Article by Alex Parker in RedState
Eating Itself: Woke University Condemns Darwin for White Supremacy
Some of you may have been waiting for this: Cancel culture — or, at least, woke culture — has turned its finger toward Charles Darwin.
You’re no doubt familiar with the theory of evolution — the idea that what began as ooze progressed ’til it was us.
Upon what was the notion based?
According to some, it seems, such was the sinister idea of white supremacy.
As reported by The Telegraph, the English biologist is one of 11 fingered in a Sheffield University handbook as scientists whose perspectives “influenced the type of research they carried out and how they interpreted their data.”
For those unaware, Darwin fervently endorsed the abolition of slavery. In fact, he labeled it a “sacred cause.”
Furthermore, he framed slavery as a scourge which made “one’s blood boil.”
Nonetheless, per The Telegraph, the guide insists to “students and lecturers that [Darwin] must be historically caveated when lecturers teach his seminal theory of evolution.”
The reason: By the book, he’s one of several “highly celebrated scientific figures” who “held racist views.”
Created by lecturers in the Animal and Plant Sciences faculty, the manual accuses the man of using his concept of natural selection in order to justify the superiority of the white male.
As you’re surely aware, Darwin’s 1859 On the Origin of Species is hailed as the foundation of evolutionary biology.
A central feature: “survival of the fittest.”
As made clear by Sheffield in Applying a Decolonial Framework to Teaching and Research in Ecology and Evolution, sinister intentions were afoot:
[Darwin] believed that his renowned theory of natural selection justified the view that the white race was superior to others, and used his theory of sexual selection to justify why women were clearly inferior to men.
Yet, the school’s got some academic opposition:
Historians told The Telegraph that Sheffield’s guidelines were “unhistorical and misleading” and “authoritarian.”
Moreover, as told to the outlet by Professor James Moore:
“Almost everyone in Darwin’s day was ‘racist’ in 21st century terms, not only scientists and naturalists but even anti-slavery campaigners and abolitionists.”
However, James thinks Darwin was different.
To hear the professor tell it, the theory of evolution is one of unity:
“What set his ‘racism’ apart – and makes him more like us today – was his profound conviction that all the human races are ‘family’, sisters and brothers.”
The man was even — dare James say it — woke:
“Darwin’s wokeness was most obvious in his maintaining the full common humanity and unity of the races in the face of a rising anthropology that insisted the races were in fact separately originated and unrelated species, thus offering justification of atrocities that Darwin is now blamed for.”
But these days, the woke can get canceled just like anyone else.
And Sheffield’s making big moves. The guide even tells science lecturers and students to cease “hero worshipping” science’s big-leaguers — by dropping the terms “idols,” “geniuses”…and “founding father.”
Such characterizations, the handbook asserts, position them as “white saviors.”
An absolute must, it says: the dismantling of “whiteness and Eurocentrism of our science.”
And the manual’s not afraid to get political — after all, science is just that:
It is clear that science cannot be objective and apolitical. … The curriculum we teach must acknowledge how colonialism has shaped the field of evolutionary biology and how evolutionary biologists think today.
Oxford historian Nigel Biggar sees the guide as a potential threat to educational liberty:
“Before propagating this ideology, did Sheffield University secure the consent of academic staff, and does it now allow for conscientious objection? If not, its conduct is authoritarian and arguably a violation of academic freedom.”
The book claims Darwin’s plant and animal sample-collecting voyage on the Royal Navy’s HMS Beagle was actually to map colonies.
Meanwhile, Nigel appears to think Sheffield is, well, stupid:
“During Darwin’s lifetime, the British Empire was busy emancipating slaves across the world. The ‘decolonizing’ assumption that ‘colonial mapping’ was all about oppression is false, and the judgement that Darwin should be damned by association is morally stupid.
Either way, one thing’s for sure: The cancel component of the cultural Far Left isn’t above turning inward.
From an evolutionary point of view, it seems destined to eat itself.
If that happens, it will be primed for the ultimate Darwin Award.
Check out Sheffield’s “Decolonizing the Curriculum Hub” here.
NOTE: There is also a video connected to this article which I couldn't get to transfer. Click on the link below to go to the article itself:
