• Contact
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
  • Login
The African Business - News About African business
  • Home
  • EconomyNew
    Zanzibar’s president is looking to make horticulture a significant part of his country’s economy

    Zanzibar’s president is looking to make horticulture a significant part of his country’s economy

    Zimbabwe cuts world’s highest interest rate as inflation eases

    Zimbabwe cuts world’s highest interest rate as inflation eases

    Convergence Partners raises $296 million to drive digital inclusion across Africa

    Convergence Partners raises $296 million to drive digital inclusion across Africa

    Trending Tags

  • Business
    Shell oil tanker questioned over payment of losses and damages

    Shell oil tanker questioned over payment of losses and damages

    Africa: SEFA Grants $1 Million to Seven Countries to Develop Electric Mobility

    Africa: SEFA Grants $1 Million to Seven Countries to Develop Electric Mobility

    Richest African man building fourth cement plant in Nigeria

    Richest African man building fourth cement plant in Nigeria

    World’s Richest Rankings: Aliko Dangote maintain his position as Africa’s richest man

    World’s Richest Rankings: Aliko Dangote maintain his position as Africa’s richest man

    Global tech billionaires eye Zambia’s electric vehicle battery mines

    Global tech billionaires eye Zambia’s electric vehicle battery mines

    Africa will have 57 million pay TV subscribers by 2028, report

    Africa will have 57 million pay TV subscribers by 2028, report

    Africa startups defy funding slump as debt financing fuels growth

    Africa startups defy funding slump as debt financing fuels growth

    Port of Maputo achieves new handling record, sees soaring chrome throughput

    Port of Maputo achieves new handling record, sees soaring chrome throughput

    Court told Anglo turned blind eye to Zambian lead poisoning

    Court told Anglo turned blind eye to Zambian lead poisoning

  • Finance
    Digital banking revolution can help SA banks regain their customers’ love, says BCG

    Digital banking revolution can help SA banks regain their customers’ love, says BCG

    Nigeria launches payments card program to rival Visa and Mastercard

    Nigeria launches payments card program to rival Visa and Mastercard

    Mastercard and ZoodPay join forces to launch the first virtual installment card across EEMEA

    Mastercard and ZoodPay join forces to launch the first virtual installment card across EEMEA

    MoneyGram joins forces with BOTIM to launch international money transfer to over 200 countries

    MoneyGram joins forces with BOTIM to launch international money transfer to over 200 countries

    There was a 25% increase in finance app installs across Africa between 2021 and 2022

    There was a 25% increase in finance app installs across Africa between 2021 and 2022

    Yellow Card expands payment feature across Africa

    Yellow Card expands payment feature across Africa

    Government starts payment of $674,5 trillion matured securities

    Government starts payment of $674,5M matured securities

    South African rand steady with investor focus on Fed minutes

    South African rand steady with investor focus on Fed minutes

    South Africa recently declared bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be financial products

    South Africa recently declared bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be financial products

  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Green Economy
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • EconomyNew
    Zanzibar’s president is looking to make horticulture a significant part of his country’s economy

    Zanzibar’s president is looking to make horticulture a significant part of his country’s economy

    Zimbabwe cuts world’s highest interest rate as inflation eases

    Zimbabwe cuts world’s highest interest rate as inflation eases

    Convergence Partners raises $296 million to drive digital inclusion across Africa

    Convergence Partners raises $296 million to drive digital inclusion across Africa

    Trending Tags

  • Business
    Shell oil tanker questioned over payment of losses and damages

    Shell oil tanker questioned over payment of losses and damages

    Africa: SEFA Grants $1 Million to Seven Countries to Develop Electric Mobility

    Africa: SEFA Grants $1 Million to Seven Countries to Develop Electric Mobility

    Richest African man building fourth cement plant in Nigeria

    Richest African man building fourth cement plant in Nigeria

    World’s Richest Rankings: Aliko Dangote maintain his position as Africa’s richest man

    World’s Richest Rankings: Aliko Dangote maintain his position as Africa’s richest man

