Racist Black Holes
Episode Stats
Words per minute
143.9009
Harmful content
Hate speech
5
sentences flagged
Summary
A new astronomy course at Cornell University asks the question, is there a connection between the cosmos and the idea of racial blackness? What does that even mean, and why does it matter? What does it have to do with race?
Transcript
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Well, this next story fits perfectly in with all the things we've been talking about here so far
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regarding critical race theory and how it's snuck into academia.
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An astronomy course at the prestigious Cornell University concerned about racism in the universe,
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that's right, not even just here on planet Earth, they asked recently the question,
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is there a connection between the cosmos and the idea of racial blackness?
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The course is titled Black Holes, Race and the Cosmos,
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and the catalog description for the course reads as following.
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Conventional wisdom would have it that the black in black holes has nothing to do with race.
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Surely there can be no connection between the cosmos and the idea of racial blackness, can there?
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Contemporary black studies theorists, artists, fictional writers implicitly and explicitly poised just such a connection.
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Theorists use astronomy concepts like black holes and event horizons to interpret the history of race in creative ways,
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while artists and musicians conjure blackness through cosmological themes and images.
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Co-taught by a professor in comparative literature and astronomy,
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this course will introduce students to the fundamentals of astronomy concepts through readings in black studies.
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Texts include works by a bunch of anti-white writers,
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and they will also play hip-hop music by Sun, Ra, Outkast, and Janelle Monáe.
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And this, they leave for the last in the course, because it is an astronomy course after all,
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but it turns out they're also going to be talking about astronomy concepts,
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and they will include things like electromagnetic spectrum, stellar evolution, and general relativity.
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So, Heather MacDonald, who has written numerous books, including The War on Cops,
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wrote about this in City Journal, where she said,
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Today's academic charlatanism consists in part in mistaking rhetoric for knowledge and words for things.
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This sleight of hand is particularly prevalent in matters relating to race.
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Hunter College professor Philip Ewald argues that the concept of tonal and harmonic hierarchies in music theory
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is stand-in for pernicious racial hierarchies.
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The white ones are the bigger ones, and then the black ones are the minor ones.
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So they're seeing specters of racism everywhere.
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The racial avengers are tearing down every institution associated with Western civilization
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and what white people have created simply because of its whiteness.
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Science have previously, of course, stood as a guard against such metaphorical and magical thinking.
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But bit by bit, our field of science is succumbing to it.
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White rage, or white backlash, is the violent resistance that some white people resort to
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when there is some progress made in regard to racial equality.
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It is the doubling down on white supremacy and racism
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when it is made evident that we are not going to tolerate this system of oppression anymore.
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It is a reminder to people of color that white people are still in power, and they should be.
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It is an attempt to maintain the hierarchy of power
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when it is made evident that this hierarchy is actually really harming marginalized identities.
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Christian backlash is the violent response, the response that some Christians resort to
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when it is made evident that Christianity is abusive.
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It is the demonizing of anybody that attempts to speak against Christianity.
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It is the destruction of their reputation, and it is the silencing of these people at whatever the cost.
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It is what some abusive Christians resort to, to be able to protect the good reputation of Christianity.
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Rage and backlash are dangerous, and their manifestations harm people.