Medical school, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was an early promoter of it. Holmes believed Boston Brahminsthe White elite of Bostonto have hereditary and superior bloodlines.

Harvard students, faculty and alumni are now calling for the renaming of the Holmes Society of the universitys medical and dental schools. In 1927, Holmes son, the former Harvard law professor and Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote the courts opinion in Buck v Bell which, with the infamous words, three generations of imbeciles is enough upheld the right of the Commonwealth of Virginia to sterilize a woman regarded as feeble-minded (she wasnt) and opening the floodgates to state laws allowing sterilization.

Charles Davenport created the member-based Eugenics Records Office at Cold Spring Harbor in 1910 and Stanfords David Starr Jordan was the groups first chair. It received funding and institutional support from philanthropist Mrs. E. H. Harrington, John Harvey Kellogg, the Carnegie Institution and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Davenport provided expert testimony for The Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 which used eugenic arguments to restrict immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. By 1931, 28 US states had sterilization laws and by 1936 at least 60,000 forced sterilizations had been performed, mostly on poor Black people. The Carnegie Institution eventually concluded that there was no scientific merit in eugenics and withdrew funding in 1939.

The U.S. eugenics movement helped to provide the intellectual underpinning for Nazi racial theories and sterilization policies. In Germany, Nazis lauded the success of Californias sterilization laws and used them as a model for their own legislation in 1933. Even after the full horror of the Nazi sterilization programs and extermination camps was uncovered, eugenic ideas maintained a grip in the mainstream scientific community. For example Nobel Prize winning geneticists Francis Crick and James Watson both believed that Black people are genetically inferior, and Crick was an advocate of sterilization.

Decades before eugenics took hold in the U.S., scientific racism had already been firmly established and many of its founders are still memorialized on campuses today.

Louis Agassiz, founder of Harvard Universitys Museum of Comparative Zoology (CMZ) and one the first celebrity scientists was a leading polygenist, believing that several human races were createdseparately according to their climate and geography and that the White European race was superior to all others. Agassiz was inspired by the anthropologist Samuel George Morton who used craniologythe measurement of brain capacity in the skullto try to demonstrate that Caucasians were racially superior.

A statue of Louis Agassiz (left) who believed Black people were an inferior race stands above the entrance to a Stanford University hall named after the eugenicist David Starr Jordan. Scientist and abolitionist Alexander von Humboldt (right) argued that there were no biological different races. Photo: Creative Commons/Dicklyon.

Morton collected and measured hundreds of skulls and proposed that there were five biologically distinct races to which he assigned immutable character traits that he derived from, among other things, reading travel literature. Despite being shot through with biases and distortions and lacking any shred of scientific merit, Mortons work was nevertheless widely accepted in the scientific community. It provided credibility for arguments in defense of slavery, segregation, and the dispossession and killing of Native Americans.

A statue of Agassiz has stood for more than 100 years over the entrance to Stanford University Psychology Departments Jordan Hall. The hall itself is named after David Starr Jordan, Stanfords founding president, an ichthyologist and prominent eugenicist. Stanford is currently reviewing a request from faculty and students to remove the statue and change the name of the hall.

In another egregious example of campus memorialization, the honors college building of the University of Alabama is named in honor of one of the most influential scientific racists of the 19th century. Josiah C. Nott was a surgeon, anthropologist, founder of the University of Alabama School of Medicine and a slaveholder.

He was a polygenist, who believed that if Black and White races mixed, it would lead to extinction through degeneration, and thought Black people to be the lowest point in the scale of human beings. In 1854, with the British Egyptologist George Gliddon he published the book Types of Mankind.

It sold three and a half thousand copies in the first four months and ran to ten printings over 17 years. Scientific proof of the inferiority of Black people was just what the slaveholders of the South were looking for. Frederick Douglass in his commencement address at Western Reserve College in 1854 said that of all the efforts to disprove the unity of the human family, and to brand the Negro with natural inferiority, the most compendious and barefaced is the book, entitled Types of Mankind.

Robert A. Smith of Pittsburg State University argues that Types of Mankind fixed the issue of race in the minds of everyday Americans. The concept of race had been isolated, identified, and finally popularized. The mere fact that we consider race to be an issue at all in the twenty-first century is due in no small measure to Nott and Gliddons efforts in the nineteenth. And yet still Notts name remains attached to a building at the University of Alabama (UA).

