learntoquestion ltq discussions

Originally posted by F@mousSu@ve on October 21, 2023 13:50

The ideas taught through race ‘science’ are so appealing to Europeans and Americans as they put them up on a pedestal and are opinions that are easy for them to fall into. These same ideas also cause Europeans and Americans to reaffirm the way that they already defined themselves from other races, although now with ‘science’ confirming it to be fact. In many experiments done by scientists to prove the natural difference between races, such as Samuel Morton, various measurements would be done on human skulls to show how you can determine many characteristics of a person and their entire race based on the sizes of their features. The difference that they would find in peoples features would help them to explain their ideas by making claims such as African people being less intelligent because of what they had seen in their research that were mostly focused on male white skulls against female skulls of other races that would naturally be smaller. As a result these scientists' research was mostly inaccurate. However it was still widely accepted and taught to others. These ideas that Europeans and Americams were better than others also helped to lower any dissonance or poor feelings that they had for taking over the land or severely mistreating people of a different race as they were “less than them” and didn’t deserve anything more. This additional factor of accepting the race ‘science’ to be true, made it that much more popular and attractive to people. As a direct result of how popular these ideas were, many scientists and professors would turn their work towards it to gain wealth and make a name for themselves that directly caused the spread in race ‘science’.

As these pseudo-scientific ideas made their way over to the United States and it spread throughout America as it did Europe, it was also widely accepted for the same reasons as it had before. There was a diverse population in America of many different races and cultures from people who had come to the county. The white population in America had a history of thinking they were more deserving in ways such as pushing the Indigenous population out for years and years and taking their land thinking that it was necessary and they deserved it. As well as separating themselves from African Americans and participating in slavery just like many other places in the world. The white people of America continued to use race ‘science’ to justify their past actions and ones that they would continue to make, like the separation of white people and African Americans with many “white only” places that had an even greater effect on agreeing with the consensus that other races were different species and should be treated differently than Europeans and Americans. The impacts of racial injustices such as these are still prominent today as many people in America will have less opportunities, be treated unfairly, and in some cases forever seen as different by some just because of their race.

Post your response here.

It is important to note the idea of dissonance in these events because there must have been some people that stood up against these 'scientists' and made sure that they were not becoming validated. It does seem as though a lot of people during this time either didn't care enough to say something or were too scared of going against the current so instead they decided to conform to the standards created by society. A big problem during this time was the illiteracy and lack of knowledge the people had as a result of an education based on the church. If it isn't a matter of dissonance or conformity it might be an issue of the education received by people who believed in these theories.

Originally posted by F@mousSu@ve on October 21, 2023 13:50

The ideas taught through race ‘science’ are so appealing to Europeans and Americans as they put them up on a pedestal and are opinions that are easy for them to fall into. These same ideas also cause Europeans and Americans to reaffirm the way that they already defined themselves from other races, although now with ‘science’ confirming it to be fact. In many experiments done by scientists to prove the natural difference between races, such as Samuel Morton, various measurements would be done on human skulls to show how you can determine many characteristics of a person and their entire race based on the sizes of their features. The difference that they would find in peoples features would help them to explain their ideas by making claims such as African people being less intelligent because of what they had seen in their research that were mostly focused on male white skulls against female skulls of other races that would naturally be smaller. As a result these scientists' research was mostly inaccurate. However it was still widely accepted and taught to others. These ideas that Europeans and Americams were better than others also helped to lower any dissonance or poor feelings that they had for taking over the land or severely mistreating people of a different race as they were “less than them” and didn’t deserve anything more. This additional factor of accepting the race ‘science’ to be true, made it that much more popular and attractive to people. As a direct result of how popular these ideas were, many scientists and professors would turn their work towards it to gain wealth and make a name for themselves that directly caused the spread in race ‘science’.

As these pseudo-scientific ideas made their way over to the United States and it spread throughout America as it did Europe, it was also widely accepted for the same reasons as it had before. There was a diverse population in America of many different races and cultures from people who had come to the county. The white population in America had a history of thinking they were more deserving in ways such as pushing the Indigenous population out for years and years and taking their land thinking that it was necessary and they deserved it. As well as separating themselves from African Americans and participating in slavery just like many other places in the world. The white people of America continued to use race ‘science’ to justify their past actions and ones that they would continue to make, like the separation of white people and African Americans with many “white only” places that had an even greater effect on agreeing with the consensus that other races were different species and should be treated differently than Europeans and Americans. The impacts of racial injustices such as these are still prominent today as many people in America will have less opportunities, be treated unfairly, and in some cases forever seen as different by some just because of their race.

Post your response here.

I agree that many researchers and scientists, who were the ones generating these ideas of race science and superiority based on skull size, were extremely biased because they themselves were Europeans, so wouldn't they automatically assume that they were the superior race? I also like how you highlighted in the effects that are still seen today that race science perpetuates the lack of opportunities given to people of color, especially in America.

Originally posted by rica.junction on October 21, 2023 16:45

Scientific Racism unfolded from 19th-century Europeans' and Americans' desire to justify colonialism and the persecution of non-whites. Humans feel the need to preserve a stable and positive self-image, and ‘race science’ helped reduce their cognitive dissonance by justifying their actions. The new ‘science’ coincided with European expansion and colonization, and provided a perfect excuse for slavery, colonialism, segregation, genocide, and land acquisition. The idea of polygenism perpetuated the theory that humans were different species, and had biological differences in intelligence, morality, and so forth. Tajfel’s social identity theory explains the innate desire to categorize people---this is the desire that race scientists capitalized on to perpetuate their theories. It is important to note, however, that race is nothing more than a skin-deep phenomenon that white men morphed into a cruel lie that reinforced social hierarchies with them at the top. In their post, Gaius wrote, “Race ‘science’ is not used only as a justification to commit these acts, but a reason to.” This illustrates the change of race from justification to "The White Man's Burden,” the idea that white men being in power was not only beneficial but actually the morally correct action to civilize “savages.”

Pseudo-scientific ideas deeply influenced American policy and led to legislation that discriminated against racial groups. The Mexican Repatriation and Chinese Exclusion Act led to the current view towards Chinese and Mexican immigrants. The Mexican repatriation deported ~1.8 Mexicans from the US, regardless of their citizenship status, and the Chinese Exclusion Act blocked an entire ethnic group from entering the country. They set a precedent that these people were coming to “steal jobs,” and did not deserve to belong in the country. Impacts still reverberate today, as high-profile political figures such as former president Donald Trump go as far as to cite these acts to authorize restrictions on immigration to the US. To this day, the federal government has issued no national apology for the racist actions taken against Mexican and Chinese people, and it is doubtful that they ever will. The Indian Residential School System, Annexation of Puerto Rico, and Jim Crow laws set up Black people, Indigenous Americans, and the people of Puerto Rico to experience systemic inequalities. Indigenous Americans had their land, livelihood, and culture brutally ripped away from them. Puerto Rican people do not have federal voting rights and very weak support from the government---the same government that took over and made them dependent on the US economy. Black Americans were subject to enforced racial segregation, voter restriction, and violence. So many people experience inequalities in healthcare, housing, education, and more. Race science goes beyond simple theory, as it institutionally created and reinforced privilege for whites over anyone else.

America must acknowledge and learn from history, not celebrate it. The pervasive ideas of race ‘science’ and racial differences are still with us in society, even though we know the methods and the findings used to prove these differences were so incredibly flawed. This is especially evident in far-right groups, although not limited to them. In mid-2016, Donald Trump’s future chief strategist “wrote an article in which he suggested that some black people who had been shot by the police might have deserved it,” stating his opinion that “there are, after all, in this world, some people who are naturally aggressive and violent” (Evans 1). This cites the false and damaging opinion perpetuated by scientific racism that Black people are genetically predisposed to violence. The conservative-liberal divide has grown, exacerbated by people---especially right-wing supporters--- who deny the truth simply because others are not part of their “ingroup.” The social scientist Jonathan Haidt said liberals “reject the truth of inherited IQ difference between groups because of a misguided commitment to the idea that social outcomes depend entirely on nurture, and are therefore mutable, ” and political scientist Charles Murry claimed that liberal academic critics of his book “lied without any apparent shadow of guilt because…in their own minds, they thought they were doing the Lord’s work.” (Evans 2). Haidt’s actions mirror leading race scientists like Louis Aggasiz who believed that intelligence was inherited and that white people were naturally more intelligent. Both men help spotlight the problem that the United States is facing right now, not only regarding race. People in power do not listen to each other, and misinformation is rampant. In order to counter the legacy of racist ideology and persistent ideas of it, there must be open acknowledgment, communication, and discussion of the past and what the future will bring.

I like what you said about Tajfel’s social identity theory, and how the need to categorize people influences race 'science'. It especially becomes relevant when it comes to disproving the 'science' to the followers of it, as they see criticism from an outside source as unreliable, and if someone from inside their group speaks out against it, they become part of the 'them', like when you said "exacerbated by people---especially right-wing supporters--- who deny the truth simply because others are not part of their “ingroup.”". It makes it increasingly difficult to remove people from these sorts of circles, as it becomes sort of an echo chamber for the worst ideas to become magnified, with contrasting ideas being ridiculed.

Originally posted by universaldeclarationofhumanrights<3 on October 22, 2023 22:23

The ideas of race science were so appealing to Europeans and European Americans because they confirmed the sense of supremacy and superiority that they held over people of color. Race science told white people that they were biologically and historically better than people of any other culture, no matter how biased and untrue the research that was presented to them to back this theory up was. The idea that having a larger skull meant that white people were smarter and more intelligent than say Africans made white people feel a sense of responsibility to literally claim ownership over these people, as they were seen as lesser than and unable to care for themselves and others. Plus, the history of the world that was known by the researchers making these claims, at that time, was only the point of view of the Europeans. So, the Europeans thought that they were the oldest and most advanced societies in the world, which just added on to the feeling of supremacy that they held over other peoples. The Europeans also invaded many lands and caused many mass killings, so the history of other people were erased by the Europeans themselves.

Once pseudo-scientific ideals of race were integrated into laws and policies in the United States government, there was extreme violence and discrimination against non-white people. Society was physically and mentally segregated between white people and people of color, Mexicans, Chinese, and many other races were deported illegally and treated awfully. Propaganda against entire races was spread widely in the mainstream media, which perpetuated extreme acts of violence and hatred against them. White people felt the responsibility to almost “cleanse” the United States, to the point where it was unsafe to be a person of color living within the country. The impact of these laws and policies are seen in the extreme racism and xenophobia that are prevalent in our country today. When the coronavirus pandemic began, there was an extreme and saddening spike in violent attacks against Asian Americans, because the thought that the virus originated in China translated to a global hatred of all Asian people, even though they hold no responsibility for the pandemic at all. In 2020, there was a huge media spotlight on racist attacks by the police force in America. The brutal and violent murders of innocent black citizens were recorded and blasted all over social media, but little consequences were received by the racist and bloodthirsty police officers . The laws in place to protect police officers in this country end up with the officers having to take no responsibility for their actions, as they will be automatically protected by the federal government. Justice for these innocent individuals whose lives were taken for absolutely no reason has still not been achieved, and most likely never will.

