We recognize that scientists from any nation, from any race, from any scientific discipline, and from any religion, have contributed greatly to the progress of human civilization. But there are also many scientists who turn out to use their knowledge for negative purposes. Especially to achieve personal and group ambitions. And in the end it will give birth to mental superiority and racism towards other parties.
So keep being critical, careful and selective when you get “scientific knowledge”. Even though the person who delivered was an academic with a series of titles attached to his name. Including the “heavenly knowledge” that we get from religious leaders, regarding religion the guidelines are simple that, “there is no God who teaches racism to humans, there has never been a prophet who set an example for being racist, and there is nothing written in the holy book of any religion that educating his people to be racist. There is only WRONG IN INTERPRETING the teachings of his religion, or deliberately distorting and playing with the teachings of his own religion.”
Be more careful if the “scientific knowledge” comes from a politician, the interests of the party and its group are usually always behind it. Doing a lot of comparative studies is one effective way to get more objective conclusions.
The following are examples of some “scientific sciences”, which were once believed by some circles, and were even used as references. In fact, it is “science” which is voiced full of racist nuances that actually makes minorities cornered, not even considered as human beings.
Bell curve theory:
Human intelligence has always been of interest to scientists. One of the most popular and controversial is the bell curve theory of Sir Francis Galton. According to the theory presented in 1869 in a work entitled Hereditary Genius, human intelligence can be measured and expressed in a graph shaped like a bell curve.
In his work, there is a passage where Galton tries to rank intelligence based on the race and ethnicity of a group. In this case, people of African blood intelligence two levels lower than Europeans. While people with Aboriginal race from Australia are at the lowest level. Galton at that time was a very influential person in science. However, his research on intelligence based on race is getting easier to refute along with the development of modern science.
Alfred Ploetz’s Theory of Race Cleansing:
Back in the early 20th century, a scientist whose title was Eugenics named Alfred Ploetz was a popular and influential person. Eugenics is a social philosopher whose aim is to improve the human race by eliminating diseased and disabled people and multiplying healthy individuals.
Terrible title isn’t it? Right. It was this scientist who helped the Nazis take control of Germany with the lure of a race-based state. Hitler also gave him the prestigious title of “professor”. This is where the idea of exterminating millions of Jews, Slovaks and Romans came from.
One of his books, entitled “The Efficiency of our Race and the Protection of the Weak”, Ploetz advocated the idea that the Aryan race was the most superior race on Earth. He also said that if there was a cross between races with other races, there would be a decline in the quality of society. This led to the killing of children with disabilities and the prohibition of interracial relations.
Beauty ideas that have become the standard to this day:
George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French aristocrat who lived in the 18th century. He is credited with introducing the word “race” for the first time, and the first to develop the theory of the human race long before Charles Darwin. The problem is, his idea of race is considered very racist.
In his work, the Nordic race is the ‘genuine’ human. People who have black skin are the result of adaptation to hotter weather or climates. He argues that if a person moves to a cooler place, his skin will be lighter, which is something that is disputed in the modern era.
His most controversial idea in the modern era is the hierarchy of the human race which is determined by beauty. The idea of beauty itself emerged from him, where beauty was still Europe-centric which refers to Greek mythology. Buffon also popularized the word “Caucasian” for white people who he called the race with the most beautiful women in the world. It is ingrained to this day. Unknowingly, he makes women from non-white races inferior to white beauty.
The scale theory of living things from Sir William Petty:
An English scientist named Sir William Petty who was popular in the 17th century, wrote a scientific work that tried to examine racism “scientific”. He had the idea that some race is not only distinguished by physical differences, but also behavior and intelligence.
In his work entitled The Scale of Creatures, Petty mentions that all living things created by God exist in a hierarchical pyramid. The Caucasians were at the very top, and at the bottom were tiny worm-like creatures.
In the pyramid, the human race is ordered from the highest to the lowest, which is after the Caucasians are the middle Europeans, to the lowest are the blacks on the west coast of Africa or better known as the Khoikhoi or Guineans. Even the lowest human race Petty referred to as ‘the soul most similar to a monster,’ and closest to an ape. This theory was used as a justification for enslaving black people in that era.
Drapetomania:
In the 19th century, an American scientist named Samuel A. Cartwright made a theory called ‘Drapetomania’. Drapetomania refers to a mental condition that causes slaves to run away from their masters. Cartwright had the view that black people were obedient when ordered by white masters, and if they ran, it meant that they were mentally ill.
Cartwright argued that this could have been prevented by the attention, kindness, and humane treatment of the slave. Worse, this ‘pretentious’ scientific thing is something that cannot be proven scientifically. With the capital to say that the brain structure of black people is different, this is immediately used as a justification to think that runaway slaves are crazy slaves. Worse yet, the way to cure this madness was to ‘take out the demon from within the slave,’ by beating him.
Black people are ‘white people with skin diseases:
Although there have been many studies that say that black skin appears due to environmental factors, some scientists say that it occurs because of disease.
One theory emerged from Benjamin Rush, who was one of the founders of the United States of America. It was he who mentioned the word “Negroidism” or ‘negroism’ which refers to the condition of the skin that is attacked by disease so that the skin turns black. According to him, this is a type of leprosy that is benign and passed on to their offspring.
As evidence of this strange theory, Rush gave the example of a slave named Henry Moss, who periodically turned white in certain areas. This is widely believed until finally modern science refutes it outright. What Rush exemplified is the case of Vitiligo. Vitiligo is a common skin condition that results from loss of pigmentation on the skin. This causes a white color in certain areas of the skin, especially on the backs of the hands, face, and armpits. The disease is not fatal and cannot be cured, but some skin color on the face and neck may return.
Japanese scientists use research to promote racist ideas:
In 2011, an evolutionary psychologist named Satoshi Kanazawa, shocked the world after posting an article on the Psychology Today website. The article, which was taken down from the well-known website, stated that black women were far less attractive than Asians and Native Americans (Indians).
Kanazawa based his theory through research which states that black people have an average attractiveness score of 3.5 out of 5, while other races have an average value of 3.7. From this research that is considered scientific, the psychologist says that black people are objectively unattractive. This is called by Kanazawa caused by the African race whose women have higher testosterone levels and are more masculine. Kanazawa himself is a controversial scientist who quite often discredits women and certain religions.
excerpted from: merdeka daily web
https://medium.com/subscribe/@gofindtalent
No comments:
Post a Comment