Nott Hall at the University of Alabama, named to honor Josiah Nott in 1922. Photo: courtesy of Hilary Green.

In her ongoing Hallowed Grounds Project, Dr. Hilary N. Green, a UA historian, highlights a vilely racist and incandescently angry 17-page letter from Nott the greatest living anthropologist of America to O. O. Howard, head of the post-war Freedmans Bureau, that was published in the July 1866 issue of thePopular Magazine of Anthropology. In it, Nott claimed that History proves indisputably, that a superior and inferior race cannot live together practically on any other terms than that of master and slave, and that the inferior race, like the Indians, must be expelled or exterminated. In every climate where the White man can live and prosper, he drives all others before him.

Nott soon joined the ranks of what historian Daniel Sutherland has termed the Confederate Carpetbaggers, who moved to the Northern states seeking to regain their wealth and status. In New York he became president of the New York Obstetrical Society and a close friend of J. Marion Sims, sometimes referred to as the father of gynecology. Sims is known for his experiments on enslaved women without the use of anesthesia. After years of protests, his statue was eventually removed from New Yorks Central Park in 2018. But monuments to Sims still stand on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse and the Alabama state capitol.

History is an ongoing effort to understand the past, and heritage is the range of cultures, traditions, buildings, monuments and objects we inherit and pass on to future generations. Both are dynamic and constantly undergoing interpretation, with heritage demanding choices about what is important, to whom and why. Removing or re-contextualizing a monument, changing the name of a building, or taking a portrait off a wall does not erase history as some have argued, but it can reflect a better understanding of past events and motivations, new societal norms, or the values of local or affected communities. Some say that re-naming structures only facilitates forgetting about the past and that what is needed is an explanatory plaque instead, but why should a BIPOC student be forced to be reminded of Louis Agassiz or John Notts abhorrent views whenever they walk by or enter a particular campus building?

There are many ways to unwrap, interpret, teach and remember the complex histories of science and race in universities without maintaining honors and monuments that were bestowed or created many decades ago, not infrequently to uphold and celebrate a racist worldview or create an implicitly White space on campus. In some cases there may be an opportunity to leave a monument or an artwork and create a powerful new one beside it to catalyze reflection and discussion. Such an approach was tried in 2018 at the University of Kentucky, where Black artist Karyn Olivier was asked to create an artwork in dialogue with a controversial 1934 New Deal era mural in its Memorial Hall. In June, however, the university announced that it will remove the original mural, despite the fact that doing so removes the context for Oliviers responsive work and willsilence a contemporary Black voice.

An anti-racist reassessment of whose stories get told and how, is urgently needed on U.S. campuses. Scientists whose views promoted and legitimized genocide, slavery, segregation, forced sterilization, race-based immigration restrictions and structural inequality should no longer be memorialized.

There are many ways that the scientific community must reckon with the harm it has caused through its history and present complicity in racist actions. Removing names from buildings or busts from hallways wont bring an end to systemic and institutional racism in universities, but it is an essential part of the process. And it cannot wait.

N.B. An excellent reading list of decolonizing science resources has been prepared by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. Kit Mead has a goodeugenics reading list.

USGS/William Henry Jackson

Posted in: Science and Democracy, Uncategorized Tags: Alabama, Black history, Black lives matter, craniology, decolonisation, eugenics, genocide, Harvard, Louis Agassiz, Manifest Destiny, racism, scientific racism, segregation, slavery

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U.S. Universities Must Stop Honoring Racist Scientists of the Past - Union of Concerned Scientists

Its almost impossible for someone from an under-privileged background to reach the elite and acquire a platform. This is the real cancel culture scandal, argues Sam Bright

The Stepford Students, they were labelled by the Spectator magazine in 2014. According to the periodical, once edited by Boris Johnson, leftie university undergraduates and high-minded student unions were rabidly no platforming the people they disagreed with mainly conservatives of various persuasions.

These allegations of McCarthy-style censorship from students and the left, that have punctured politics at regular intervals ever since, are to a large extent hyperbolic.

Its true that right-wing speakers have faced protests on campus and have even been sidelined by the media. The former Breitbart editor and alt-right icon Milo Yiannopoulos, for example, is now a pariah banned from Twitter and unwelcome on campuses on both sides of the Atlantic.

