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Well, not to get too far off topic.  I don't think my comments are  
tainted by
being a future dead white man, but part of the glory of many of those  
named
achievements is where they came from.   How many, especially the  
Americans, were
either an orphan and/or from a very, very, poor family, or was the  
child of an
orphan and/or very poor family.





On May 20, 2008, at 3:05 PM, David Smith wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> ********************************************************************** 
> *******
>
>  On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Jonah Cohen <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> ***********************************************
>>
>> The individuals David cites below are all well and good... Yet I was
>> struck by his disdain for dead white men - and dead white women.
>>
>> Yeah, I guess if someone was white, they're of just ho-hum.
>>
>> Look, encouraging diversity is an important goal, but trying to do  
>> it in
>> the wrong way just won't work, imho. And declaring that if someone  
>> lived
>> a long time ago and was white then they can't possibly be useful to
>> today's students is definitely the wrong way. Concede defeat to the
>> creationists, cause Darwin and Wallace were both DWM.
> It's not that these dead white men weren't important - just that as  
> members
> of the privileged class, they get more than their fair share of ink
> already.  And it's not the people who are ho-hum, just that  
> particular list
> of them.  Emphasizing minorities in exhibits or other places isn't  
> denying
> the importance of the persons from the group occupying the privileged
> position, it's just a small way of trying to make the other classes  
> less
> invisible.  Science centers aren't responsible alone for writing  
> the wrongs
> of bias in history, but neither should we be exempt from doing our  
> part.
>
> Dave Smith, who will himself, someday, be a DWM, but who hopes the  
> memory of
> his accomplishments won't be privileged solely because of that fact.
>
> -- 
> David L. Smith
> Da Vinci Science Center
> Allentown, PA
> http://www.davinci-center.org
>
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Mike Slayton
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