History Is Not Improved When We Elevate Women And Minorities Beyond Their Actual Accomplishment
My tweet in response to a @ClairLemon tweet about King's College in the UK replacing portraits of bearded white scholars with those of ethnic minorities and women.
About the move to erase all the white guys of yore, sorry, but Voltaire (dunno if there's a bust of him) did not have an African counterpart https://t.co/QO4nCw4d6D
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) July 15, 2017
In the Telegraph, Luke Mintz writes that the move comes amidst "pressure from students."
Well, okay, we might have protested at U of M, demanding that the university allow us to each have our own llama in our dorm room, but nobody would have actually let us.
The plans to move portraits of former faculty staff from the main entrance wall and replace them with more BME scholars are being implemented by the world famous Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, following concern among academics that current teaching is too "intimidating" for ethnic minorities.The proposals were unveiled by Professor Patrick Leman, the Institute's dean of education, who said that the faculty should not just be filled with "busts of 1920s bearded men" but rather more modern, diverse scholars so that the Institute feels less "alienating".
Founded in 1924 as a hospital medical school, the Institute owes its existence to a donation from Dr Henry Maudsley, a pioneering British psychiatrist, and neurologist Sir Frederick Mott, who drew up plans for university courses for training in the field of psychiatry in 1896.
Their busts, which are believed to be the subject of Professor Leman's remarks, were placed in the Institute in recognition of their work.
If you are "alienated" instead of feeling privileged to go to college (as I did, despite how I'm the color of fresh Wite-Out), you need some help from a kind therapist.
Most of the being "intimidated" is in their precious little heads.
Yes, women did not have access to college much in 1920. Nevertheless, those who created our modern world are who they are. The drive in literature for equal representation is silly enough, leading to a big dumbing down of the canon of great literature, but in the sciences it is even worse. While the quality of literature is a matter of opinion, who discovered the elements, invented the electron microscope, and all the rest is not just a matter of opinion nor were white men just put up in the halls for no reason. There is so much over correction for this now that women get 60% of college degrees and a blind hiring process shows men get hired more in contrast to the discrimination toward women if sex is known (especially in academia).
cc at July 15, 2017 10:46 AM
King's College, as well as most colleges and universities, should drop the charade that the students are asking for these changes. Of course, they are asking, but prompted by and in full agreement with college administrations and most of the faculty. These administrations run these institutions, subject only to the trustees. Most of these administrations give no philosophical support to free inquiry and speech. The trustees have been politically appointed by this time, and agree with these changes.
Jump to the desired endpoint. Replace all portraits with ones of Marx, Lenin, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Che Guevara, and whatever black revolutionaries are under-recognized by white, cis-gendered, patriarchal culture. On with the revolution!
Maybe we can get Stalin and Pol Pot included. Although not representative of the highest ideals of Socialism, they should get Honorable Mention for trying hard.
Andrew Garland at July 15, 2017 12:13 PM
While it's tempting to wish those who push this will get the inevitable result, the problem is that it may spread to the rest of us.
Quotas for techs at nuclear plants....?
Richard Aubrey at July 15, 2017 2:15 PM
"Quotas for techs at nuclear plants....?"
There is the Duke Power case: you must not design a test for technicians that a greater percentage of blacks will fail.
Radwaste at July 15, 2017 2:26 PM
History Is Not Improved
But Herstory is.
dee nile at July 15, 2017 2:50 PM
Rad. I was thinking of Duke. How's this for an updated version:
Any major which reduces the chances of being hired at a nuclear plant--gender studies, for example--is illegally discriminatory.
See the promises some decades back that there would be no insistence on gender-norming physical requirements for cops, soldiers and firemen.
Richard Aubrey at July 15, 2017 5:26 PM
I'd call the students and faculty that are intimidated by portraits and busts pussies but even the moistest vagina is harder than these sad sacks.
Shtetl G at July 17, 2017 7:01 AM
If the busts are marble, isn't it kind of pointless?
Iowaan at July 18, 2017 7:14 PM
If the busts are marble, isn't it kind of pointless?
Iowaan at July 18, 2017 7:14 PM
I am not familiar enough with 18th century African literature to comment on whether or not it is as good as Voltaire. I'm guessing there must have been some Islamic or Christian poetry going on though.
NicoleK at July 23, 2017 11:56 AM
Like this guy, I guess...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ben_Triki
I think it is pretty natural, however, to focus on writings that led to the development of one's own culture and to treat other cultures writers as an extra.
NicoleK at July 23, 2017 11:59 AM
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