Likewise, Katie Hopkins descent into far-right trolldom has been accompanied by her political marginalisation. Formerly a columnist for The Sun, Hopkins must now be content with lurking around obscure social media platforms, in search of her next xenophobic grift.

The debate involves endless navel-gazing from very prominent people about their own prominence.

Yet it can hardly be argued, from a free speech perspective, that Hopkins and Yiannopoulos have been badly treated. Their views are so incendiary that, when given a platform, they actively obstruct the freedoms of others. Hopkins, for example, once wrote that she would use gunships against migrants crossing the channel to Dover, while Yiannopoulos penned the headline: Would you rather your kids had feminism or cancer?

Others who claim to have been cancelled right-wing commentator Toby Young, for example, who lost a Government job in 2018 after people protested his history of sexism and sympathy towards eugenics have not really been cancelled in any meaningful way. Young has a sizeable Twitter following, writes regularly for prominent publications and recently set up a trade union to ostensibly defend free speech, whose trustees include a number of high-profile journalists and academics.

This juxtaposition was epitomised last week by an online fracas between Guardian columnist Owen Jones and the actor Laurence Fox, who claims to have been cancelled following a BBC Question Time appearance during which he accused Prince Harrys wife Meghan Markle of playing the racism card.

Jones claimed that the term cancel culture is meaningless, since so many allegedly cancelled individuals complain about their apparent ostracism in the countrys leading newspapers. In response, Fox suggested that this is evidence people are now refusing to be cancelled. Whatever that means.

This just serves to demonstrate the absurdity of the debate, not least because it involves endless navel-gazing from very prominent people about their own prominence. And, in the process of engaging in this feud, they invariably increase their own profile, regardless of the stance they take (as Fox himself acknowledges).

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The real cancel culture exists beyond the cocktail party wars of the political establishment. The fact is you have to hold a position of power to be cancelled; positions that are invariably, predominantly, held by people from privileged backgrounds.

Indeed, both Jones and Fox are themselves representative of Britains class system in different ways.

Though Jones was born in Sheffield, brought up in Stockport and didnt have a particularly privileged upbringing, he was educated at Oxford, and began his career as a parliamentary researcher for future Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. Fox, meanwhile, is from a more traditionally elite background. He was born into a theatrical family and was educated at Harrow School one of the countrys top private institutions.

It takes a large amount of privilege to be cancelled. The upper reaches of academia, journalism, politics and business are all dominated by white, privately educated, men. The vast majority of people outside this system, who are unfamiliar with the gowns of Eton and the spires of Oxford, are effectively pre-cancelled. Their opinions cant be shut down, because theyre simply not heard in the first place.

The Stranglehold of Britains Elite

And its not as though our elite industries have a lot of positions on offer. Members of the House of Commons and Lords combined number just under 1,500 (a figure which many say is too high). Mainstream journalism is rapidly shrinking, as the prevailing advertising model slowly disintegrates. And as businesses look to relocate overseas after Brexit, its becoming even more difficult to climb the corporate ladder.

Britains elite is a tightly-knit cabal of former private school kids and heirs to wealth, knowledge and influence. While these elites pontificate over cancel culture, the silenced majority look on in stupefied bewilderment at the bloated sense of entitlement of those who stoke this debate.

Why the likes of Toby Young and Laurence Fox might worry about being cancelled is clear.

Reaping the benefits of an elite education, the patronage of their families (Youngs father was Michael Young, a famous sociologist who helped to write Labours 1945 manifesto) and the entitlement of being white men, they have always been heard; always provided with a platform. Now this seems to be under threat whether largely perceived or not its understandable that they would thrash wildly to preserve their high status.

Unfortunately, however, the rest of us are forced to listen to their identity crisis. The media doesnt have the self-confidence to ignore or critique this largely inane, egocentric conversation. As former BBC journalist Patrick Howse explains in an article for Byline Times this week, our national broadcaster amplifies noise instead of truth and the BBC is hardly alone in this regard.

When someone like Fox kicks off about his loss of social and political status, he immediately creates a conversation about himself that reverberates around newsrooms and broadcasting studios. Political debate then descends into a snooty version of Hello! magazine, whereby fatuous personality battles are given more column inches than, say, why under-privileged families are stuck in a cycle of poverty.

