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NEWS & LETTERS, June 2002
OUR LIFE AND TIMES: 'Scientific' racismIn May, in a solemn ceremony attended by government officials and members of the Khoisan people, Saartje Baartman's remains were returned to her native South Africa. Lured to Europe in 1810 by a British surgeon who promised to make her rich, this young woman instead found herself confined and exhibited like a circus animal. Dubbed the "Hottentot Venus," Baartman was also "studied" by the noted French scientist Georges Cuvier, who pronounced her body movements similar to "those of an ape." After Baartman died in 1816, Cuvier dissected her body, parts of which were preserved in formaldehyde jars at the Musee de l'Homme in Paris. This early 19th century atrocity was a marker in the birth of a new form of racism, one that justified white domination on "scientific" grounds. Long refuted by 20th century science under the impact of the anti-fascist and Black liberation movements, this type of racism still lives on in more subtle forms, including the debates over race and test scores. |
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