A geography professor at a leading British university has described the study of rocks and the natural world as racist and linked the academic field to ‘white supremacy’.
Kathryn Yusoff, who lectures at the prestigious Queen Mary University of London, said that the geology as a subject was ‘riven by systematic racism’ and influenced heavily by colonialism.
The study of prehistoric life through fossils was also branded as an enabler for racism, with the professor referring to the field of palaeontology as ‘pale-ontology’.
Arguing that geology began as a ‘colonial practice’, Professor Yusoff stated in her book ‘Geologic Life’ that the extraction of metals such as gold and iron had created hierarchies, pushed materialism, ravaged environments and was the route cause of climate change.
Claiming that ‘geology continues to function within a white supremacist praxis’, the academic referenced the theft of land, mining and other geological practices as having led to the creation of white supremacy and a resulting ‘geotrauma’.
Professor Yusoff’s new book focuses on geology between the 17th and 19th centuries and puts forward the notion that non-white people have a closer relationship to land than white people.
‘Broadly, black, brown, and indigenous subjects… have an intimacy with the earth that is unknown to the structural position of whiteness,’ she wrote.
Ms Yusoff is described as a professor of ‘inhuman geography’ on the official Queen Mary University website.
Recently, there have been demands from activist students around the UK to ‘decolonise’ university courses which have been supported by educational bodies such as the Quality Assurance Agency for higher education.
This movement utilises critical race theory to back up its argument that the subject matter taught in UK universities is inherently male and white and serves to further perpetuate Western ideals through racism.
According to Professor Yusoff, this has led to a radicalisation of geology.
‘To tell a story of rocks is to account for a eugenic materialism in which white supremacy made surfaces built on racialised undergrounds…’ she penned in her new book.
However, some third-level academics have been fighting back against the ideas espoused by Professor Yusoff and the backers of the ‘decolonisation agenda’.
‘The programme of decolonisation is politically contentious, anti-scientific, and consistently associated with calls to lower academic standards’, Dr John Armstrong, a reader in financial math at King’s College London stated.
Similarly, Chris McGovan, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, remarked on the ‘intolerant’ nature of Professor Yusoff’s teachings.
‘Geology is no more racist than ‘fish ’n’ chips’! It is an entirely neutral term. Those seeking to decolonise the curriculum are, in fact, building their own sinister empire of thought-control and intolerance,’ Mr. McGowan said.