Last week Psychology Today posted a blog claiming that Black women are "objectively" less beautiful than women of other races. Its author, Satoshi Kanazawa, is notorious for hiding behind pseudoscience to promote discredited racist and sexist ideas.
Under increasing scrutiny, Psychology Today removed the blog post from their site, but over a week later they still haven't issued an apology.
This blog joins ColorOfChange in demanding that Psychology Today (a)apologize, (b) explain how the blog post got past their editors, and (c) tell us howthey'll make sure nothing like this happens again.
Kanazawa's article is flawed from top to bottom. Using a flawed data-set from an unrelated study of teenagers, he draws the obviously false conclusion that Black women are "objectively" less attractive than women from other racial groups.
Kanazawa has a long history of hiding behind pseudo-science to express racist and sexist views. He once wrote an article asking "Are All Women Essentially Prostitutes?" and another suggesting that the US should have dropped nuclear bombs across the entire Middle East after 9/11 because it would have wiped out Muslim terrorists.
So why does Psychology Today continue to give him a platform? Black women must constantly face both subtle and explicit messages that they are valued less than women of other races -- messages that are especially damaging to Black girls. Now they've served as launching point for yet another attack, this time in the name of science.
To undo the damage it's done, Psychology Today needs to explicitly reject Kanazawa's ideas.
Kanazawa's article is flawed from top to bottom. Using a flawed data-set from an unrelated study of teenagers, he draws the obviously false conclusion that Black women are "objectively" less attractive than women from other racial groups.
Kanazawa has a long history of hiding behind pseudo-science to express racist and sexist views. He once wrote an article asking "Are All Women Essentially Prostitutes?" and another suggesting that the US should have dropped nuclear bombs across the entire Middle East after 9/11 because it would have wiped out Muslim terrorists.So why does Psychology Today continue to give him a platform? Black women must constantly face both subtle and explicit messages that they are valued less than women of other races -- messages that are especially damaging to Black girls. Now they've served as launching point for yet another attack, this time in the name of science.
To undo the damage it's done, Psychology Today needs to explicitly reject Kanazawa's ideas.
Please sign the online petition today!
3 comments:
What a disgusting thing to add to the already white dominated idea of beauty. Black women are beautiful,some of the most gorgeous females I have seen have been black. It is so shameful the way that they are lied to and forced to change their hair in toxic harmful ways to match the ever in your face white vision of beauty. I am just one white guy, but I know beauty. It makes me so sad to know that cute little black girls have to grow up with only a few generic looking black versions of white dolls, and to be surrounded by a society with so little appreciation for any group of people who are not white.
Instead of jumping and getting offended, you should understand what "objectively" means. He can release whatever he wants, whether it upsets you or not. There are racial and sexual differences between humans, and ignoring that fact is spreading ignorance instead of understanding.
dmcgil - I appreciate your comment ... and I agree with you. There are many beautiful Black women and they shouldn't feel obligated by societal pressure to whiten their appearance.
b7053360 - I think that the problem in this article is that the author tried to cloak his opinions as "science". That didn't wash with most ... including Psychology Today, who later pulled the article from their website.
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