by Systemic racism and sexism have permeated civilization since the rise of agriculture, when people began to live in one place for long periods of time. Early Western scientists, like Aristotle in Ancient Greece, were indoctrinated with the ethnocentric and misogynistic narratives that pervaded their society. More than 2,000 years after Aristotle’s writings, the English naturalist Charles Darwin also extrapolated the sexist and racist stories he heard and read in his youth to the natural world.
Darwin presented his biased views as scientific facts, for example in his 1871 book “The Descent of Man,” where he described his belief that men are evolutionarily superior to women, that Europeans are superior to non-European civilizations and hierarchical civilizations better than small balanced societies. In that book, which is continuously studied in schools and natural history museums, he considered that “the sensual ornaments and music so insignificant that most people appreciate” were “not so highly developed certain animals, for example, in birds,” and compared the appearance of Africans to New World monkeys Pithecia satanas.
“The Descent of Man” was published during a turbulent moment in continental European society. In France, the working class Paris Commune took to the streets to demand radical social change, including the reversal of the societal hierarchy. Darwin’s claims that the natural result of evolutionary progress was the subjugation of the poor, non-Europeans and women was music to the ears of the elite and those in power within academia. Historian of science Janet Browne has written that Darwin’s meteoric rise within Victorian society was not despite his racist and sexist writings but largely because of them.
It is no coincidence that Darwin had a state funeral in Westminster Abbey, an honorable sign of English power, and was publicly commemorated as a symbol of “England’s success in the domination of nature and the civilization of the world during the long reign of Victoria”.
Despite the significant societal changes that have taken place over the past 150 years, sexist and racist narratives are still prevalent in science, medicine and education. As a teacher and researcher at Howard University, I am interested in combining my main fields of study, biology and anthropology, to discuss broader societal issues. In research I recently published with my colleague Fatimah Jackson and three medical students at Howard University, we show that stories of racism and sexism are not the same in the past: They are still present in scientific papers, textbooks, museums and educational materials .
From museums to scientific papers
One example of how biased stories are still present in science today is the many depictions of human evolution as a linear trend from darker and more “prime” people to “progressive” people with a lighter skin tone. Natural history museums, websites and UNESCO heritage sites have reflected this trend.
The fact that such representations are not accurate does not prevent their continued circulation. About 11% of people living today are of “white” or European descent. Images that show a linear progression to whiteness do not represent human evolution or what people living today look like, as a whole. In addition, there is no scientific evidence that supports progressive skin whitening. Lighter skin pigmentation evolved mainly within some groups that migrated to non-African regions with high or low latitudes, such as the northern regions of America, Europe and Asia.
Sexual stories still cross the academic world. For example, in a 2021 paper on a famous early human fossil found at the Sierra de Atapuerca archeological site in Spain, researchers examined the canine teeth of the remains and found that it belonged to a 9- to 11-year-old girl. actually exist. It was previously believed that the fossil was a boy because of a popular book from 2002 by one of the authors of that paper, paleoanthropologist José María Bermúdez de Castro. What is particularly telling is that the authors of the study recognized that there was no scientific reason for naming the fossil remains as man in the first place. The decision, they wrote, arose “at random.”
But these choices are not truly random. Demonstrations of human evolution often show only men. In the few instances where women are depicted, they tend to be depicted as passive mothers, not as active inventors, cave painters or food gatherers, despite available anthropological data showing prehistoric women to be all of those things.
Another example of sexual narrative in science is how researchers continue to discuss the evolution of the “bridge” of the female orgasm. Darwin created stories about how women were evolutionarily “coy” and sexually passive, although he acknowledged that females actively choose their sexual partners in most mammal species. As a Victorian, he found it difficult to accept that women could take an active part in choosing a partner, so he argued that such roles only applied to women in early human evolution. According to Darwin, men later began to choose women sexually.
Sexist stories about women being more “coy” and “less sexual,” including the idea of the female orgasm as an evolutionary response, are contradicted by a wide range of evidence. For example, women are the ones who more often experience multiple orgasms as well as more complex, elaborate and intense orgasms on average, compared to men. Women are not biologically less sexual, but sex stereotypes are accepted as scientific fact.
The vicious cycle of systemic racism and sexism
Educational materials, including textbooks and anatomical atlases used by science and medical students, play a critical role in perpetuating biased narratives. For example, the 2017 edition of “Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy,” which is commonly used by medical students and clinical professionals, includes about 180 figures depicting skin color. Of these, the vast majority show male individuals with white skin, and only two individuals show “darker” skin. This perpetuates the portrayal of white men as the anatomical prototype of the human species and does not display the full anatomical diversity of humans.
Authors of educational materials for children also replicate the biases in scientific publications, museums and textbooks. For example, the cover of a 2016 coloring book titled “The Evolution of Living Things” shows human evolution as a linear trend from darker “primitive” creatures to “civilized” Western man. be scientists, journalists, museum curators, politicians, authors or illustrators.
One of the main characteristics of systemic racism and sexism is that it is perpetuated unconsciously by people who often do not realize that the stories and choices they make are biased. Academics can address longstanding racist, sexist and Western-centric biases by being more alert and proactive in detecting and correcting these influences in their work. Allowing inaccurate narratives to continue to circulate in science, medicine, education and the media will not only perpetuate these stories for generations to come, but also the oppression, oppression and atrocities that they were justified in the past.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a non-profit, independent news organization that brings you reliable facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Rui Diogo, Howard University
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Rui Diogo does not work for, consult with, or own shares or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article this, and did not disclose any relevant connections beyond their academic appointment.
