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#Post#: 5010--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: March 20, 2021, 10:25 pm
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HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/rights-dead-living-clash-scientists-145833951.html
[quote]Rights of the dead and the living clash when scientists
extract DNA from human remains
...
Authorities in Chile have denounced the research. They believe a
looter plundered the girl from her grave and illegally took her
from the country. The Chilean Society of Biological Anthropology
issued a damning statement. It asked, “Could you imagine the
same study carried out using the corpse of someone’s miscarried
baby in Europe or America?”[/quote]
I cannot. But the reason it happens to everyone else is because
it's OK to be a "white" archaeologist:
[quote]Plundering skulls for science
We have seen a rush for human remains before. More than a
century ago, anthropologists were eager to assemble collections
of skeletons. They were building a science of humanity and
needed samples of skulls and bones to determine evolutionary
history and define the characteristics of human races.
Researchers emptied cemeteries and excavated ancient tombs. They
took skulls from massacre sites. “It is most unpleasant work to
steal bones from a grave,” the father of anthropology, Franz
Boas, once grumbled, “but what is the use, someone has to do
it.”
The case of Qisuk, an Inuit man, provides an especially
egregious example. In 1897, the explorer Robert Peary brought
Qisuk and five others to New York from Greenland, so
anthropologists could more easily study their culture. Four of
them, including Qisuk, soon died of tuberculosis.
Anthropologists and doctors conspired to fake Qisuk’s burial to
trick his surviving 8-year-old son, then dissected the body and
defleshed the bones. Qisuk’s skeleton was mounted and hung at
the American Museum of Natural History. (It is still disputed
today whether Qisuk was only stored at the museum or put on
public display.)
By the end of the 20th century, U.S. museums held the remains of
some 200,000 Native American skeletons.
These skeletons helped write the American continent’s history
and foster an appreciation for Native cultures. Yet the insights
gleaned from these gathered remains came at a steep price:
Native Americans’ religious freedoms and human rights were
systematically violated. Many Native Americans believe their
ancestors’ spirits have been left to wander. Others insist that
all ancestors should be afforded honor and their graves should
be protected.
Today, a U.S. federal law provides for the return of stolen
skeletons. Still, the legacy of these collections will haunt us
for generations. Many Native Americans are profoundly
distrustful of archaeologists. And even after nearly 30 years of
active repatriation of human remains, there are still more than
100,000 skeletons in U.S. museums. By my estimation, it will
take 238 years to return these remains at this rate – if they
are ever even returned at all.
Seeking consent
For too long scientists failed to ask basic ethical questions:
Who should control collections of human remains? What are the
positive and negative consequences of studies based on
skeletons? And how can scientists work to enhance, rather than
undermine, the rights of the people they study?
One place to look for answers is the Belmont Report. Published
in 1979, this was the scientific community’s response to the
Tuskegee Study. Over the course of 40 years, the U.S. government
denied medical treatment to more than 400 black men infected
with syphilis, to watch the disease’s evolution. In the
aftermath of the resulting scandal, the Belmont Report insisted
that biomedical researchers must have respect for people, try to
do good as well as avoid harm, and fairly distribute the burdens
and benefits of research.
Although these guidelines were intended for living subjects,
they provide a framework to consider research on the dead. After
all, research on the dead ultimately affects the living. One way
to ensure these protections is to seek informed consent from
individuals, kin, communities or legal authorities before
conducting studies.[/quote]
Western academics think nothing of initiating any type or
quantity of violence so long as they get research done out of
it. (This is even more obvious when we look at their history of
experimenting on non-humans.) It is this entire value system
which must be toppled. No knowledge is worth any initiated
violence. Anyone who thinks otherwise is already a Westerner.
#Post#: 5624--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: April 17, 2021, 12:30 am
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We need more of this:
HTML https://www.city-journal.org/california-ethnic-studies-programs-merchants-of-revolution
[quote]California public schools are embarking on a new
experiment: education as social justice. Earlier this year, the
state Department of Education approved an ethnic studies model
curriculum, and individual school districts have begun to
implement programs that advocate “decolonizing” the United
States and “liberating” students from capitalism, patriarchy,
and settler colonialism.
...
According to slides and contemporaneous notes from the session,
the Santa Clara Office of Education began the presentation with
a “land acknowledgement,” claiming that Santa Clara County and
the public school system “occupy the unceded territory of the
Muwekma Ohlone Nation, the sovereign nation and original people
of the skies, land, and waters.” The premise of this ritual,
which has become common in progressive organizations, is that
the American government, founded by white settlers, is an
illegitimate colonial power that should return the land to the
Native American tribes.
...
