Black Astrophysicist Targeted for Not Supporting Smears about NASA’s James Webb
Famed physicist Hakeem Oluseyi effectively rebutted claims of “homophobia” against a former NASA administrator, only to find himself the target of attacks…especially from one black feminist activist.
The last time we checked in on the James Webb Telescope, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials rejected the demands of LGBTQ activists and diversity-inclusion minions to change the instrument’s name.
Internal investigations showed “…no available evidence directly links Webb to any actions or follow-up related to the firing of individuals for their sexual orientation.”
Enter Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi. He is a famous American astrophysicist and author of some of the most popular children’s books on science. Oluseyi is also the president of the National Society of Black Physicists.
After his research into Webb’s professional history, he wrote a detailed account of his investigation, concluding that Webb’s accusers failed to be rigorous in their research.
The entire analysis is brilliant and damning to everyone who has mindlessly called for renaming the space telescope.
Toward Stonewall did not properly cite the sources for the Senate testimony that ignited the Lavender Scare and was loose with language, thus facilitating the Wikipedia misattribution to Webb — in conflict with the Wikipedia pages on Peurifoy and The Lavender Scare, which both explicitly name Peurifoy’s 1950 testimony as the prime initiation event.
The two authors who wrote the articles on forbes.com and thestranger.com did not apply proper journalistic rigor. They accepted the rumors without corroboration from authoritative sources — and worse, piled on.
The author of the forbes.com article references a professional astrophysicist as his original source for learning of the allegations against Webb. This scientist propagated unsubstantiated false information as if it were true without performing proper scientific rigor to investigate its veracity.
The community of astronomers and astrophysicists in the online social media group who blindly accepted the allegations also piled on and were ready to confront NASA although they did not apply proper rigor.
He offers his own perspective on the subject based on his experiences as a black scientist and researcher.
As a Black scientist from the Deep South who’s had to navigate the shoals of a scientific establishment where I’ve not always felt welcome, I imagine how I would feel if I faced the equivalent — a flagship national observatory named after someone who was accused of being a staunch racist and national enforcer of racial segregation.
Thankfully, Webb was not the bigoted homophobe who led State Department witch hunts as rumored.
Read the whole piece: It is a masterclass in what the best bloggers can do.
@HakeemOluseyi's report "provides an absolute master-class in how a dedicated, intellectually curious person, acting in good faith, can debunk the received wisdom of an entire online subculture." @IBJIYONGI should listen to her own TEDTalk: "It's important to be accountable." https://t.co/Lz6O7Adbyk
— Marty☮️ (@Marty1035) December 26, 2022
The New York Times did a detailed investigation of the fight over the telescope after the analysis’s publication in 2021, which occurred shortly before Oluseyi accepted a position at George Mason University. At that point, woke activists attempted to cancel him.
Leading the charge against Oluseyi was black feminist physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New Hampshire. She authored a Scientific American piece demanding NASA rename the telescope.
…George Mason University recruited Dr. Oluseyi as a visiting professor, and Peter Plavchan, an astronomy professor, offered a tweet of welcome to the man he played a role in recruiting.
Dr. Prescod-Weinstein objected. In a stream of tweets, she said Dr. Oluseyi had championed “a homophobe.”
She wrote that Dr. Plavchan’s welcome was “a reminder that senior men in astronomy can treat junior women” poorly — using an expletive — “and be welcomed by colleagues with open arms.”
Dr. Plavchan apologized to her, writing on Twitter that “I do believe @HakeemOluseyi owes you and LGBTQ+ astronomers an apology.”
He added that he had “privilege to be able to not feel marginalized by what Hakeem wrote.”
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein – The Root 100 – 2022 https://t.co/98H7VFTsYu
— The Sojourner Truth (@sotrueradio) December 26, 2022
Because the activists had no hard data to back up their claims, other than the fact that Webb was an administrator in a bureaucracy, Oluseyi was then personally attacked.
For speaking out about his research, Oluseyi also has faced claims of past sexual harassment and other misconduct during his time at Florida Tech, some of which are “demonstrably false” and the others unsubstantiated, the Times found.