    Global tech billionaires eye Zambia’s electric vehicle battery mines

    Global tech billionaires eye Zambia’s electric vehicle battery mines

    Africa will have 57 million pay TV subscribers by 2028, report

    Africa will have 57 million pay TV subscribers by 2028, report

    Africa startups defy funding slump as debt financing fuels growth

    Africa startups defy funding slump as debt financing fuels growth

    Port of Maputo achieves new handling record, sees soaring chrome throughput

    Port of Maputo achieves new handling record, sees soaring chrome throughput

    Court told Anglo turned blind eye to Zambian lead poisoning

    Court told Anglo turned blind eye to Zambian lead poisoning

  • Finance
    Digital banking revolution can help SA banks regain their customers’ love, says BCG

    Digital banking revolution can help SA banks regain their customers’ love, says BCG

    Nigeria launches payments card program to rival Visa and Mastercard

    Nigeria launches payments card program to rival Visa and Mastercard

    Mastercard and ZoodPay join forces to launch the first virtual installment card across EEMEA

    Mastercard and ZoodPay join forces to launch the first virtual installment card across EEMEA

    MoneyGram joins forces with BOTIM to launch international money transfer to over 200 countries

    MoneyGram joins forces with BOTIM to launch international money transfer to over 200 countries

    There was a 25% increase in finance app installs across Africa between 2021 and 2022

    There was a 25% increase in finance app installs across Africa between 2021 and 2022

    Yellow Card expands payment feature across Africa

    Yellow Card expands payment feature across Africa

    Government starts payment of $674,5 trillion matured securities

    Government starts payment of $674,5M matured securities

    South African rand steady with investor focus on Fed minutes

    South African rand steady with investor focus on Fed minutes

    South Africa recently declared bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be financial products

    South Africa recently declared bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be financial products

  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Green Economy
No Result
View All Result
The African Business - News About African business
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

White Guilt and Black Science

TAB by TAB
03/10/2022
in Opinion
0
White Guilt and Black Science
0
SHARES
1
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

White Guilt and Black Science

Last spring, I gave a talk at St. Vincent College on “Black Privilege and Racial Hysteria in Contemporary America.” It went exactly as you’d expect it to go. I denounced the widespread system of preferential treatment that benefits our fellow black citizens, including the prohibition on noticing said system. The university proceeded to prove my point by hysterically denouncing me as—wait for it—a racist and imposing a draconian policy to restrict outside speakers on campus.

Related posts

Develop enabling legislation to fuel the cannabis sector to new highs and boost the economy

Develop enabling legislation to fuel the cannabis sector to new highs and boost the economy

30/01/2023
1
Effective implementation strategies for more reliable development agendas in Africa

Effective implementation strategies for more reliable development agendas in Africa

23/01/2023
1

Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose newfound fame is due to America’s seemingly endless appetite for racial flagellation, recently caught wind of an excerpt from my speech in which I criticized the excessive praise showered on mediocre black composers, scientists, and writers from the past. “If he were not black, no one in America today would know who George Washington Carver is,” I said.

In response, the mother of the infamous “1619 Project” tweeted: “It is truly a heady cocktail of hubris, ignorance and mediocrity to claim that a Black men [sic] born into slavery who became one of the most renowned scientists of his time wouldn’t be celebrated if he weren’t Black and actually had to work for his acclaim like white men did.”

That is quite the claim. Carver’s “time” spanned from 1896, when he was hired by Booker T. Washington to teach at the Tuskegee Institute, until his death in 1943. His career thus overlapped with those of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, and Ivan Pavlov, to name but some of the most prominent Nobel laureates from that era.

Carver’s claim to scientific fame, by contrast, lies in…well, that is actually hard to say. He obviously did not win a Nobel Prize. In fact, he never won any scientific prizes. Nor did he ever publish articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. His most famous publication was a bulletin entitled “How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing It for Human Consumption,” in which he gratefully acknowledges drawing from Good Housekeeping, The Montgomery Advertiser, Wallace’s Farmer and a number of other magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks.

Carver also did not leave behind any scientific manuscripts or laboratory notebooks. His published works were “free, simply-written brochures that included information on crops, cultivation techniques, and recipes for nutritious meals.” He obtained three patents in his lifetime: two for paints and stains, and one for a cosmetic containing peanut oil.