The basic ideas of race science, like the biological ideas that different measurements of body parts mean different things may not still be prevalent in our society today, but the ideals perpetuated from that racist research are definitely still present today. The existence of white supremacy groups, and even just the racial wage gap, are all things that stem from race science. The idea that the white man is intellectually, physically, and biologically superior to the black man are all ideas that, although not outwardly accepted, are still ingrained in the way our society and even us as individuals function day to day. The small stereotypes that we keep inside our heads were perpetuated by race science, as much as someone being outwardly racist and even violent is perpetuated by race science. The way to counteract these ideals, though a lengthy process, is to start in education. Unlearning starts within the school system, and the idea that everyone can be the same, no matter their race or their biological makeup, needs to start being taught in kindergarten. The only way to create a big racist generation, is to educate a not racist generation.

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I like how you pointed out specifically how White people believed that with being better than any other race and the necessity to take over their territory and resources that they might have for themselves, that they also owened the peopel of other races as well.

Originally posted by Gaius on October 20, 2023 20:04

The fundamental basis of race ‘science’ is the desire of Europeans and Americans to feel innately superior, no matter their socioeconomic status. This desire was exploited by rich lawmakers in an attempt to gain control over the vast population of poor white people, as a system to ensure they would support policies backed by racist ideologies that would provide little to no benefit for anyone other than the upper class. By adopting these ideologies, lower class white people were able to gain an air of superiority over another group, separating them from other groups of oppressed people, preventing them from rising up against the powers that be. This not only helped to calm the mass of poor white people, but also allowed them to find an easy support of colonial practices. While the benefit of colonialism to the upper class was obvious, the accumulation of wealth and an easily exploitable labor force, the benefit was barely seen by the average citizen. These pseudo-scientific theories allowed poor white people to see the imaginary benefit: caring for a group of people too unsophisticated to care for themselves. These theories also helped rectify the cognitive dissonance from the soldiers doing the work of conquering these people, causing them to see it not only as something that was necessary, but actually beneficial to the conquered people. Race ‘science’ is not used only as a justification to commit these acts, but a reason to.

When it comes to the idea of race ‘science’ as a fundamentally flawed and incorrect science, the issue with debunking it is that the current believers are unwilling to do their own research, or unwilling to listen to scientists. As said in the article by The Guardian, “‘That attack on my book was purely political,” Wade told Stefan Molyneux, one of the most popular promoters of the alt-right’s new scientific racism. They were speaking a month after Trump’s election on Molyneux’s YouTube show, whose episodes have been viewed tens of millions of times. Wade continued: “It had no scientific basis whatever and it showed the more ridiculous side of this herd belief.’”, the basis upon which most perpetrators of scientific racism stand on is that anyone who disagrees with their theories is simply doing so as a result of trying to be “politically correct”, not of science. The perpetuation of this belief allows followers of the ideology to easily discount the ideas of anyone who disagrees, without any thought to the point they’re making. The book that Wade is referring to was debunked by groups of geneticists, who accused him of misrepresenting their field of research. The narrative that he is pushing, that his ideas are being debunked on a social basis as opposed to a scientific one, gives him and those who agree with him a feeling of moral superiority over those who disagree with him. This is exacerbated by the fact that at the moment, theories of race ‘science’ are simply fringe theories, giving those who follow them a false sense of prosecution, making them more and more sure of their ideals each time they are questioned, because they feel able to simply dismiss it as another instance of them being silenced. These ideas persist largely because those who believe in them are so stuck in their convictions that any criticism only serves to egg them on, and they then in turn pass these ideologies onto their children. Theories of race ‘science’ are appealing to people who feel like they have been mislead by the system, so instead of taking it out on the powers that be, they take it out on people who are different than themselves, feeling like they deserved what these other people got for the simple virtue of being white. Race ‘science’ allows them to feel superior, no matter if that means putting other people down in the process. These theories can best be counteracted by more widely available resources to debunk these ideologies so that the average person can protect themself from proponents of these theories. It could be especially useful to teach in more common classes, such as US history, since those classes, as mandatory courses, would stop these ideologies from spreading to the younger generations. Education is the only method to end the perpetuation of racist ideologies, and making this sort of education more commonly available would lessen the commonality of these ideologies.