For two years I've been the subject of a false smear campaign by astronomy's leading extremist prevaricators. I'm happy to see that rigorous investigative journalism survives at the @nytimes https://t.co/nSKwYtPXNm
— Hakeem Oluseyi (@HakeemOluseyi) December 19, 2022
Despite the findings of The New York Times, hardly a conservative publication, and NASA itself…Prescod-Weinstein persisted.
Jonathan Kay, a contributor at Quillette, did his own investigation on the cancel campaign against Oluseyi and came to this conclusion about the seemingly one “woman” crusade against the famed astrophysicist:
She provides readers with no names or details, however. Instead, she simply notes that “it is a shame that the New York Times continues to give him a platform to behave like this.” Prescod-Weinstein’s first two cancel campaigns, against Webb and Oluseyi, both ended in failure. Perhaps she’s hoping this third one proves a charm.
“Prescod-Weinstein’s first two cancel campaigns, against Webb and Oluseyi, both ended in failure. Perhaps she’s hoping this third one proves a charm.” https://t.co/hUnFbmENtt
— Bo Winegard (@EPoe187) December 25, 2022
Hopefully, Oluseyi can do his wonderful scientific work without woke drama in 2023. Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope continues to operate spectacularly on this one-year anniversary.
What a year it has been for Webb! It feels like just yesterday we were getting ready to launch, and now Webb has hit the ground running in its mission to #UnfoldTheUniverse. Break out your box of tissues and relive the magic with us. Happy Birthday, Webb! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/yl3RD932LI
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) December 19, 2022
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Comments
When one views the world around them through the prism of victimhood then everything is an example of racism, sexism, oppression etc where the ONLY evidence required is one’s own fucking feelings!
These professional victims know their game. They know they are untouchable amd so this kind of shit just because they can, not because they are right.
I went and looked up this Prescod-Weinstein. In 2016 she was given a grant of over $100k for a study called “Epistemological Schemata of Astro | Physics: A Reconstruction of Observers”. It is as idiotic, and woke as it sounds.
As best as I can tell she isn’t much of a physicist, but a token diversity hire wherever she goes.
“…and how that might change knowledge production in science.”
I have a pretty solid idea how this woke nonsense with ‘change knowledge production in science’ alright.
It won’t be in the positive direction.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s husband says Asians are over-represented in academia. If he could, he would like to eliminate them entirely.
From Wikipedia:
“Personal life
Prescod-Weinstein is queer and agender. She is married to a lawyer. Her mother Margaret Prescod emigrated from Barbados as a teenager, and in New York was a founder of International Black Women for Wages for Housework in 1974.[54] Prescod-Weinstein is the grandchild of feminist Selma James and the step-granddaughter of Trinidadian Marxist writer and historian C. L. R. James.”
Thus her behavior is entirely predictable.
I wonder what she discovered away from European enlightenment? Not much!
“Oluseyi is also the president of the National Society of
Black Physicists.”
Unanimously elected by all five of its total membership.
What a nasty and scurrilous thing to write. The NSBP has several hundred members. They’re a vibrant organization that adds value, unlike you with your anonymous slur.
Sod off, swampy!
Do they contribute as much as the National Association For White Physicists?
I don’t know why you white people put up in with this blatant segregated colored groups.
That’s groups of color, you racist!
/sorry. had to…
I can understand your knee-jerk reaction. Regardless of your emotional take on the matter, the bell curve mean for blacks is undeniably and significantly to the left of the white mean. Which explains why some have opposite knee-jerk takes when individual blacks are well to the right.
The existence of affirmative action besmirches the real achievements of those blacks who really do have the goods.
Please share your CV with us…… Playpen 101 doesn’t count.
Sorry, Chanda. Attempting to pull others down does not lift you up. Get some professional help, and I don’t mean from physicists.
But that’s the narcissist;s playbook!!!!!!!!!!!!! They don’t have much else!
But that’s the narcissist;s playbook!! They don’t have much else!
They do this to their children as well: that is, destroy them so they have someone to feel superior to. Hopefully, the public behavior of luantics like this woman will help expose the motives for seemingly ‘normal’ or ‘liberal’ people so gleeful to expose their children to transvestite child molesters.
In the vein of “people who live in glass houses …”, I do wonder why more folks accused by the woke mob don’t run the trap-line to find equally damning evidence against their accusers … and where some go after anyone / everyone linked through their ancestry to the Confederate / slave ownership, I can’t imagine it would be difficult to show Prescod-Weinstein a homophobe, racist – perhaps even directly by membership in some professional association with a politically incorrect past. Make them renounce themselves …
“Leading the charge against Oluseyi was black feminist physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New Hampshire.”
Black, check
Female: check
Hyphenated name: check
Feminist: check
The has a lot of credibility based on those thugs alone.
Pointing this out obviously makes you a racist, sexist misogynist.
Yes? And…?
;-{)}}}
Exactly. 😀
She’s clearly biracial and hate to say, not attractive, seems biracial people hate whites the most
Hate to tell you but women feminists that are not attractive of any race are angry at the world and men in particular. It’s why women are un-datable to quote a very good substack article on the subject.
I had no idea what a “substack” was so I googled it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/business/media/substack-newsletter-competition.html
I now believe that I was better off not knowing what a substack was.
It is the proverbial square peg looking for a round hole, or as George Gobel once put it, a pair of brown shoes at a formal affair.
I have never heard of either of them: check
Apparently I only read physics books meant for adults.
I’m so old, I remember the movement several years ago to ban the term “bossy” being applied to professional women.
The shoe certainly fits here, doesn’t it?
Perhaps she prefers “bully.”
We could compromise on “bitchy.”
I bought my wife (white) a desk nameplate that says “Boss Lady” when she was promoted. All the guys in the office get a kick out of it and call her “Boss” or “Boss Lady” including all of the black men. Not a single man or woman in the large place she works has complained proving that the woke professional offended class are a small minority indeed.
Give it time. Someone new to the department wil complain.
For $10, you bought your wife’s HR department a coal-mine canary.
Unfortunately, we all know someone like this woman, who apparently is a black Karen as well as an astro-physicist.
And space cadet first class…..
I’m not a fan of any group that is formed around skin pigmentation, exclusively. And, this Prescod-Weinstein character is contemptible, making a career out of playing up her racial identity, despite its utter irrelevance.
We should be striving to always de-emphasize references to racial and other classifications, instead of hyper-emphasizing them, as the vile and corrosive Dumb-o-crats perennially do.
Well, I used to be a Washington Redskins fan.
Happily, that option has now been denied to me.
Obviously, you’re been punished enough (from a NY Giants ex-fan).
How disgracefully far we’ve come!
Hakeem Oluseyi, an obviously competent scientist and by any measure a decent man, rejects the trashing of James Webb (an incredibly accomplished bureaucrat who greatly helped JFK lead us to the moon)…but only because he doesn’t believe that sufficient evidence supports the notion that Webb was homophobic back in the 1960’s. Wow!
First, the Stonewall riots weren’t until 1969, and unless everyone wants to pretend otherwise, virtually everyone was anti-homosexual in that era. The politically correct pro-homosexual movement didn’t even start until after those riots in the 1970’s. I’m even quite sure he was retired before the Stonewall riots took place.
So think about this, Here we have this very capable physicist willing to throw the long-deceased James Webb under the bus, simply because he did not conform to the political-correctness of today that was not only unacceptable when Webb was the NASA Administrator, it was a felony in virtually every state of the union.
Yet, Americans don’t find that outrageous. Personally, I find all of this revolting.
Hey, look! The scientists are throwing shade. Will there be a drive-by at Wet Willies this weekend?
Good
Article on this insanity
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/todays-blacklisted-american-black-scientist-blacklisted-for-doing-good-research/
The right reason is that you don’t rename the telescope no matter what Webb did besides what he’s honored for. No need to prove he was a nice guy besides in the first place.
Zulu in the land of Xhosa.
Angry no-name of no accomplishments just raging against someone she isn’t fit to tie the shoes of. I would hope that UNH is embarrassed by her but I doubt it.
LIke every other fed agency, NASA is infiltraed with woke b.s. Notice how their spokespeople are only women – despite men taking all the risks, doing all the building and the inventing.
Kudos for Hakeem for not being an a-hole.
“”despite men taking all the risks””
I do seem to recall them blowing up a female schoolteacher.
Who may actually not have been female had there not been woke boxes to check.
It’s not NASA that’s perpetrating this BS.
At this point it’s obvious she has no interest in the truth and is simply attacking the man to try to gain attention and assured monetary gains from the leftist nut jobs.