Pacheco then argued that the United States is a political regime
based on “settler colonialism,” which he describes as a “system
of oppression” that “occupies and usurps land/labor/resources
from one group of people for the benefit of another.” The
settler colonialist regime, Pacheco continues, is “not just a
vicious thing of the past, but [one that] exists as long as
settlers are living on appropriated land.” The white colonialist
regime of the United States is a “parasitic system” responsible
for domestic violence, drug overdoses, and other social
problems. In a related PowerPoint slide, Pacheco presented
examples of this oppression, including “men exploiting women,”
“white people exploiting people of color,” and “rich people
exploiting poor people.”
What is the solution? Pacheco argues that teachers must “awaken
[students] to the oppression” and lead them to “decodify” and
eventually “destroy” the dominant political regime. The first
step in this process is to help students “get into the mind of a
white man” such as Christopher Columbus and analyze “what
ideology led these white male settlers to be power and land
hungry and justify stealing indigenous land through genocide.”
Pacheco describes this process as transforming students into
“activist intellectuals” who “decodify systems of oppression”
into their component parts, including “white supremacy,
patriarchy, classism, genocide, private property, and God.”
Teachers must be careful, though: Pacheco and the other
panelists suggested that local educators hide this revolutionary
pedagogy from administrators and families. “District guidelines
and expectations are barriers,” said one panelist. “[We] have to
be extra careful about what is being said, since we can’t just
say something controversial now that we’re in people’s homes
[because of remote learning].” In addition, teachers must
acknowledge that they, too, can become oppressors in the
classroom. “Inherently, [it is the] oppressor who sets the
rules.” Teachers must “recognize [their] own privilege and
[their] own bias” in order to align themselves with the
oppressed and work toward dismantling systems of
oppression.[/quote]
#Post#: 5979--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: April 30, 2021, 10:40 pm
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How bad things are:
HTML https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2021/04/16/teaching-issues-can-be-among-biggest-obstacles-retaining-bipoc-women-faculty
[quote]BIPOC women are often assigned more new course
preparations and more service courses with larger enrollments.
This informal or invisible teaching overload means that the
“same” teaching load is experienced quite differently.
Imagine the teaching load of one instructor assigned all new
course preparations or introductory service courses with
enrollments of 150 students each. Then compare that to the
teaching load of a person assigned only previously taught
courses or elective courses on their own research topics with
enrollments of just 15 students of fewer. If both these
individuals have the “same” 2-2 (or 5-5) teaching assignment, is
that really the same load? Absolutely not.
How are BIPOC faculty women supposed to publish with heavy
teaching loads? The truth is that they often cannot. This unfair
diversion of their time and energy away from publishing
contributes to lowered productivity -- compared to white male
peers -- related to the grants and publications that are the
institutional currency for tenure and promotion.
Student and Colleague Resistance
Students behaving aggressively in the classroom also play a role
in derailing tenure. White students disproportionately challenge
the authority of BIPOC women and are twice as likely to
inappropriately question them when being taught about social
justice issues (e.g., systemic racism). Eric Grollman notes that
“There are scholars who’ve been attacked for what they teach in
the classroom” and that these experiences are not “anecdotal” or
“isolated” incidents. They are unfortunately common features for
these women, as evidenced by the research on their raced and
gendered classroom experiences. Unfortunately, as Saida Grundy
elaborates in her article “A history of white violence tells us
attacks on black academics are not ending (I know because it
happened to me),” BIPOC women are alert to the fact they could
be next to be attacked.
Colleagues can also behave aggressively toward and interfere
with the tenure of BIPOC women when it comes to teaching. These
women’s transformative teaching is often in conflict with their
white male colleagues’ more traditional (e.g., lecture)
approaches to pedagogy. When BIPOC faculty teach about inclusive
topics like race, white colleagues can antagonistically label it
as marginal and illegitimate knowledge. Many BIPOC women faculty
have told me of white colleagues, chairs and deans who
constantly and intensely pressure them to revert to lecture-only
teaching that focuses on the white male “classics.”
In a public letter, Michelle Gibbs describes such unchecked
hostilities as reasons she left her institution: “There are not
enough white faculty and administrators willing to publicly
teach white students how to hold themselves accountable for
their racist behavior in the classroom. This unpaid emotional
labor is often left to Black and Brown faculty who recognize it,
feel it, and (all alone) are left to call it out. It is
exhausting work and doesn’t win us any favors with colleagues
and administrators.” She isn’t alone. Undue stress results in
other BIPOC women exiting higher education institutions, too.
And for those who stay, such discrimination wreaks havoc on
their publication productivity.
Unsound Tenure and Promotion Practices
Student and colleague resistance to BIPOC women’s classroom
authority, pedagogy and content is not without consequence. It
can significantly impact tenure and promotion reviews through
practices that are common but not methodologically sound. Let’s
focus on two of those practices: the incorrect use of student
evaluations and flawed teaching observation processes.
Colleges and universities often contribute to the demise of
BIPOC faculty retention by using student evaluations in
incredibly incorrect ways in reviews. For starters, many misuse
the student evaluation data by using the mean score, focusing on
outlier comments and comparing faculty to one another.
Additionally, many improperly use the student evaluations as the
primary or only measurement of teaching quality. Those practices
don’t adhere to the general guidance about interpreting such
data and evaluating teaching, and they result in inaccurate
conclusions about teaching quality in reviews.
Arriving at unfounded conclusions about teaching quality is
problematic for “normal” contexts. Yet it is even more
problematic when reviewing the teaching of BIPOC women. Instead
of presenting a sound view of teaching quality, these practices
amplify the raced and gendered biases frequently found in
student evaluations. And then colleagues, chairs and deans turn
around and use these inaccurate and unsupported claims of poor
teaching quality to deny the tenure and promotion of BIPOC
women.
The flawed teaching observations of many colleges and
universities also have a direct impact on tenure and promotion
decisions. Does the following sound familiar? A faculty member
is “informed” that “someone” will be observing their teaching,
and it happens with no/minimal discussion about the nature or
focus of the observation. None of these features aligns with
appropriate teaching observation practices.
Here’s why it matters. A Black woman faculty member recounted to
me the damage that was done to her tenure review because of a
teaching observation. In her colleague’s written observation
report, he accused her of teaching controversial content, going
so far as to say that he (a white male) would feel unwelcome as
a student in her classroom. What was she teaching? Her scholarly
expertise on structural racism. Let’s be clear: the observer did
not report witnessing actual student discomfort. In fact, the
Black woman faculty member won a teaching award shortly
afterward for which she was nominated and voted to win by the
students. Instead, the colleague wrote negatively about her
teaching in her tenure review because he equated his offense
about the course content with an assessment of its quality. Over
and over again I have heard eerily similar versions of this
experience from other BIPOC faculty.[/quote]
Meanwhile, it's OK to be a "white" teacher:
HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/jersey-teacher-curses-black-students-224500985.html
[quote]Dickinson High School teacher Howard Zlotkin targeted his
Black students and used profanity as he complained about his
‘privilege’
A New Jersey teacher has been removed from the virtual classroom
after going a profanity-laced rant against his students about
race, Black Lives Matter and George Floyd.
...
“If you think I’m privileged then f— you, because my daughter
thinks I’m privileged and I don’t speak to her,” he said on
Zoom, which was recorded by a student.
...
Williams and her mother, Margie Nieves, said they contacted
school officials but did not hear back from them until they
contacted the news station.
“Who does that? Who would curse, I don’t even curse at my own
daughter,” said Nieves.
The mother and daughter said they were shocked to see that
Zlotkin had returned to class and yet again cursed at students.
He also called out Williams who had refused to complete the
essay he asked her and the other Black students to write.
“I don’t think you can make a case. You know what Timmia? You’re
full of s–t too,” Zlotkin said during another recording of his
remarks.
...
When contacted by NBC New York, Dickinson High School officials
said that Zlotkin was temporarily removed from the classroom and
school as they look into the incident, but did not indicate if
there would be any further discipline.[/quote]
#Post#: 6050--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: May 2, 2021, 4:43 am
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I always hated Newton when I was in school:
HTML https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/24/isaac-newton-latest-historical-figure-swept-decolonisation-drive/
[quote]Sir Isaac Newton has been labelled as a potential
beneficiary of “colonial-era activity” in draft plans to
“decolonise” the engineering curriculum at Sheffield University.
...
Newton, who lived until 1727, laid the foundations of modern
science with his theory of gravity, in the seminal Principia,
and theories on light, time, colour and calculus.
...
it is known that he held shares in the South Sea Company that
traded in slaves.[/quote]
Newton had another area of interest:
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_the_Jewish_Temple
[quote]Notes on the Jewish Temple is a manuscript by Isaac
Newton, written in Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, which holds
notes on the Jewish Temple and its rituals.
Today the manuscript is found in the collections of the National
Library of Israel in Jerusalem.
...
The book contains Hebrew and Aramaic phrases which were copied
to Hebrew letters by Newton, such as the phrase:
"ברוך שם
כבוד
מלכותו
לעולם ועד"
(English: Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for all
eternity).
...
