I’ve seen this online every so often: evolution depicted as racist. Critics might point to Charles Darwin, because of the subtitle of On the Origin of Species, or they’ll bring up eugenics. Neither accusation is particularly fair or sensible.
At the same time, biblical literalists in the past cited the “curse of Ham” (one of Noah’s sons) as justification for slavery. That’s not something you hear from Creationists today.
The simple fact is if someone wants to connect one side to racism, there’s material out there to use, whether it’s fair or not.
The video below, outside a few careless generalizations, does a surprisingly good job of going through all these details connecting (or rather disconnecting) evolution with racism. And that’s a weird thing to say because the video was made by Todd Wood, a “Young Age” Creationist who has published pieces with Ken Ham.
I know, I know, it feels weird to write that. But judge the video for yourself. It’s not bad.
He basically argues that Darwin wasn’t any more racist than people today would consider almost everyone in the 19th century. He also points to people who laid the foundation for “modern” Creationism and how they perpetuated racism as well.
Seems fairly even-handed without any cheap shots. (Except at racists, but they deserve it.) What do you think?
(Thanks to Kerri for the link)