The British (London) establishment has always been infatuated with its own image. Thats why the top private schools and universities wear silly gowns and have exclusive debating societies. But it is a projection; a way to make noise and to be seen.

Its members think they have an innate right to be heard, which is why they are so worried about being cancelled. Its time we stopped listening to their self-interested sermonising and, frankly, talked about something a bit more important.

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Pre-Cancel Culture and the Silenced Majority Byline Times - Byline Times

New York based Irish American writer Peter Quinn is pictured in a file photo. CNS photo/courtesy Don Pollard

A cynical, world-weary, and unmistakably Catholic detective in three novels, Dunne in many ways comes across as an alter ego for Quinn and his coming of age in pre-Vatican II New York.

A younger Dunne first appears in The Hour of the Cat, whose plot involves investigation of a Nazi-inspired eugenics campaign in New York City in the years just prior to the U.S. entry into World War II.

An older, more wizened Dunne shows up again in Dry Bones, a post-World War II story of espionage and U.S. government involvement with ex-Nazi operatives, and a mature Dunne exits the narrative stage in The Man Who Never Returned, an engaging fictional retelling 25 years after the fact of the disappearance of New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Force Crater in 1930.

Incidents of Dunnes Catholic upbringing and his doubt-filled practice of the faith as a private investigator color much of the narrative in the three novels. For example, Quinn presents a reflective Dunne in churches, such as this moment in Dry Bones: Dunne silently repeated the Suscipiat, one of the prayers from the Mass hed mentioned as an altar boy at the Catholic Protectory, a single, tongue-twisting Latin sentence (Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis ). Dunne went to Mass occasionally, to confession when he felt the need, ditto for praying. Hail Marys and Our Fathers mostly. Prayers he didnt remember learning, with words he didnt think about, just repeated. The one prayer that he carefully articulated, that made him feel as though he was actually praying, was the one whose words he didnt understand: Suscipiat.'

Fintan Dunne is a composite of people I grew up with in the Bronx, Quinn told Catholic News Service. Hes got a hard shell but, inside, theres a core of decency and humanity. Hes suspicious of the powerful and wealthy and cant be intimidated. Hes a Catholic whos casual in his practice; while not always on the straight and narrow, he has an acute sense of right and wrong.

Quinn is also author of Banished Children of Eve, an epic-length novel detailing Irish immigrant struggles in the days leading up to the advent of the U.S. Civil War. The story, which won the 1995 American Book Award, is an intriguing history lesson on the construction of New Yorks St. Patricks Cathedral and of the struggles of New Yorks first archbishop, Dagger John Hughes who, Quinn believes, made the New York Irish into a political as well as religious constituency.

This work, which Quinn says helped him to reconsider his attitude toward the Catholic faith in general, reads like a history of the emergence of the Catholic Church in America as a result of the massive immigration of famine Irish in the mid-19th century.

I lifted the title of Banished Children of Eve from the Salve Regina, a favorite prayer that Ive said since I was a child, Quinn said. For me, it expresses the human feeling of exile (mourning and weeping in this vale of tears) as well as the hunger for return (turn again thine eyes of mercy toward us). The characters from the book are Anglo American, African American and Irish. Theyve all been expelled from one garden or another and seek to find a place where they feel they belong.

Quinn, however, believes The Man Who Never Returned is probably his most Catholic in terms of its allusions to striving, suffering and redemption in a fallen world.

Each chapter features a quote from The Divine Comedy, a book Ive gone back to many times since I first read it in college, Quinn explained. The story opens with Fintan Dunne, the protagonist of all three mysteries, finding himself in the middle of lifes journey, I woke to find myself lost in a dark wood away from the straight path.'

In Dunnes case, the dark wood is a New York department store, where he finds himself feeling outdated and past his prime. As he becomes involved in tackling a baffling, unsolved case, he passes through his own version of hell, purgatory and paradise. His journey is the real story, not that of the vanished jurist, a case Quinn deliberately leaves unsolved.

Prior to becoming a full-time fiction writer in 2008, Quinn worked at as a speechwriter and corporate editorial director for Time Warner. He earned a bachelors degree from Manhattan College in 1969 and a masters in history from Fordham University in 1974.