In the popular imagination, Carver is the man who invented peanut butter. That honor, in truth, belongs to the cereal pioneer John Harvey Kellogg. Carver is also credited with developing some 300 peanut-derived products. Setting aside the fact that the list contains significant double-counting, many of those 300 items were clearly not invented by Carver (salted peanuts, for example). And while I love “chocolate-coated peanuts” as much as the next guy, I fail to see how they constitute a scientific innovation. Even if one of his peanut products were to have some scientific application, Carver left behind no formulas for them. As such, they can neither be reproduced nor evaluated.

None of Carver’s purported inventions were commercially successful. The company he founded, Carver Penol Company, sold a peanut-based medicine for respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis. It flopped and was deemed ineffective by the Food and Drug Administration.

In 1960, the National Park Service (NPS), which administers the George Washington Carver National Monument, commissioned a study of Carver’s scientific achievements from two professors at the University of Missouri. After receiving the report, the NPS concluded it should not be circulated as its “realistic appraisal of his ‘scientific contributions,’ which loom so large in the Carver legend, is information which must be handled very carefully as far as outsiders are concerned.”

In Carver’s defense, he never claimed to be a great scientist. One of his students, who worked with him in his lab, later recalled: “When I could not find the ‘real’ scientist in him, I became hurt. …I should have known better since time and again he made it clear to me that he was primarily an artist who created good…out of natural things. He knew that he was not ‘a real chemist’ so-called ‘engaged’ in…applied chemical research. He used to say to me jokingly, ‘You and I are ‘cook-stove chemists’ but we dare not admit it, because it would damage the publicity that Dr. Moton [Booker T. Washington’s successor] and his assistants send out in press releases about me and my research, for his money-raising campaigns.”

Carver was by all accounts a good man who sincerely wanted to help the lot of Southern farmers. He urged them to practice crop rotation and freely disseminated his agricultural advice and recipes. None of this, however, warrants his inclusion in the pantheon of great American scientists. It is simply true that, had Carver been white, he would have sunk into obscurity. Instead, he is better known today than John Bardeen, the American physicist who is the only person to ever win two Nobel Prizes in Physics.

Why, then, is Carver one of the very first pictures Google yields when you search “famous American scientists?” The answer, as always, lies in our collective psyche: the interplay between white Americans who, haunted by guilt of the past, are desperate to flatter black Americans to prove they are not racist, and blacks, who embrace the flattery to feel content that their historical accomplishments are on par with those of whites in every last realm.

Both whites and blacks thus have a vested interest in lying about the past—and the present. Both get angry at those who call out the lies. The number and magnitude of the lies they tell will only continue to increase until well-intentioned Americans of all races take a firm stand against the racial demagoguery that now defines our public life.

David Azerrad is an assistant professor at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

White Guilt and Black Science

Source: David Azerrad, in Newsweek
Previous Post

As he plots Liverpool revival, Klopp says even Ronaldo has confidence dips

Next Post

An Early Conservative Victory in the War on Big Tech

Next Post
An Early Conservative Victory in the War on Big Tech

An Early Conservative Victory in the War on Big Tech

RECOMMENDED NEWS

Private Investment in Africa is Exceeding Expectations in 2021, According to New AVCA Report

Private Investment in Africa is Exceeding Expectations in 2021, According to New AVCA Report

1 year ago
4
Apple accused of mishandling sex misconduct complaints

Apple accused of mishandling sex misconduct complaints

6 months ago
2
Climate emergency in Africa: time for adaptation solutions

Climate emergency in Africa: time for adaptation solutions

3 months ago
2
Oil prices set to rise as Opec countries cut output

Oil prices set to rise as Opec countries cut output

4 months ago
5

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

  • Business
  • Economy
  • Finance
  • Green Economy
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Uncategorized

Ads

Categories

  • Business
  • Economy
  • Finance
  • Green Economy
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Uncategorized
The African Business – News About African business

We bring you the best Premium news about African Business.

Follow us on social media:

Recent News

  • Zanzibar’s president is looking to make horticulture a significant part of his country’s economy
  • Shell oil tanker questioned over payment of losses and damages
  • Africa: SEFA Grants $1 Million to Seven Countries to Develop Electric Mobility

Category

  • Business
  • Economy
  • Finance
  • Green Economy
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Uncategorized

Legal Information

Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy
Complaints Book

  • Contact

© 2021 The African Business

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Green Economy

© 2021 The African Business

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In