An example of the new thinking to address perceived imperial connections to science was a paper penned by a curator and shared with staff, which claimed “science, racism, and colonial power were inherently entwined”.
The work further argues that “museums were put in place to legitimise a racist ideology”, that “covert racism exists in the gaps between the displays”, and as a result collections need to be decolonised.
The executive board of the museum is understood to be “very engaged with the many issues and questions it highlights”.
Legacies that may fall foul of the shift in opinion might be the exotic birds of Darwin and Captain Robert Fitzroy, as their shared journey to South American was “enable greater British control” of the region, according to the paper shared with staff.
Especially since, you know, Britain never did colonise nor control the region? Latin America remaining Latin. Other than British Guyana which is at the other end of that very continent.
There could also be calls for specimens gathered by Sir Joseph Banks to be addressed, as the botanist sailed with Captain James Cook on the Endeavor voyage in the service of the British Empire.
We’re getting to a corollary of pecunia non olet here. Stuffed birds are stuffed birds. How and why we got them is vastly less important than the fact we have them.
“ The work further argues that “museums were put in place to legitimise a racist ideology”, that “covert racism exists in the gaps between the displays”, and as a result collections need to be decolonised.”
Ok, I’ll accept that so time to stop State funding of museums. Nice tidy saving there.
Can we say about the arts? Another tidy sum to be saved there as well.
The work further argues that “museums were put in place to legitimise a racist ideology”
Then refuse to work in or visit them. Create your own if you want, or decide that the whole concept of a museum is illegitimate and boycott it.
What irritates me about the Left if that they never create anything, they just try to take over everything built up by people they hate. Parasitic.
Lions with flamethrowers.
“The work further…”
No, it’s not a ‘work’
It’s ill-informed personal opinion
And yes, the response should be to arrange that bunch receives no public money.
Argentina especially was a colony in all but name for Britain. It was controlled by British companies, who ran the meat trade as well as various other primary industries.
Peron, of course, threw all the foreigners out and started Argentina on its inexorable decline ( as well as supporting Germany in WW2).
Forgot to mention, it was British control of substances such as guano and alum from S America that gave the impetus to the German chemicals industry to find alternatives.
Back then museums reflected reality. And unfortunately reality is a tad racist. Or has been for the last few hundred years. If you build an honest museum it is going to be full of White people. Mostly northern Europeans.
Because they have done everything and the rest, well, they are Muggles. The magic really doesn’t work for them.
Maybe one day the rest of the human race will do something apart from murder and enslave each other. Maybe one day they will move beyond the higher Stone Age.
But they show little evidence of it so far.
I don’t think that the ship was called Endeavor, as that is the ship in the alternative universe that was American.
“Museums must be decolonised”.
Yes. As it’s the Woken SS that have been colonising museums, they are the ones who must be thrown out.
Everything remotely real at the Nat Hist Mus has already been moved to Tring – the collections of stuffed birds, butterflies, insects etc. The only stuff left in South Ken is moronic video game shit. The collection apartheid has already happened. Perhaps the diplodocus is more intelligent than anything in this study but it is hard to see how it embodies racism or colonialism
“Lions with flamethrowers.”
. . . and chainsaws.
” The work further argues that “museums were put in place to legitimise a racist ideology”, that “covert racism exists in the gaps between the displays”, and as a result collections need to be decolonised.”
‘Covert Racism’, i.e special, secret racism that only specially trained ‘Racism Finders General’can detect.
As for ‘decolonisation’, I’m sure that many English people would be glad to remove all non-English people from Merrie England.
“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
Destroy Britain’s past with specious claims. Simpson isn’t attacking your past, he is attacking your future.
‘An internal review in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests has led to an audit into some rooms and items’
Ahhh. The Museum responds to racist socialists.
Fire all involved. Full Ecksian treatment.
The creation of nations requires a common narrative. Hence with independence, the creation of a national anthem, a flag, a national airline and national museums. The problem is that left wing nutjobs are being allowed to rewrite national identity with claims of racism and the evils of colonialism. Jingoism was ugly and elements of the British Empire were ugly, but no more than most of the rest of human history. The correct response is to fire the left wing nutjobs and invite them to create their own nations elsewhere. The race hucksters need to have their soapboxes and public funding removed.
Where would we be if we were in the alternative parallel universe where the European “racists” and “imperialists” didn’t discover and invent the science and technologies that we have benefitted from?
Let’s imagine that Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Leibniz hadn’t been around or had not bothered with their studies and had spent their time farming or trading or playing the lute or doing law. Imagine if all of those that had followed them had done likewise. Perhaps the Japanese or Chinese might have delivered the development of science, but history suggests not.
More probably, we would still be sitting in our cold draughty hovels hoping that there’s enough food for winter and that the local lord or the neighbouring tribe was not going to come and take it for themselves.
Museums are generally redundant due to information technology and easier travel, so government funded them to keep them going, and this then led to them taking on the views of the establishment in order to keep that funding going.
I remember taking the kids to the Science museum and having a talk about an ex-slave engineer who designed something about the US railroad and thinking that this was only done to get lottery funding.
Must admit this sort of nonsense makes me far,far, far more anti-black/wog/foreigner than I ever was before.
inherently entwined”.