Scientists move to strip offensive names from journals, prizes, and more

[C C]

Alter Ego: No matter which direction this purge is evaluated from -- that science sedately tolerated "white supremacism" for years (i.e., mere racism has now become an inadequate pejorative) or that this current reaction is irrational hysteria via reaching a tipping point in the personal emotional states of scientists -- it exposes how vulnerable science's supposed objectivity, aloofness from passion, and lack of motivated conclusion-making is to surrounding social beliefs, conspiracies, and popular memes preferentially used for interpretation of situations. From this point on it would be astoundingly hypocritical to focus only on science's contentious relationship with religion while ignoring all the other invented ideologies, sentiments, trendy movements, faiths of the arts, and business/funding associations that it excuses from critical examination and allows to bonk it in the butt.

Amid protests against racism, scientists move to strip offensive names from journals, prizes, and more
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/...prizes-and

EXCERPT: . . . Kory Evans, a marine biologist at Rice University, says, “Dismantling white supremacism in science has taken on a new urgency” amid the broader reckoning ignited by the killing of George Floyd, the Black man suffocated by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May. The buildings, journals, prizes, and organism names that have come under scrutiny “lionize figures … who specifically took actions to undermine the humanity of people of color … [and] who laid the academic foundation for actual discrimination, sterilization, and genocide,” says Brandon Ogbunu, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University. (MORE - details)

[stryder]

Alter Ego: No matter which direction this purge is evaluated from -- that science sedately tolerated "white supremacism" for years (i.e., mere racism has now become an inadequate pejorative) or that this current reaction is irrational hysteria via reaching a tipping point in the personal emotional states of scientists -- it exposes how vulnerable science's supposed objectivity, aloofness from passion, and lack of motivated conclusion-making is to surrounding social beliefs, conspiracies, and popular memes preferentially used for interpretation of situations. From this point on it would be astoundingly hypocritical to focus only on science's contentious relationship with religion while ignoring all the other invented ideologies, sentiments, trendy movements, faiths of the arts, and business/funding associations that it excuses from critical examination and allows to bonk it in the butt.

Amid protests against racism, scientists move to strip offensive names from journals, prizes, and more
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/...prizes-and

EXCERPT: . . . Kory Evans, a marine biologist at Rice University, says, “Dismantling white supremacism in science has taken on a new urgency” amid the broader reckoning ignited by the killing of George Floyd, the Black man suffocated by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May. The buildings, journals, prizes, and organism names that have come under scrutiny “lionize figures … who specifically took actions to undermine the humanity of people of color … [and] who laid the academic foundation for actual discrimination, sterilization, and genocide,” says Brandon Ogbunu, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University. (MORE - details)

Science itself is based upon Nature and the Consensus. Nature in the sense that results can be observed, the consensus in the sense of those results being replicated many times to make sure that it's absolutely true. Science therefore isn't personalised, it's not one persons view point shaped by one belief system, so if you have someone that add's to science but is a racist it doesn't mean the whole of science should suffer.

It's also known that science has had it's fair hand of charlatans and corner cutters that have exploited ways to get results for all the wrong reasons (e.g. Body snatching for the medical industry, inhumane experimentation during the second world war where even to this day some "results" are still used when ethically they shouldn't be.). Again that's not sciences fault, it's actually down to the archetypes of people that mingle within the science crowd itself and they are unfortunately everywhere in every walk of life. (Sociopaths)

In regards to the arts take of things, I guess a remake of "My Fair Lady" is out of the question (Other than "Pretty Woman"). Why do I mention it? Well again it's about a couple of gentlemen (from an old boys club) making a bet in the pursuit of (soft)science where their own perception of what they believe to be true is put to the test.

[Zinjanthropos]

Have they gone after chess? Do they need to change the game piece colours because it is black vs white? I once played against a real good player who used the Paleface Attack on me, or so she said. It was part of an Indian Game, whatever that is. Time to ban this pastime? Force a colour and terminology change? What if the Russians say ‘Nyet’ to change, would it be hypocritical to play against them?

I accept that language evolves but I thought it was a gradual thing. I guess all it must take is one generation to rewrite the dictionary and forget history.

[Yazata]

Have they gone after chess?

Yes.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/492939-abc-ches...australia/

[Zinjanthropos]

Have they gone after chess?

Yes.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/492939-abc-ches...australia/

WOW!    Thanks for that Yaz.

Are the New Zealand All Blacks next on the list?

or was Jesus white? https://www.google.com/search?q=was+chri...e&ie=UTF-8

[Yazata]

Alter Ego: No matter which direction this purge is evaluated from... it exposes how vulnerable science's supposed objectivity, aloofness from passion, and lack of motivated conclusion-making is to surrounding social beliefs, conspiracies, and popular memes preferentially used for interpretation of situations.

Quite frankly, I'm growing far more skeptical about higher education and academia in general. When freedom of speech disappears, and when professorial hiring, promotions and tenure become contingent on holding approved views, should we really be surprised that the majority of academics hold the approved views? Should the general public pay much heed to what the professors profess?

The social "sciences" (an oxymoron) and most of the humanities are the worst. So far, the natural sciences have been more resistant to the rot. But sadly as CC's OP indicates, that's changing.

Watching Boca Chica has influenced me. A welder probably has more technical knowledge and skill than just about any sociology professor, but who has all the social prestige (to say nothing of the PhD?) So I find myself less and less moved by university degrees and academic appointments. I give plumbers as much respect as PhDs and I sense that I'm far from alone.

And as higher education and scholarship become more and more politicized, it's only going to exacerbate the public's growing estrangement. And that's going to come back and bite them in the ass when that same public is asked to support higher education with their tax dollars. (I have to admit to some Schadenfreude when I see coronavirus shutting down universities and all the sudden concern for what their future is going to be.)

Part of the problem is that the phrase "academic freedom" means two different things, one to professors and the other to the public.

A. To the public, 'academic freedom' means Free Speech, the right to say things that others might not want said, the right to challenge established ideas... the right to disagree. The right to follow the search for truth wherever it leads.

B. To the professors, 'academic freedom' means Professorial Power, professors being free to do whatever they want to do, even if it's to establish a little totalitarian state in the university. To the professors it's all about their own working conditions, their own power vis-a-vis the administration and whoever is expected to fund their university, and it's all about issues like tenure.