79280
Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book. Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book. Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book.
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Jedi Cancelled by Scientific American For Being ‘White Saviours’

by Toby Young
24 September 2021 12:35 PM

There’s a wonderfully bonkers article in Scientific American entitled “Why the Term ‘JEDI’ Is Problematic for Describing Programs That Promote Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion“.

On the face of it, the authors say, using the word “Jedi” to describe Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion programmes seems like a good thing.

At first glance, JEDI may simply appear to be an elegant way to explicitly build “justice” into the more common formula of “DEI” (an abbreviation for “diversity, equity and inclusion”), productively shifting our ethical focus in the process. JEDI has these important affordances but also inherits another notable set of meanings: It shares a name with the superheroic protagonists of the science fiction Star Wars franchise, the “Jedi.” Within the narrative world of Star Wars, to be a member of the Jedi is seemingly to be a paragon of goodness, a principled guardian of order and protector of the innocent. This set of pop cultural associations is one that some JEDI initiatives and advocates explicitly allude to.

However, dig beneath the surface and you realise that the Jedi are deeply problematic.

Although they’re ostensibly heroes within the Star Wars universe, the Jedi are inappropriate symbols for justice work. They are a religious order of intergalactic police-monks, prone to (white) saviorism and toxically masculine approaches to conflict resolution (violent duels with phallic lightsabers, gaslighting by means of “Jedi mind tricks,” etc.). The Jedi are also an exclusionary cult, membership to which is partly predicated on the possession of heightened psychic and physical abilities (or “Force-sensitivity”). Strikingly, Force-wielding talents are narratively explained in Star Wars not merely in spiritual terms but also in ableist and eugenic ones: These supernatural powers are naturalized as biological, hereditary attributes. So it is that Force potential is framed as a dynastic property of noble bloodlines (for example, the Skywalker dynasty), and Force disparities are rendered innate physical properties, measurable via “midi-chlorian” counts (not unlike a “Force genetics” test) and augmentable via human(oid) engineering. The heroic Jedi are thus emblems for a host of dangerously reactionary values and assumptions. Sending the message that justice work is akin to cosplay is bad enough; dressing up our initiatives in the symbolic garb of the Jedi is worse.

There’s more in this vein – much, much more.

Is Scientific American the victim of a Sokal Squared-style hoax? Impossible to say for sure, but I think not. If you Google the names of the authors they appear to be who they say they are – and the descriptions of them and their research interests at their universities make them sound like bona fide wokesters.

The same could not be said of this spoof Star Wars paper which was accepted by three medical journals. The prankster on that occasion listed the paper’s authors as Dr Lucas McGeorge and Dr Annette Kin.

Stop Press: Helen Pluckrose, one of the architects of the Sokal Squared hoax, has weighed in on Twitter. She thinks the paper is genuine.

The reason this arguments looks so much like the ones we made is because we made our papers look much like the hundreds that already existed & were written sincerely. I repeat that if our purely theoretical papers needed to be withdrawn so do all the ones we emulated.

— Helen Pluckrose (@HPluckrose) September 24, 2021
Tags: JediScientific AmericaSokal SquaredStar Wars

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

CDC Ignores Advisory Panel and Backs Booster Jabs for Under-65s in ‘High-Risk’ Work Settings, Including Teachers

Next Post

NHS Cancer Patient Backlog Could Take Over a Decade to Clear

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

31 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Philip Schofield’s Swift Exit, the BBC’s Fondness for Satanists and the Target Boycott

by Toby Young
30 May 2023
4

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

Government Had ‘Chilling’ Secret Unit to Curb Lockdown Dissent

3 June 2023
by Toby Young

BBC Verify Should Investigate the BBC’s Own Climate Misinformation

2 June 2023
by Toby Young

News Round-Up

3 June 2023
by Richard Eldred

Rowan Atkinson Challenges Electric Cars as Environmental Panacea

3 June 2023
by Richard Eldred

Left-Wing Parties Suffer Electoral Wipeout in Western Europe

3 June 2023
by Richard Eldred

Government Had ‘Chilling’ Secret Unit to Curb Lockdown Dissent

56

BBC Verify Should Investigate the BBC’s Own Climate Misinformation

35

News Round-Up

26

Left-Wing Parties Suffer Electoral Wipeout in Western Europe

23

Rowan Atkinson Challenges Electric Cars as Environmental Panacea

13

As Enthusiasm For Covid Vaccines Wanes and Millions of Unwanted Doses Expire, German Press Finally Starts Scrutinising Contracts Between Big Pharma and Government

2 June 2023
by Eugyppius

Say it Loud – I’m Plus Size and Proud!

2 June 2023
by Tony Morrison

Don’t Tell the Doomsters and Gloomsters, But Ice Around Antarctica’s Thwaites ‘Doomsday’ Glacier Was Eight Times Thinner Around 8,000 Years Ago

2 June 2023
by Chris Morrison

The West’s Hypocrisy on Uganda’s Anti-gay Law

31 May 2023
by Noah Carl

How Theresa May Made Modern Britain

31 May 2023
by J Sorel

POSTS BY DATE

September 2021
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« Aug   Oct »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment