Should Minorities Celebrate Darwin's Evolution Sunday?

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Michael Zimmerman, dean of the college of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, initiated this holiday in 2006, with over 450 participating churches. Evolution Sunday was celebrated on February 11th, one day before Darwin's birthday. One of the most important yet least known aspects of Darwin is his racism: Darwin regarded white Europeans as more "advanced" than other human races. While Darwin presumed that man evolved from ape-like creatures, he surmised that some races developed more than others and that the latter still bore simian features. In his book, The Descent of Man, which he published after the origin of species , he boldly commented on "the greater differences between men of distinct races" In his book, Darwin held blacks and Australian Aborigines to be equal to gorillas and then inferred that these would be "done away with" by the "civilized races" in time. He said: "At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes... will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will be wider, for it will intervene in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 2nd ed., New York; A.L. Burt, Co.,1874, p. 178 Supposing that living beings evolved in the struggle for life,Darwinism was even adapted to the social sciences and turned into a conception that came to be "Social Darwinism" The Indian anthropologist, Lalita Vidyarthi explains how Darwin's theory of evolution led racism to be accepted by the social sciences: His (Darwin's) theory of survival of the fittest was warmly welcomed by the social scientists of the day, and they believed mankind had achieved various levels of evolution culminating in the white man's civilization. by the second have of the 19th century, racism was accepted as fact by the vast majority of western scientist. Lalita Prasad Vidyarthi, Racism,Science and Psuedo- Science, Unesco, France, Vendome, 1983. p. 54 So what do you think? Right smack dab in the middle of Black History Month. That is pretty bold!