The New York Post:
EDITOR’S NOTE – THEY ARE CALLED ‘BLACK’ BECAUSE LIGHT CAN’T ESCAPE THEM!!!!
Cornell University has introduced an astronomy course to explore the connection between the term black holes and “racial blackness” — proof, say critics, that even the hard sciences aren’t immune to universal “racial hysteria.”
The course, titled “Black Holes: Race and the Cosmos,” uses work from black studies theorists, artists and fiction writers to challenge “conventional wisdom” about the role that race plays in astronomy.
“Conventional wisdom would have it that the ‘black’ in black holes has nothing to do with race. Surely there can be no connection between the cosmos and the idea of racial blackness. Can there?” reads the college catalog description.
Students at the Ivy League school are taught that readings, music and art “implicitly and explicitly posit just such a connection,” according to the description.
“Theorists use astronomy concepts like ‘black hole’ and ‘event horizons’ to interpret the history of race in creative ways, while artists and musicians conjure blackness through cosmological themes and images,” the description says.
Taught by astronomy professor Nicholas Battaglia and comparative literature professor Parisa Vaziri, the course will reference work from authors such as Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson as well as music by Sun Ra, Outkast and Janelle Monáe.
The course will also draw on teachings from theorists such as Michelle Wright and Denise Ferreira da Silva.
