Edited photo of a cartoon drawing of Thomas Huxley in front of the Environmental Science building with the name of the college in question. The cartoon drawing of Huxley drawn by Frederick Waddy and exists in the public domain. PJ Heusted // AS Review
By Laura Wagner
Editor’s Note: This article contains discussion of scientific racism, eugenics, and other forms of racism that may be difficult to read or upsetting for some readers.
We are surrounded by racial inequity, as visible as the law, as hidden as our private thoughts. The question for each of us is: What side of history will we stand on?
“How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, pg. 22-23
There is a hidden truth at Western of a name so hurtful that it has disappeared from the lips of faculty and students alike at Western’s College of the Environment. The Huxley name, once revered enough to represent the college, many now shun as a title that haunts the building and the department. But what did Huxley do to earn this community censure?
When examining the legacy of an influential person, especially one previously deemed worthy of a higher education building dedication, one must strive to answer the question “Did their contributions to their field of study or to society harm certain demographics of people?”
According to the Dean of the College of the Environment Dr. Steve Hollenhorst, the environmental studies department faculty wrote a letter and the environmental science department is drafting a letter calling for a renaming. Furthermore, according to current Senate Pro-tempore Sargun Handa, there were attempts from last years’ at-large senators Sargun Handa, Kaitlyn Davidson, Koby Okezie and Connor Farrand and senators for the College of the Environment Logan Moldenhauer and Maya Noesen to rename the college that were ultimately unsuccessful.
When Hollenhorst suggested the creation of a Legacy Review Committee similar to Princeton’s Wilson Legacy Review Committee, created to specifically address former President Woodrow Wilson’s racist actions, a campus-wide Legacy Review Task Force was created instead.
The creation of a campus-wide Legacy Review Task Force instead of a Huxley Legacy Review Committee shifts focus from Western’s community concern about the Huxley title to a broad approach and while the Task Force has a comprehensive plan, the Western community is mostly unaware about the status of the Legacy Review Task Force and therefore anxious about the progress of the name change.
Due to the uncertainty and unclear status of the suggested campus-wide Legacy Review Task Force, and my recent realization that not every student is aware of Huxley’s beliefs and actions, I decided to research Huxley’s legacy myself.
Investigation:
Huxley became famous for his biological, zoological and evolutionary work in the late 19th century. Huxley supported Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution leading to his nickname “Darwin’s Bulldog.” Paul Glumaz, author of “T.H. Huxley’s Hideous Revolution in Science”, even stated Huxley was a significant influence in Darwin’s decision to publish “On the Origin of Species.”
However, Huxley disagreed with the extension of Social Darwinism which advocated the improvement of society via survival of the fittest which, according to the theory, would create a more secure future for the human species.
In Carolyn Burdett’s “Post Darwin: Social Darwinism, degeneration, eugenics,” she highlights a section of Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics where she mentions his belief that applying “necessary correctives” including restricting population growth for the continuation of the human race. This framework led to German biologist Ernst Haeckel’s development of “applied biology,” also known as eugenics. This interpretation of population growth and carrying capacity is also foundational in ecofascist thinking.
The best explanation of his racist conclusions can be summarized in his own words within his essay entitled “Emancipation: Black and White”:
“It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men; but no rational man, cognisant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the average white man.”
This belief of “higher and lower races” permeated Huxley’s work. The concept of “higher and lower races” is discussed at length in Professor Nicolaas Rupke’s lecture “Huxley’s Rule and the Origins of Scientific Racism.”
Using the picture shown in Ernest Haeckel’s “Anthropogenie,” the “higher and lower races” concept within “Huxley’s Rule” essentially argued that the difference between seven and twelve is greater than between six and seven. Therefore six and seven are more closely related than one and six. The argument is that the white man is less related to the Black man than the Black man is to the ape. This 19th century belief is not only extremely racist but also scientifically incorrect, yet the impact of such claims are still felt today.
Huxley was a biologist, but also a “comparative anatomist”: which at the time, was an anatomist who compares the anatomy of humans to animals or compared different species of animals. This also manifested as a form of scientific racism that referred to comparison of anatomical features between different races.
Huxley infamously classified mankind into nine races, entirely based on appearances and minor anatomic characteristics, with four “supercategories”: Negroid, Mongoloid, Australoid and Xanthocroi/European.
Those that did not fit into his categorizations were simply excluded.
He also used such adjectives as “primitive” and “civilized” to describe these classified races, descriptors that modern anthropologists recognize as having racist origins, which is foundational knowledge taught in introductory cultural anthropology courses.
Glumaz reminds the reader that 19th century anthropologists claimed Social Darwinism’s explanation of natural selection, or survival of the societally and historically “strongest”, was the reason why the white European race was superior of all the four supercategories.
Reflection:
Huxley’s harm to marginalized communities overshadows his contributions to science. His work is undeniably racist and ableist.
