How many times have we heard folks say racism in America is becoming “a thing of the past” or at minimum “archaic in today’s dialog?” Well, clearly none of them have been as astute as over 70,000 of us who read, listen, watch and are attuned to the vast number of media outlets available in today’s Cyber-highway of communications.
On May 15th, Satoshi Kanazawa posted a power-storm of ignorance, UNscientific shenanigans, and down-right race-baiting, which hit the media airwaves and was pounced on by many of you who share our intense fury. Satoshi posted an article discussing his perceived proof that Black women are less physically attractive than woman of any other race. Satoshi is well known to be an antagonist and a flagrant instigator of ignorance and unscientific arguments on social issues that cross the gamut from race, to politics, to economics, to anything and almost everything in between! Shall I say, he didn’t let the expectations flounder in his post that day either! What caught our collective attention was that his post actually got released by one of the most respected scientific online journal sites, read by thousands upon thousands, Psychology Today. Although the post has since been removed from their website, along with references to its history, if you’d like to see a “snapshot” please visit the link below.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/why-black-women-are-less-physically-attractive-tha
Thank God for an amazing action group that gives us not only a forum where we can collaborate and share our feelings, but also provides us a mechanism to respond, reaching large numbers of people in a short period of time. ColorofChange.org is an African American not-for-profit, social action organization whose work has successfully shut down the likes of Andrew Breitbart’s interview on ABC TV, as well as Glenn Beck of FOX TV (whose contract and show are no longer apart of FOX TV’s programming rotations).
On Monday, May 23, ColorofChange.org sent a petition responding to this egregious article, demanding an explanation, and asking what Psychology Today would do to ensure this never happened again. After days of silence, on May 27th, the editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, Kaja Perina, contacted ColorofChange and offered their apology. Please visit the ColorofChange.org web site or Facebook page to see a copy of the response. In essence, what was received was a weak acknowledgement of the racial hysteria raised by the article, connected to their further acknowledgement of a “prompt” removal from their site. Although it states they’ve taken measures to prevent this sort of “racism or prejudice of any sort” from ever happening again on their site, what isn’t said is a verbatim explanation of ‘what’ those measures were.
We should feel proud and affirmed by the swift response and appropriate action by the editor and staff of Psychology Today. After all, the incendiary post was swiftly removed and in a relatively short time an apology was extended. Of course we must recognize that this is but one small victory. The Village needs to wake up, get proactive and remain vigilant, so that we seriously become memorialized for eradicating racism, one of our nation’s most virile social ills.
Yes! It really takes the whole village!
Lynda Holiday Lawrence
TUCC Justice Watch Team