Quinns response to the essential question in this writer series a Catholic writer or a writer who happens to be Catholic? is both unique and revealing.

I dont happen to be Catholic. I choose to be. And I dont happen to be a novelist. I choose to be. Both come with their tribulations and triumphs, and at times, theres the temptation to walk away. But I stay because, at the deepest level, these identities define my sense of self. That said, I dont consciously write, defend or advance church precepts or presumptions. Im a novelist, not a philosopher. I write about people who are confused and compromised in all sorts of ways.

By way of elaboration, Quinn offers the metaphor of God the creator as the primordial writer. He brings these characters (us) into life and endows them (us) with free will, Quinn said. At times, I want to warn my characters away from certain choices and decisions, but I cant force them to do what they dont want to do. Doesnt God face the same dilemma? If I try to make a character do something not true to who he/she is, the writing becomes forced and false. I believe in original sin and grace and redemption. I dont ask my character to embody my beliefs. I ask them to be believable and real.

Quinns home parish growing up was St. Raymonds in the Bronx, where he was influenced by a young curate, Father John Flynn. Quinn cites the influence of Father Flynn as a key not only to his writing, but also to his maintaining any contact with the Catholic Church.

The example and memory of Father Flynn are one of the reasons Im still a Catholic, Quinn said. His heroic service to the marginalized is a reminder of what it means to live out the essential message of the Gospel.

He has also attended at Sacred Heart Parish in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and St. Joseph of the Holy Family in Harlem.

Quinn continues to pursue Catholic writing projects, both as a journalist and as a writer of fiction.

Ive been working on a new book for six years, give or take a year or so, he told CNS in November. The title is Eat the Moon, from Yeats poem Brown Penny. Its a race to see which will be finished first me or the novel.

Mastromatteo is a Toronto-based writer and editor.

Tags: Banished Children of Eve, Catholic writer, Dagger, Dry Bones, Irish American writer, Peter Quinn, Salve Regina, Suscipiat, The Divine Comedy, The Hour of the Cat, The Man Who Never Returned

Category: U.S. & World News

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Novelist cites Bronx priest's influence on his writing, Catholic faith - The Catholic Spirit

Many thanks to the writers of the extremely informative Why They Had to Go: Statement on The Fall of The Pioneer Statues (EW, 6/25). I moved to the Eugene area in 2013 from out of state, and like most Americans had been taught the white-washed (pun intended) version of hard-working pioneers settling the Western territories.

I did not know the 1919 dedication ceremony for The Pioneer had extolled the conquest of the Anglo-Saxon race over savage Indians in the context of the eugenics movement. Only after moving here did I learn of Oregons laws designed to keep Black and Brown people out and not mixing with Whites.

The continuing resistance to taking the statues off their pedestals and plainly explaining their racist significance speaks volumes. As Black Lives Matter activists keep reminding us, we have a long way to go in dismantling this countrys institutionalized racism. Its time to buck up for the long haul.

Leigh Rieder

Creswell

Original post:

We Have A Long Road Ahead - Eugene Weekly

USCs School of Cinematic Arts will remove an exhibit dedicated to John Wayne after students called for its removal last year because of racist comments the late actor made in a 1971 Playboy magazine interview,the school announced Friday.

Citing a push to promote anti-racist cultural values, Evan Hughes, the assistant dean of diversity and inclusion, announced the change in a letter to the schools community.

Conversations about systemic racism in our cultural institutions along with the recent global, civil uprising by the Black Lives Matter Movement require that we consider the role our school can play as a change maker in promoting antiracist cultural values and experiences, Hughes said in the statement. Therefore, it has been decided that the Wayne Exhibit will be removed.

In December, the school said it would not remove the exhibit and instead create a space exploring the American West,according the Daily Trojan.A few months before,students protested the Wayne exhibit,stating that by keeping it, the school was endorsing white supremacy.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.

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John Wayne exhibit to be removed by USC after student protests over actors racist comments - KTLA

Indiana University can rename a portion of Jordan Avenue without getting permission from the city of Bloomington. The university is not planning to do that at this time, but the road and other things named after IUs seventh president are being reviewed.

