*A Special Research
Bytes Blog Report*
I listen to Mike and Mike in the morning. For those who do
not know, it is a sports talk show. I prefer it to being scared to death by the
morning “news.” Anyway… this morning was excruciatingly painful. For four hours
I listened to the hosts and listeners drone on about the ethics related to
Lance Armstrong’s use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). I learn a lot when
I listen to white folks discuss ethics. It was telling how many people actually
thought it was OK that Armstrong (a) defrauded his colleagues, fans and
financial sponsors by using PEDs, and (b) attacked innocent people who bore
witness against him with physical threats, harassment, slander and legal
action. The argument of many listeners was that, “He has done so much for
cancer victims, he should not be judged too harshly for what is a minor
infraction by comparison.”
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Lesson #1.
I’ve heard this argument before. I sometimes have my class read Harriett
Washington’s book Medical Apartheid.
One of the most common responses that white students give to the book is, “It’s
terrible what they did[1]
to the Blacks. But if they hadn’t done it we wouldn’t have all the medical
advances we have today.” In the mind
of white folks, the end justifies the means. This is lesson #1. Armed
with this mental aberration, they will genocide an entire race of people. “It’s
really bad to do it. But if we don’t get rid of the Indians where will we
live?” They will enslave another race of people. “It’s really bad to do it. But
if we don’t get the Africans who is going to pick this cotton?” They will feed
you toxic food, criminalize your sons, use media to degrade your image, deceive
you to get elected, experiment on you without your knowledge or consent,
fabricate lies to start wars, molest your children, and more. And it will be
done with the idea that, “It’s really bad to do it. But…”
Lesson #2.
Back to Lance Allwrong. Listening to this four-hour talkfest, not once did
anyone offer any self-reflection. By this I do not mean reflection on the
individual self, but reflection on the whole of Western culture. There was no “cultural
critique.” During one commercial I saw a movie trailer for a new Sylvester
Stallone film. How old is he now, 200? …Anyway, he’s still doing action films
and he looks good. I wonder if he is taking Performance Enhancing Drugs (or at
least Appearance Enhancing Drugs). How can a 200 year old man maintain the body
of a fit 40 year old? Right after that another commercial came on asking me if
I get sleepy around 2:00pm. The announcer then encouraged me to take a 5-Hour
Energy. That way, when my body tells me I need to rest, I can ignore it, take a
PED, and work right through dinner to enrich someone else. I didn’t see the
Viagra commercial this morning, but it did come to mind. Maybe Congress should
hold hearings around that PED and put its collective self in jail. In fact,
when you consider the caffeine in soft drinks, coffee and energy drinks,
alcohol, diet pills, male enhancement “medication,” Ritalin, Adderall (and
other psychotropic drugs given to children), it seems that Lance Allwrong is
alright in the Western world. Who isn’t on one or more PEDs. Dare we include
nicotine, the “comfort” foods, that many use to self-medicate their depression,
marijuana, and other illegal drugs? But alas, their hypocrisy knows no bounds. This is lesson #2. In many
ways the Western world is like Oceania and its citizens walk around like
Winston Smith drinking Victory gin all day to make the existence bearable.
Moving Forward.
My dear parents, teachers and guardians of Black youth, do not feel that these
lessons are too heavy for our children. We want our children to be critical
readers of the word. But we
also want them to be critical readers of the world. Present them with the following challenge, “Where do
we see examples in the Western world of people operating on the idea that the
end justifies the means? What is the consequence of that idea for the various
people involved? Where do we find examples of profound hypocrisy among Western
people? How are these ideas embedded in the culture of Western people? Based on
what you know, how might non-Western cultural practices be different? Where do
we see these ideas at work in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics?” These are good questions for stimulating critical analysis of
media. They also make good drive time conversation. If we don’t teach our own
children, no one will.
And remember… Have Fun!
Jomo W. Mutegi, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Science Education at the Indiana University School of Education in Indianapolis. He is also a member of the (ES)2 Research Program, which works to advance STEM curricula that position people of African descent to improve their current social condition. To learn more about the (ES)2 Research Program visit: www.ES2RP.org.