I agree with your analysis! I like how you point out the role that money and class systems play in the development of a racial hierarchy. This is especially relevant to us now considering how this racial hierarchy, at least in the United States, translates directly into our caste system since Black and Hispanic people are often granted fewer educational and work opportunities, leading them to be stuck in a cycle of generational poverty that has existed for decades. I also like how you noted the importance of education in society. The education system is an extremely biased place, and there have been many movements to make school curriculums more inclusive (there are also movements to restrict the curriculums in order to fit an agenda, ex. Don't Say Gay) because of how education plays such an influential role in the opinions and perspectives that we will maintain for the rest of our lives.

Originally posted by fridakahlo216 on October 22, 2023 13:47

The ideas of race “science” stemmed from a need to justify the political movements occurring in the world at that time. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Europeans and their descendants (ie. Americans) engaged in colonization, taking over many parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In order to create a basis for their expansion, they had to come up with valid reasons for why they even had the right in the first place to take over the land of other groups and then oppress those said groups. The solution that these colonizers came up with was to create a factual basis for a concept that had existed for centuries: racism. By claiming that their prejudice against “others,” meaning peoples and cultures from other places in the world that they were unfamiliar with, was undeniable and simply biological, these colonizers declared that they and their descendants had been chosen to rule over the non-white world. White people were then able to weaponize this “science” since, as stated by rica.junction, it “provided a perfect excuse for slavery, colonialism, segregation, genocide, and land acquisition.”

The need to justify their horrifying treatment of people of color largely stemmed from the socio-psychological ideas of cognitive dissonance, Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory, and Latane and Darley’s Bystander Effect. Cognitive dissonance essentially comes from a person’s need to maintain a positive self-image, and when someone does something bad or immoral, contradicting their positive self-image, they try in any way possible to justify their actions and maintain their belief that they are a good person. In the case of colonialism, white people needed to justify their violence and oppression towards people of color, and they did so by claiming that people of color were either below them on a racial hierarchy or not even people at all, but animals, and that they were not, therefore, deserving of rights such as liberty and body autonomy. Additionally, Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory explains how humans develop a sense of membership tied to the group(s) that they are a part of and that they have a natural tendency to categorize people based on their group(s), thereby creating an “us versus them” mentality. This played into race “science” as these scientists took advantage of this concept and essentially created numerous divisions among humanity based on race, claiming that people of different races were entirely different “species” or “breeds” of humans. However, as NPR’s interview with Angela Saini explains, this is an extremely inaccurate way to describe humanity as the racial divisions that race “scientists” conjured up were often proxies for other characteristics, such as geographical location. Nevertheless, these concepts are still deeply ingrained in our society, and people will likely say how they feel they can relate more to or understand better members of their own race (or people who appear to be of their own race) when, in fact, these connections are based on other factors such as culture, language, or religion. Finally, Latane and Darley’s Bystander Effect can be seen in the lack of action taken by ordinary white people during the age of colonialism. Many working-class Europeans and Americans likely fell prey to the propaganda being used at the time, which justified the actions of colonizers. The influx of “science” and racist discourse coupled with Social Identity Theory resulted in many white people, even if they did not believe that their governments’ treatment of people of color was, being reluctant to speak out against it, maybe out of ignorance (ie. they did not know the full extent of how their governments were oppressing and murdering people of color), out of fear (ie. social pressure, could be reprimanded by their governments), or out of greed (ie. white people, at least indirectly, benefitted from the oppression of people of color).

Ways in which we can now work to counter racist ideology is to speak of it more. By this, I mean that it is important to acknowledge the racist ideology that is still extremely pervasive in society, despite our reluctance to admit it, since that is the first step in speaking out against it. In acknowledging racism it is also important for people who have benefitted from these oppressive systems, at least indirectly, meaning white people or multiracial people, to recognize that they have in fact benefited from them. However, this does not mean that they need to feel guilty for these systems, as they are not the ones who created them, but they must recognize that they have a responsibility to amend them and work in solidarity with people of color to create a better, more harmonious society.