As Kendi explains, a biological racist is “one who is expressing the idea that races are meaningfully different in their biology and that these differences create a hierarchy of value.” This description summarizes the impact of Huxley’s work.
Huxley intended to differentiate Black people and white people on the basis of race within his work. Thus, Huxley instilled the decades long racist misconception that BIPOC are different at their biological core.
Claiming that Huxley was simply a product of his time and trying to excuse his racist conclusions with the fact that he was an abolitionist, also referred to as a “progressive assimilationist” by Kendi, ignores the root of the damage he caused to marginalized communities. This selection of his essays, published works, and modern evaluations of his actions and beliefs prove that Huxley’s legacy is one that should not be lauded in a university that serves students from many backgrounds.
Aspects of biological racism were ingrained so deeply in society that it is still difficult for many, especially within science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, to dismantle. In reality, the crux of Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist explains that race is a concept created by white men over the course of centuries for the purpose of maintaining power over groups of people by placing them in generalized groups that dehumanize the individuals.
Kendi mentions that it was not until June 26, 2000 that this misconception was scientifically disproved when former President Bill Clinton announced that genetic scientists had drawn the map of our genetic code and discovered “all human beings, regardless of race, are [genetically] more than 99.9% the same.”
Even 21 years after this discovery, doubt about this truth remains as a result of harmful contributions to science and society from Huxley, Darwin and other influential biologists from the 19th century.
As a result of the evidence proving how extensively Huxley’s beliefs and work harmed marginalized communities, I wondered how prevalent this glaring issue of the College of the Environment’s current name is in the eyes of the Board of Trustees.
As I attended the Board of Trustees’ meeting on December 11, waiting to speak during the public forum with Shred the Contract, the Board of Trustees members spent a significant amount of time discussing the name for the new dorm building which will replace Highland Hall.
A part of me was excited about the accessibility shown in the 3D building model and I became even more excited to learn that the building would be named after Alma Clark Glass, the first Black student to enroll at Western, founding member of the Seattle chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and member of the Board of Directors for the Seattle Urban League.
However, my excitement was cut short when I remembered that a building named after one of the contributors to scientific racism and eugenics in the 20th century exists just a short walk across campus, despite students’ demand to change the name.
Furthermore, as Handa mentioned, when last year’s student senators pushed to change the Huxley College of the Environment’s name for the same reasons, they were ultimately unsuccessful.
Despite the push for changing the name of the Huxley College of the Environment, the Board of Trustees used the naming of an unfinished dorm hall after a Black woman to reflect that they recognize Western needs to “consider how the names of its buildings fail to reflect the experiences of Black and other diverse students.” While this name reflects a positive shift on campus, there are still great strides that must be taken to properly reflect the experiences of BIPOC students, especially because the Western community still remains in the dark about the progress of their Huxley College name change demands.
Regarding the Legacy Review Task Force, Secretary to the Board of Trustees Paul Dunn said in an email, “The Task Force will be moving forward this winter and spring, with an expectation for a recommendation to be delivered to the President before the end of the academic year.”
Given this statement and the Dec. 11 Board of Trustees meeting in which they noted the importance of “Western … redressing inequities by transforming policies, structures, and practices to ensure meaningful inclusion”, it’s highly probable that the University will finally fulfill the demand from students and faculty across departments for a change to the Huxley College of the Environment name.
However, the concern lies in whether the Task Force will be truly collaborative with the Western community with transparency in the renaming process and by listening to the Western community’s contributions and concerns.
After all, the unchanged name of the college is a slap in the face to every BIPOC, neurodivergent, disabled, LGBT+ or otherwise marginalized student at Western and excluding their input in the renaming process is neglectful.
Inaction is a key motivator in the continuation of racist policy and racist ideas. The past inaction with replacing the Huxley title, who was not just a racist individual, but a contributor to the groundwork for scientific racism, ecofascism and eugenics, speaks louder than any letter of solidarity could.
The College of the Environment is a unique representation of the intersection of science and the humanities with the combination of environmental science, environmental studies, environmental justice and other such courses.
Using the name of a man who utilized the influence of science within society to spread his own discriminatory agenda to represent such a uniquely intersectional college is disgraceful not only to the college’s students and alumni, but to every Black student at Western.
If Western’s administration wants to prove to students that they actively “consider how the names of its buildings fail to reflect the experiences of Black and other diverse students,” the Legacy Review Task Force needs to finally commit to the Huxley College of the Environment name change that Western’s community demands and utilize the community’s input in the renaming process.
Further Information: Laura Wagner and Francis Neff are the senators for the College of the Environment at Western and are working hard to get students involved with the Huxley College of the Environment name change. The senators plan to hold a public forum with students about Thomas Huxley and the name change on Monday, Jan. 25 from 6-7 p.m. If you want to get involved with the movement and follow their other term goals, their joint Instagram account is @collegeofenvironment.senators and their email is as.huxley.senators@wwu.edu.