The formation of a committee to review all things named after David Starr Jordan on IUs Bloomington campus was announced last week. The announcement came after more than 70 members of the biology department signed a letter calling for Jordan Hall to be renamed. The letter cites Jordans extensive advocacy for eugenics as the reason. Eugenics is the practice of selective breeding of humans, often carried out through forced sterilization.

An IU news release announcing the formation of a six-member committee included a list of things named after Jordan that would be reviewed. Along with Jordan Hall, the list included the Jordan River, the Jordan Parking Garage and Jordan Avenue.

The road runs through IUs Bloomington campus and part of the city of Bloomington. The dividing line is 13th Street, said Adam Wason, director of public works for the city. The university owns and maintains everything north of that line, while the city owns and maintains everything to the south, he said.

The universitys section of the road also includes a piece commonly referred to as the Jordan extension. This piece runs between Fee Lane to 17th Street, but it does not align with Jordan Avenue south of 17th Street. The two intersections are about 400 feet apart.

It will be at least a few months before a decision is made about whether to rename IUs portion of the road. The university committee is expected to deliver a report to IUs president, the Bloomington provost and the university naming committee by Sept. 1.

Were just dealing with this step right now, said Chuck Carney, university spokesman.

While its possible the city and university could disagree about a name change, it seems the two entities will work together.

We are collaborating with IU on this issue. We appreciate the thought thats going into the process and agree that the name and perhaps others should be reviewed, said Yal Ksander, spokeswoman for the mayors office, in an email.

The last time a road was renamed in Bloomington was in 2019. North Range Road at the site of the new IU Health Bloomington hospital is now East Discovery Parkway.

Changing the name of a road is a lengthy process, Wason said. It requires the approval of an address committee as well as the board of public works. Residents and businesses must be informed of the change. The city utilities department, U.S. Post Office and emergency services must be informed as well.

Changing the name of a road can also cost businesses money, Wason said. Those expenses can come from changes to letterhead, signs, advertisements and anything else that has a business old address.

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IU can rename Jordan Avenue, at least part of it - Times-Mail

News on climate in the time of coronavirusSubscribe today

Nature has been showing up in places you never expected. Dinosaurs roaming Times Square? A bunch of Lime scooters abandoned in a lake? According to the internet, the appropriate response to these situations is Nature is healing.

The memes started in earnestness. As the coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip on our lives earlier this year, people were suddenly stuck in their homes. With fewer cars on the move, streets were eerily quiet, and city dwellers started hearing birdsong. This lockdown period, now dubbed the Anthropause, temporarily improved air pollution around the world. Seismologists said that the absence of traffic quieted the Earths upper crust. Even carbon dioxide emissions took an unexpected dip. People latched onto reports of wild boars taking to the medians of Barcelona, goats commandeering the streets of a Welsh town, and a thousand monkeys brawling in a formerly touristy city in Thailand.

Its one of the COVID memes for sure, said Gretchen McCulloch, an internet linguist and the author of the bestselling book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. I think it pretty quickly became this sort of parody version of itself.

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Some stories in this genre were fake. Dolphins, for example, did not return to the canals of Venice. Elephants never passed out drunk from drinking too much corn wine in the tea garden of a Chinese village.

These images were often captioned nature is healing, we are the virus. That rings of environmentalisms dark side. The idea that human suffering is good for the planet is reminiscent of whats been called ecofascism, or using oppression for purposes like climate action or conservation. In the 20th century, conservationists used this logic to justify eugenics and anti-immigration policies.

The earliest known nature is healing meme pushed back on this rhetoric with irony. On March 26, Ronnie Becker, a student in Minneapolis, shared an image of rideshare scooters submerged in a lake. She posted it because she was annoyed by the spread of we are the virus, and also happened to hate the scooter-share business, she told BuzzFeed News.

It went viral, and suddenly everyone and your grandma was using nature is healing to explain the abundance of squirrels in their local park. It became a stock phrase that got repeated in different contexts, from commentary on city living to pop culture references. McCulloch compared the meme to the comic-strip-style image where a dog sips its coffee inside a room engulfed in flames, saying This is fine. It tends to be used in situations where things clearly arent fine rather, theyve gotten so bad that your brain turns off, unable to grapple with the reality youre facing.

Nature is healing is a way of injecting a little levity into the situation. People are stuck at home, bored, and trying to find some ironic optimism in this objectively pretty terrible situation, McCulloch said.

Los Angeles saw clearer skies and improved air quality in mid-April. David McNew / Getty Images

Perhaps the proliferation of fake stories about nature rebounding was also a way of finding hope while dealing with a pandemic that arrived during a slow-burning ecological crisis. (People got very upset at the fact-checkers, after all.)

I was really, really touched by the fact that people wanted so much for there to be dolphins in the canals in Venice, said Alan Weisman, the author of The World Without Us. The book, a bestseller from 2007, imagines how the natural world would take over what weve built, pulling down bridges and submerging cities, if humans disappeared one day with a snap. Say a Homo sapiens-specific virus natural or diabolically nano-engineered picks us off but leaves everything else intact, Weisman mused in the book.

As governments ordered people indoors this spring, Weisman started getting a lot of emails. People were telling him about bird songs, animal sightings, and empty streets. So much of these communications were wistful, he said. It was like, Wow, isnt this lovely? He says that people are desperate for a connection to the outdoors, and some respite from the sounds of the city. Its like we have some genetic memory of how nature once was before we started to trash it or maul it, he said. And something in us just misses it so much.

Then he started getting a barrage of press requests asking him to talk about his book coming to life, first from news outlets in Italy, and later Spain, Taiwan, Argentina, and more. It wasnt that I had the realization, This looks like The World Without Us, but everyone was telling me, Weisman said. He lives in a small town in rural New England, surrounded by forests and sheep farmers. Nothing really has changed much here, he said.

As lockdowns gradually lift, bumper-to-bumper traffic and carbon emissions are rebounding. Chinas air pollution has overshot pre-pandemic levels, with other countries soon to follow. But it looks like even as smoggy skies return, the nature is healing memes are sticking around.

Im glad that people are finding ways to keep laughing, Weisman said, because laughter is really one of the most healing things that human beings know how to do.

The way that humanity tackles this pandemic parallels how it might fight climate change. Sign up for our semi-weekly newsletter,Climate in the Time of Coronavirus.

Originally posted here:

Is nature all healed now? A look at the pandemic's best meme. - Grist

In this time of national reckoning, a grassroots movement of scientists and academics is asking their colleagues to solve problems beyond their research: the scientific communitys own issues with racial discrimination and bias.

Scrolling through social media posts tagged #BlackInTheIvory illuminates just some of the experiences Black students, professors and researchers have encountered and what the community must face as they seek lasting change.

A Black professor said someone reported him to the police while he was wearing a medical white coat walking to a friends house. Black students have been told to switch majors because advisors assumed they didnt have the right backgrounds. Then there are the constant encounters with positive references to eugenicists and white supremacists.

There need to be consequences for actions that create a hostile atmosphere for Black people and people of color in academia, said Emma Bonglack, a Ph.D candidate in pharmacology at Duke.

The results are two national movements known as #ShutDownSTEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and #StrikeForBlackLives, and scientists in the Triangle are lending their voices to the cause.

For many of the groups participating in the Triangle, this includes looking at how they recruit students and faculty. Black workers remain underrepresented in nearly all STEM job sectors, according to the National Science Foundation.

The scientific research community is not only about the science, is not only about the data, is not only about the questions that we ask, its also very much about the people who are conducting that work, said Johnna Frierson, assistant dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Diversity and Inclusion at the Duke University School of Medicine.

Calls to action

Just like there have been protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, Triangle universities have organized marches, times of reflection and calls to action.

Duke Health had a march against racism on June 10. On June 16, Duke held a university-wide virtual symposium on Living While Black, with experts providing context to the national movement as well as students and staff sharing their personal experiences at Duke.

Dukes School of Medicine and Pratt School of Engineering encouraged faculty, staff and students to participate in #ShutDownSTEM on June 10. Organizers said the goal was for the reflection and education from that day to lead to lasting changes in how science and academia address racism against Black people.

Systemic racism involves all walks of life, we cant not be involved, said Christopher Newgard, director of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute.

In the School of Medicine, Frierson said graduate students expressed a strong interest in the movement, and the administration worked to amplify those voices.

In both the medical and engineering schools, there was active discussion with students and staff. Newgard said they are collecting materials to help educate people and to brainstorm future action.

In the short term, Newgard said Duke could enhance its collaboration with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in research and training. HBCUs, like NC Central, are responsible for educating a significant portion of Black scientists and engineers, especially relative to the size of these institutions.

Bringing ideas to action

At UNC, NC State, and NC Central, participation primarily took place in departments and research groups.

Diane Markoff is a physics professor at North Carolina Central University. As a white professor at a historically Black university, Markoff said she felt like she should participate because its important for her students. She thinks all institutions need to consider the environment they establish for Black scientists.

Theres a stereotype that were so involved in the science that nothing else matters, Markoff said.

As part of Markoffs particle physics research, her NCCU students routinely travel to other universities and labs for collaborative projects.

The HBCU is a comfortable environment for our students, Markoff said. It should be a comfortable environment at a predominantly white institution, too.

Bonglack hopes the day of #ShutDownSTEM is a turning point for the scientific community. By equipping future leaders in science and engineering with the tools to address racism, Bonglack said, they should be able to break the cycle.

That starts with more accountability for racist behavior. Students in her department have asked mentors to create detailed plans to address disputes related to racism in their research groups.

They also want the curriculum to both better reflect the history of racism in science and to highlight the contributions of Black scientists and other scientists of color, whose work has often been marginalized.

Claire Gordy, a professor in biological sciences at NC State, said her department is exploring the policies regarding hiring committees to make them more equitable. They are also planning to formalize new professional development expectations for faculty and staff about diversity and inclusion, beyond the NCSUs new training module.

Gordy said there has been a failure to recruit or retain minoritized or marginalized faculty.

Thats not specific to us, thats almost everywhere, Gordy said.

Frierson said the Duke School of Medicine wants to evaluate its interview practices to ensure everyone is treated fairly, in addition to ensuring it reaches out to a diverse applicant pool.

Ultimately, Frierson said, it comes down to making sure the school is a welcoming environment.

You cant expect to recruit a talented, vibrant, diverse community if the community that currently exists isnt optimal for the people already there, she said.

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Not just about the data: Scientists seek to address racial bias in the lab and classroom - Daily Record-News

This gay man is certainly not #mask4mask.

Giancarlo Albanese, the unapologetic man who flocked to Fire Island Pines last weekend and posted a photo of a large, maskless all-male rave he attended with the caption Fk your mask Fk your vaccine has reportedly been booted from his parents house over his failure to keep it socially distant.

Queerty reports that a man who claims to be Albaneses brother responded to that Instagram upload, which itself drew a number of inflammatory comments from Instagram users, telling him to scram.

Find a new home because youre not welcome at the one you currently live at, he wrote. Complete disrespect for [Mom] and Dads lives, both who are very weak. Mom has Chemo on Friday and youre out doing this st? Go live off on your own and not under your [parents] roof and you can do whatever you want.

The user, whose screen name is toffmcsoft and who keeps his profile set to private, alleged that their father underwent heart surgery last year and continues to recover. Both immunocompromised parents, he claimed, are over 70 and added, Ill be standing at the door. [Giancarlos] not walking through it.

Albanese also posted the photo to Twitter on July 5 with the same caption that continues, Fk your eugenics. Kiss my ae if you think [Im] an a.

News of his eviction began spreading on Twitter. On July 5, journalist Serena Daniari tweeted to her 15,000-plus followers, Sis is homeless now because he thought it would be cute to party in Fire Island in the middle of a pandemic and put his parents at risk, ending it with a clown-face emoji.

In a nearly 14-minute video rant posted Wednesday to his Instagram profile, Albanese an admitted conspiracy theorist wouldnt apologize for his actions. The clip makes no mention of his eviction, but he says he has nothing to be sorry about, and the same goes for the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who went out to celebrate July 4 last week.

The world has been consumed by mass hysteria and paranoia on an unprecedented scale right now, he says, adding that he refuses to fall for it. Were not going to fall for the lab-made virus, were not going to fall for the mass-media marketing campaign thats been going on because its all bullst, every single ounce of it.

It also appears, based on his posts last weekend, that social media users tried trolling him by finding his social and professional connections to play tattletale.

You guys need to grow up, he said. You honestly need to grow up.

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Man kicked out of sick parents house after partying on Fire Island amid COVID-19 - New York Post