DID YOU KNOW: The Bronx Zoo Has Apologized For Its Former Exhibit Displaying Evolutionary Racism?
Regardless of how one views evolution or the role of racism in American history, the reality is that for decades advocacy of racial superiority and inferiority was an intrinsic aspect of evolutionary sociological and political thought.
Ota Benga’s sad story as the central figure of the zoo’s exhibit needs to be told and it especially should be heard by congressional staffers in 2020. The Bronx Zoo recently apologized for that tragic aspect of its long organizational history.
In that connection, David Klinghoffer, editor of Evolution News & Science, offers this excellent profile of Pamela Newkirk, the investigative journalist whose work prompted the zoo’s apology, work that is further illuminated in the following video that tells Ota Benga’s journey: