WASHINGTON – A landmark journal research article published by the Howard University School of Medicine and Department of Biology examines how racist and sexist depictions of human evolution still pervade a wide range of cultural material in popular media, education and science.
Howard’s multidisciplinary, interdepartmental research team was led by Rui Diogo, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, and Fatima Jackson, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, and included three medical students: Adeyemi Adesomo, Kimberley. S. Farmer and Rachel J. Kim. The article “Not Just the Past: Racist and Sexist Prejudices Still Permeate Biology, Anthropology, Medicine, and Education” appeared in the latest issue of the prestigious scientific journal Evolutionary Anthropology.
“While much of the discussion on this topic is more theoretical, our article provides direct, intuitive evidence of what systemic racism and sexism really looks like,” said Diogo, lead author of the journal article. “We not only in popular culture, but also in museums and textbooks, continue to see descriptions of human evolution as the linear trend from dark-skinned, supposedly more ‘primitive’ people to light-skinned, more ‘civilized’ people shown in the article.”
According to Jackson, the constant and inaccurate description of demography and evolution in the scientific literature distorts the true view of human biological variability.
She continued: “These inaccuracies have been known for some time now, and the fact that they persist from generation to generation suggests that racism and sexism may well play other roles in our society – ‘whiteness’, male supremacy and the exclusion of ‘others’. “. from many areas of society.
For example, the article highlights images of human fossils by renowned paleoartist John Gurch, which are on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. According to the researchers, this image suggests a linear “progression” of human evolution from dark skin pigmentation to light skin pigmentation. The paper points out that this portrayal is inaccurate, noting that only about 14 percent of people alive today identify as “white.” The researchers also suggest that the very concept of race is part of another inaccurate narrative, as race does not exist in living organisms. our kind.
“These images downplay not only the complexity of our evolution, but also our recent evolutionary history,” said third-year medical student Kimberly Farmer, co-author of the paper.
The authors of the article carefully studied descriptions of evolution: images from scientific articles, museums and cultural heritage sites, documentaries and TV shows, medical textbooks and even educational materials that have been seen by millions of children around the world. The paper notes that systemic racism and sexism have existed since the earliest days of human civilization and are not unique to Western countries.
Howard University, founded in 1867, is a private research university with 14 colleges and schools. Students study in more than 140 undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. In pursuit of excellence in truth and service, the university has produced two Schwartzman Scholars, four Marshall Scholars, four Rhodes Scholars, 12 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Scholars, and more than 165 Fulbright Awards. Howard has also produced more African-American PhDs on campus. More recipients than any other US university. For more information about Howard University, visit www.howard.edu.
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Post time: Sep-08-2023