The manuscript contains references to a variety of sources,
including the Old Testament, the Midrash (interpreting biblical
stories) of the sophos Hillel and Shammai, the Talmud, the
Zohar, and Targum Jonathan.[/quote]
It is all linked. Western empirical science and Western
colonialism (including slavery) are both at their roots products
of fundamental gratitude to Yahweh for creating the material
world in the first place. Newton embodies this attitude in a
consistent way.
Imagine how much simpler the world would be if Newton had never
existed! How much of this could have been avoided:
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-a-health-hazard/
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/if-western-civilization-does-not-die-soon/
#Post#: 6054--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: rp Date: May 2, 2021, 10:41 am
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"I always hated Newton when I was in school:"
You and me both. Guess that makes two of us. I've always viewed
him as some mentally sick bastard who purposefully wanted to
overcomplicate and overthink things out of his "curiosity".
At least he didn't leave any offspring. But you could argue the
amount of knowledge he discovered has been far more damaging to
the rest of the world even though he did not reproduce.
Here is a false leftist meme ridiculing him for this:
[img]
HTML https://preview.redd.it/0s0bh07mkhzz.jpg?auto=webp&s=7e4bac0485b3b02b163bd4fd9f77d4b39ee8abd7[/img]
First of all, dying without reproducing is noble. However,
Newton does not fit into this category because he had already
done so much damage while he was alive that it was
inconsequential. Therefore, it is incorrect to state that this
was some kind of "loss" for Newton.
On the other hand, those who actually die without reproducing
because of their lack of interest in the material world are
those who we should be praising.
#Post#: 6078--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: guest5 Date: May 2, 2021, 6:45 pm
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Just keep in mind losing ones virginity does not necessarily
equate to a person not reproducing. My aunt on my mothers side
has plenty of sex with her partner, yet neither of them have
ever reproduced any offspring, as an example. With equating
sexual experience to mere reproduction you may get into a pickle
debating someone who argues that sex is a spiritual experience
more than a physical one. Just a thought....
#Post#: 6086--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: May 2, 2021, 10:38 pm
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"At least he didn't leave any offspring. But you could argue the
amount of knowledge he discovered has been far more damaging to
the rest of the world even though he did not reproduce."
In particular, the ways in which the Industrial Revolution (many
processes of which required calculus to design) raised total
population carrying capacity could be called "Newtonian
fecundity" if we want to stress the point.
#Post#: 6171--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: May 5, 2021, 11:27 pm
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Previously:
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/academic-decolonization/msg3000/#msg3000
Now more along similar lines:
HTML https://reason.com/2021/05/04/california-math-framework-woke-equity-calculus/
[quote]California's Department of Education is working on a new
framework for K-12 mathematics that discourages gifted students
from enrolling in accelerated classes that study advanced
concepts like calculus.
...
In fact, the framework concludes that calculus is overvalued,
even for gifted students.
"The push to calculus in grade twelve is itself misguided," says
the framework.
As evidence for this claim, the framework cites the fact that
many students who take calculus end up having to retake it in
college anyway. Of course, de-prioritizing instruction in high
school calculus would not really solve this problem—and in fact
would likely make it worse—but the department does not seem
overly worried. The framework's overriding perspective is that
teaching the tough stuff is college's problem: The K-12 system
should concern itself with making every kid fall in love with
math.[/quote]
Of course we disagree with this superficial reasoning that tries
to make it a mere administrative tweak to benefit larger numbers
of students. Most leftists still do not have the courage to come
out and say outright that calculus was never meant to have been
invented, and therefore we have a positive ethical duty to
terminate knowledge of it ASAP. However, they will not hold this
position until they abandon progressivism and adopt
regressivism:
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-false-left/leftists-against-progressivism/
#Post#: 6210--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: May 8, 2021, 1:20 am
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And more:
HTML https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-accelerated-math-courses-equity
[quote]Virginia moving to eliminate all accelerated math courses
before 11th grade as part of equity-focused plan[/quote]
#Post#: 6675--------------------------------------------------
Re: Academic decolonization
By: 90sRetroFan Date: May 24, 2021, 10:58 pm
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You know how far we have come when Jews have trouble getting
published:
HTML https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9583887/Acclaimed-British-author-Richard-Cohens-new-book-historians-cancelled-US.html
[quote]A new history book by an acclaimed British author has
reportedly been dropped by its US publisher over concerns it was
'too white'.
Richard Cohen was asked to produce more for work for his
upcoming book 'The History Makers' because publishers were
concerned the 780-page book failed to feature enough black
historians, academics and writers.
Mr Cohen, 75, who wrote the acclaimed Chasing The Sun, is said
to have written 18,000 extra words covering the work of black
historians.
Academics such such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T
Washington are said to have been covered in the additional work.
But US publisher Random House has still decided to drop the
book, according to the Guardian.[/quote]
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