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Re: Race, Science, & Political Correctness
Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
29 Nov 1996 14:02:15 -0700
In article <57afkl$obc@pelican.unf.edu>,
Ron Kephart <rkephart@osprey.unf.edu> wrote:
>The rejection of 18th century taxonomies of humans "races" has nothing
>to do with "political correctness." It is a result of the refinement
>of our knowledge about how life forms, human and otherwise, change thru
>time and also vary over geographical space. This is what science is
>supposed to do for us: help us refine our analytic models of the
>universe.
Well said.
>For the record, the phrase "political correctness" is tossed around
>mostly by right-wingers who use it defelect attention away from the
>discussion of important issues, such as "race", ethnicity, gender,
>sexual preference, and the like. Anything that upsets their world
>view is labeled "politically correct." This is very unfortunate,
>because it gets in the way of our work, part of which is to educate
>people about these issues from an anthropological perspective.
Absolutely. Just wanted to add that left-wing blinders are equally
destructive. Marxist anthropologists, post modernists, et al., are as
anti-science as creationists and race typologists, and are more
influential in the academy than the Herrnsteins and Jensons.
>Ron Kephart
>University of North Florida
Bryant Furlow,
University of New Mexico
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