I like how fridakahlo216 mentioned the impact of Darley’s Bystander Effect, where "many working-class Europeans and Americans likely fell prey to the propaganda being used at the time, which justified the actions of colonizers. They analyzed the reasons people did not speak out, including fear, greed, and ignorance. I think that examining the bystander effect can lead to important discussions about responsibility, and if inaction is just as bad as outright racist acts. This ties into our debate about the Die Welle movie, and if the students were to blame for their actions after being manipulated by Ranier.

Originally posted by Watermelon on October 23, 2023 08:42

The ideas of race ‘science’ still exists for the same reason it was so popular in the first place: it keeps white people in charge and is often used to violently squash any threats against their power. Post your response here.

I agree that race 'science' was originally used as a justification for the social hierarchy. I was wondering however if these pseudoscientific beliefs have become completely ingrained into the fabric of American society. Is it only white Americans pushing pseudoscience or is there a level of indoctrination that makes all people, regardless of demographic, push this narrative?

Originally posted by boston123 on October 23, 2023 00:30

In order to counter these beliefs, it is so important that schools educate students on the history of race ‘science’ so that we can effectively move toward a safer and more equitable future. Most importantly, to ensure that every person is treated with respect and basic human rights.

I agree that an important step forward for America to condemn race 'science' is to teach about its history in schools. In my post, I highlighted that getting rid of policies was not enough to erase the racist ideas that accompanied them, and that the government and institutions needed to openly own up to the harmful causes and effects of those policies. Our posts both show that without having more conversations about why the outlook of race 'science' was incorrect and damaging, people will still hold those outdated ideas as truth.

Originally posted by F@mousSu@ve on October 21, 2023 13:50

The ideas taught through race ‘science’ are so appealing to Europeans and Americans as they put them up on a pedestal and are opinions that are easy for them to fall into. These same ideas also cause Europeans and Americans to reaffirm the way that they already defined themselves from other races, although now with ‘science’ confirming it to be fact. In many experiments done by scientists to prove the natural difference between races, such as Samuel Morton, various measurements would be done on human skulls to show how you can determine many characteristics of a person and their entire race based on the sizes of their features. The difference that they would find in peoples features would help them to explain their ideas by making claims such as African people being less intelligent because of what they had seen in their research that were mostly focused on male white skulls against female skulls of other races that would naturally be smaller. As a result these scientists' research was mostly inaccurate. However it was still widely accepted and taught to others. These ideas that Europeans and Americams were better than others also helped to lower any dissonance or poor feelings that they had for taking over the land or severely mistreating people of a different race as they were “less than them” and didn’t deserve anything more. This additional factor of accepting the race ‘science’ to be true, made it that much more popular and attractive to people. As a direct result of how popular these ideas were, many scientists and professors would turn their work towards it to gain wealth and make a name for themselves that directly caused the spread in race ‘science’.

As these pseudo-scientific ideas made their way over to the United States and it spread throughout America as it did Europe, it was also widely accepted for the same reasons as it had before. There was a diverse population in America of many different races and cultures from people who had come to the county. The white population in America had a history of thinking they were more deserving in ways such as pushing the Indigenous population out for years and years and taking their land thinking that it was necessary and they deserved it. As well as separating themselves from African Americans and participating in slavery just like many other places in the world. The white people of America continued to use race ‘science’ to justify their past actions and ones that they would continue to make, like the separation of white people and African Americans with many “white only” places that had an even greater effect on agreeing with the consensus that other races were different species and should be treated differently than Europeans and Americans. The impacts of racial injustices such as these are still prominent today as many people in America will have less opportunities, be treated unfairly, and in some cases forever seen as different by some just because of their race.

I agree with how you connected race 'science' and dissonance. Convincing yourself that someone else isn't really a human and that they are so far below you that it doesn't matter what happens to them will make people feel less dissonance. Measuring skull sizes and making claims about other groups of people was popular to make them appear 'worse' than everyone else.