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 On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Jonah Cohen <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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>
> 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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