At Western Washington University. Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne has the story: (with Imperial College London also poised to Cancel)
Over at Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham, WA, 19th-century biologist Thomas Henry Huxley is poised for cancellation in December, for the administration has contemplated (and will surely enact) changing the name of its well known Huxley College of the Environment, listed as one of the Unversity’s “notable degree programs“. In an ill-conceived, erroneous, and poorly written critique of Huxley as a racist, a document on the website of the President of WWU made the case to rename the college. (A better case for renaming was that Huxley really didn’t have anything to do with WWU, but if the name’s there, presumably there was a reason—possibly to honor the man.)
The case for cancelling Huxley is weak, and vanishes when you take into account the good he did. Later in his life he was an abolitionist, reformer of education, and a lecturer on science to working people, as well as a crack scientist. You can read my pieces pieces on Huxley and WWU here, here, here and especially here, which links to Nick Matzke’s terrific defense of Huxley and critique of WWU’s shameful and ignorant cancellation.
Jerry Coyne, “T. H. Huxley about to be cancelled at Imperial College London” at Why Evolution Is True (October 27, 2021)
W. D. Hamilton, Ronald Fisher, and J. B. S. Haldane are likewise threatened.
The Cancellers are, of course, protesting that they do respect free speech… Coyne isn’t buying it.
We never thought it would happen but it is happening… so fast.
A couple of notes on the fly:
Can Darwin really survive Cancel Culture when all his messengers are Unpersons?
Coyne’s defense of Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) as not really racist and on account of all the good he did is ham-handed. First, Huxley was really racist. Almost all educated Brits were in those days, more or less. The environment of the Empire on which the Sun Never Set and America rising!, encouraged that vice. If the Woke succeed in Cancelling it all, there will be little left of English-speaking culture. Maybe that’s a feature, not a bug…
Second, for heaven’s sakes, the Woke don’t care about “good.” They need a level playing field in which to safely enjoy the rewards of mediocrity, with no expectation of achievement other than obedient Correctness. That’s all they can aspire to. Racism is their battering ram.
They use that ram because it works. Look how many True Believers in Darwin’s and Huxley’s message just surrendered. Coyne had better get used to fighting alone and becoming the victim of vile, false aspersions.
Third, the decision of the big Darwin-in-the-Schools lobby, the National Council for Science Education, to go big into anti-climate change politics was prescient. So far, anything barked in the name of opposing climate change is likely to be safe. If they have to, they can denounce Darwin too and still keep their funding – to fight climate change, mainly.
And lastly, of course, the Darwinists themselves helped create and maintain the culture in which they now squirm. Given the circumstances, we’d even help them – if we could. We warned them a long time ago to take the racism seriously while rational discussion was still possible. But they sneered.
Story developing…
You may also wish to read: Darwin reader: Darwin’s racism