4 ms·

For those (like me) who haven't heard of the scientist at the heart of the offending article, have a read of https://www.theguardian.com/science/2001/feb/17/boo

by ljf 5y ago

For those (like me) who haven't heard of the scientist at the heart of the offending article, have a read of https://www.theguardian.com/science/2001/feb/17/books.guardianreview57 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2001/feb/17/books.guardi... This goes into some of the original accusations of racism he received in the 70s and the background behind them. Quote: They accused Wilson of sending human nature back to the concentration camps. Wilson isn’t a determinist who believes that life is purely mechanistic, and he isn’t right-wing - he remains a Democrat and fears the environmental worst from the George Bush presidency. Although Wilson argued that homosexuality might have a genetic element, he also argued that it was therefore natural and should be tolerated. But Gould was good-humoured and discursive, taking an apparently compassionate view of human nature, and Lewontin, a population geneticist who could show that racial differences are genetically tiny, added credence to charges of racism, even though Wilson hadn’t brought the subject up. Did he think that his opponents were themselves guilty of prejudice? “They were, although they never admitted it,” Wilson says slowly, reaching for the words. “I came from the Old South, I was raised as a racist. I mean, we all were. It was only in my teens that I began to change. But here, if you were called racist - well, in the 70s it was like a death sentence.”

helmholtz 5y ago
Lovely article and perhaps the first one that people new to Wilson's work, like me, should read. Having read it, I can't say that I came away thinking Wilson was racist, at all. If anything, it inspires me to try to be less emotionally charged when dealing with emotionally charged issues.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  Twitter, nor apparently SciAm, is suited to dealing with nuanced, multifaceted issues. Because invariably, people in the business of replying to short snippets with short snippets, will summarize someone's lengthy work in a short snippet. And on the basis of reading that summarization alone, someone will have an opinion (and possibly even a reasonable opinion, with no other context available), and then you're into the problem of (1) convincing someone to change their public opinion & (2) arguing from different viewpoints (if one has read the entire work & the other has not but won't admit to not having done so).
ZeroGravitas 5y ago
- jevgeni 5y ago
  "I haven't read Dr. Zhivago, but I feel obligated to condemn"
- 317070 5y ago
  > Old white man raised in the American South makes me think he's likely to have a bunch of racist attitudes. So, he is likely racist because he was born in a certain place and time. Doesn't that notion itself seem racist? Yes, he might have been. But it is not kind to say someone was "maybe bad" (everybody is "maybe bad" after all), without stronger grounds to stand on.
- zpeti 5y ago
  >Old white man raised in the American South makes me think he's likely to have a bunch of racist attitudes, and that those might leak into his science. Judging people based on their place of birth and skin colour... I feel like there's a word for that...
  - rajup 5y ago
    > Judging people based on their place of birth and skin colour... I feel like there's a word for that... Only if you're not the right color ;)
    - hoseja 5y ago
      As the other reply helpfully demonstrated.
  - gizmo 5y ago
    Yes, that's called "prejudice" and not the word you're thinking of.
    - DarkWiiPlayer 5y ago
littlestymaar 5y ago
> But here, if you were called racist - well, in the 70s it was like a death sentence.” I find this argument really hard to buy because at the same time someone like Richard Lynn had a successful career despite being openly racist (talking about “caucasoids” vs “negroids” (or is it “congoids”? I'm not sure)
- oneoff786 5y ago
  I would also be interested in hearing more on that. It doesn’t pass the smell test to me. Unless perhaps the bar for being perceived as racist in the 70s meant you were a literal klansman.

by ljf 5y ago

helmholtz 5y ago

Lovely article and perhaps the first one that people new to Wilson's work, like me, should read. Having read it, I can't say that I came away thinking Wilson was racist, at all. If anything, it inspires me to try to be less emotionally charged when dealing with emotionally charged issues.

ethbr0 5y ago
Twitter, nor apparently SciAm, is suited to dealing with nuanced, multifaceted issues. Because invariably, people in the business of replying to short snippets with short snippets, will summarize someone's lengthy work in a short snippet. And on the basis of reading that summarization alone, someone will have an opinion (and possibly even a reasonable opinion, with no other context available), and then you're into the problem of (1) convincing someone to change their public opinion & (2) arguing from different viewpoints (if one has read the entire work & the other has not but won't admit to not having done so).

ZeroGravitas 5y ago

jevgeni 5y ago
"I haven't read Dr. Zhivago, but I feel obligated to condemn"
317070 5y ago
> Old white man raised in the American South makes me think he's likely to have a bunch of racist attitudes. So, he is likely racist because he was born in a certain place and time. Doesn't that notion itself seem racist? Yes, he might have been. But it is not kind to say someone was "maybe bad" (everybody is "maybe bad" after all), without stronger grounds to stand on.
zpeti 5y ago
>Old white man raised in the American South makes me think he's likely to have a bunch of racist attitudes, and that those might leak into his science. Judging people based on their place of birth and skin colour... I feel like there's a word for that...
- rajup 5y ago
  > Judging people based on their place of birth and skin colour... I feel like there's a word for that... Only if you're not the right color ;)
  - hoseja 5y ago
    As the other reply helpfully demonstrated.
- gizmo 5y ago
  Yes, that's called "prejudice" and not the word you're thinking of.
  - DarkWiiPlayer 5y ago

littlestymaar 5y ago

> But here, if you were called racist - well, in the 70s it was like a death sentence.” I find this argument really hard to buy because at the same time someone like Richard Lynn had a successful career despite being openly racist (talking about “caucasoids” vs “negroids” (or is it “congoids”? I'm not sure)

oneoff786 5y ago
I would also be interested in hearing more on that. It doesn’t pass the smell test to me. Unless perhaps the bar for being perceived as racist in the 70s meant you were a literal klansman.