Not Really News
Let me explain. I was all set to write about this atrocious, awful, devastating article — so despicable in so many ways it planted a seed of horror, anger, dejection, etcetera deep in the annals of my stomach. But before I even put metaphoric pen to figurative paper, somewhere in the midst of trying to piece together an analysis and an emotion, I realized: I’m way too tired to write about tragedy right now. Reading about tragedy is important. Sharing it is equally, if not more, important. But to continue writing about it, to beat the shit out of it until we’re all so sad and tired of agreeing and talking and waiting patiently for things to change – that somehow feels less so. I’m sharing the article because it’s important, but it’s not what I’m here to brief you on. It doesn’t warrant a “brief.” Just read the whole thing, when you’re ready.
I’m going to reserve the “brief” space for a lovely little piece I stumbled across after deciding I couldn’t write about the other and also do it justice and be okay – not tonight.
But where did I look for other content? Where does one turn to try and turn one’s face away from hard truths?
I can’t speak for everyone, but you can probably guess that I look to The New York Times food section. I gain great solace from reading recipes, and pieces about recipes, and by some perfect coincident, the most recent piece posted was entitled, “Now Is the Time for the Comfort of Swan Shaped Pastries.” Fuck yeah! Hit me with the comfort swan pastries.
Her opening describes my feeling at this moment with eerie precision, and I pinch myself to make sure this isn’t some weird trip in which I’m reading my stream of consciousness in a news article (did I unknowingly take acid lately?):
“I’ve enjoyed some electric spikes of optimism and even some exhilaration over the past many months, but they’ve ended like junk-food highs; generally, I’ve found myself feeling uncommonly bleak. I try to tune it out, look to the light, but even the food pages have grown heavy.”
Well, fuck. I came here for some peace and the first article I click on tells me in the first two sentences that even the place I normally get peace from will not give me peace.
I keep reading, though, and this particular article decomposes into a beautiful meditation on using ostentation and tedium to cure the melancholy which so potently infects the air lately. More importantly, maybe it offers a soft solution. An avenue for coping. It doesn’t promise repose, it merely suggests it. It isn’t news, not technically, but maybe it is more of what should be peppering our papers. When a dish is unbalanced, we add things to make it manageable for our palate. We add salt, or butter, or vinegar, to make all of the flavors simultaneously vibrant. Why don’t we treat our news the same? Why don’t we indulge in pieces grounded firmly in delight amidst all the adversity? Would sprinkles of joy make the adverse chunks more vivid?
I can’t answer objectively. But I think we all might feel a little more compelled to act if only we felt a little less numb from the grief. Make swans, or don’t. But do add a bit of spice to your news consumption this week, even if it’s not this particular brand of pepper:
-NG
Leave Geneticists Out of It
The New York Times recently published an article about an act of white supremacy I was unaware of: chugging milk to prove genetic superiority. No, really. I thought it was a joke, but it’s not. In front of Shia LaBeouf’s live art installation last year, a group of white supremacists gathered to chug milk to prove their ability to digest lactose as adults, using ableism and “science” to support their argument that “if you can’t drink milk, you have to go back.” This act has resurged in media because of the American Society of Human Genetics meeting on Friday, October 19th, where scientists felt a need to publicly denounce any link between genetic research and racial supremacy arguments.
There are so many things wrong with this whole situation – semantic and scientific – that I don’t even know where to start.
1. Once again, white supremacists are appropriating scientific information for their cause.
As someone interested in a STEM career, I am pretty sick of people besmirching science’s good name for nefarious purposes, especially since this is not the first time science has been misinterpreted to push for genetic superiority. At the turn of the 19th century, Herbert Spencer used Darwin’s laws of natural selection and evolution to support his theory that human society functioned the same way, thereby justifying racist and imperialist motives for subjugating other people. Since Social Darwinism has been largely discredited, you think we would have learned from the past – yet here we are again.
You also can’t blindly pull information out of a scientific paper because that’s not how science works. A single experiment is not grounds for widespread generalizations; you need an array of repeatable testable experiments to come up with even a tentative theory. Even then, context is so important! The diff between a well-supported argument and riff-raff is understanding the sources you draw from in terms of the whole and in terms of author intent.
2. Who even thinks chugging milk is intimidating or impressive in any way? Does this group of white supremacists expect people of color to go, Wow, your ability to digest milk is so scary that I’ll leave the country because I am clearly no match for your might? In what universe would this tactic work? (Nevermind that a population of African descendants who hail from cattle breeders are also tolerant to lactose, rendering the threat moot. Nevermind that I am tolerant to lactose, although I have Asian heritage.)
It seems even more unbelievable that this “milk superiority” has precedent as well, but it does. In fact, the milk and white superiority connection dates back to the rhetoric used by organizations the 1930s. Here is an actual quote from the History of Agriculture of the State of New York:
“A casual look at the races of people seems to show that those using much milk are the strongest physically and mentally, and the most enduring of the people of the world.”
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. The Neo-Nazi movement has wholeheartedly adopted this milk-based supremacy argument, most notably with Richard Spencer and Tim Treadstone adding milk symbols to their signs.
3. Stop wasting all that milk by pouring it over your face and letting it drip down your chin, goddammit! Not only is it wasteful, but it makes milk look bad.
Unfortunately, this white supremacist milk incident isn’t the only thing that has been giving geneticists a bad name. Thanks to 23andMe and other private genomics companies, the grounds to split hairs over genetic heritage are more present than ever. In fact, Senator Elizabeth Warren recently angered the Cherokee Nation when she took a DNA test to prove her Native American ancestry – fortunately under a more stringent methodology under Stanford University. She took the test in response to President Trump’s goading and promise to donate one million dollars to Native American charities if she could prove her background. To be fair, many people would jump at the opportunity to make President Trump eat his words, so I see why she did it. Still, her results allegedly show a Native American ancestor six to ten generations ago – a negligible percentage compared to her mainly European composition. I can’t help but feel like we’re living in some weird alternative reality where people are suddenly embracing the One Drop Rule – yes, that rule that discriminated against any person with a single sub-Saharan African ancestor. It feels like everyone is scrambling to prove that their ancestry, something they had no control over, is suddenly a source of personal merit.
A South Park video making fun of 23andMe and other private DNA ancestry companies. TW: explicit language, crude humor, typical South Park obscenities.
I’m not saying that using science outside of academia is bad. I think the white supremacists had the right idea looking to science to make themselves seem more credible; I understand why DNA ancestry tests might be exciting to take despite the dubious results. Believe it or not, I’m glad that we live in a society where we trust technology and science as paradigms of truth. Still, if you’re going to do research on a topic or support your claims with scientific tests, please make sure you are accurately and consistently representing the information you have collected. That being said, if you are operating with an agenda to willfully distort scientific research and public perception: for the love of all things holy and not-so-holy, leave geneticists out of it.
-Monica
www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/white-supremacists-science-dna.html
www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/white-supremacists-science-genetics.html
The Junction Journal 