Black scientists denounce racism at Penn Museum
The following excerpts are from an April 28 statement regarding the unethical, possession and callous racist use of the remains of the children of MOVE who died in the 1985 state bombing of their home in Philadelphia:
The Association of Black Anthropologists, the Society of Black Archaeologists and the Black in Bioanthropology Collective are painfully aware of the barbaric history of anthropology, especially when it comes to populations of peoples of African descent.
We know that our discipline has been mobilized to rationalize eugenics and white supremacy and to justify slavery and colonialism. . . . Ethnographic museums, like Penn’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (which houses the collection of the notorious racist Samuel Morton), have supported the academic rationale for the institutionalization of racism in anthropology textbooks, courses and curricula. (tinyurl.com/2tbb33td) . . . .
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A pair of Ivy League universities apologized recently for mishandling the bones of a Black teen killed in a 1985 Philadelphia police bombing.
The child’s remains remained at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for decades and were used as an exhibit for an online forensic anthropology class that Princeton University hosted. Neither of the prestigious schools asked for consent from the child’s surviving loved ones to use her remains for teaching and research purposes.
Both schools came under fire last week after Philadelphia news team Billy Penn broke news that the remains sat in a box at the Penn Museum and were shuffled between the two campuses before resurfacing as a “case study” in a 2019 research video.
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Protesters have taken to the streets in Philadelphia as outrage spreads across the city and the country over the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University’s theft of the remains of Tree and Delisha Africa, members of the MOVE organization who were murdered in the infamous May 13, 1985, bombing.
Their remains were stolen from the site of the bombing by Penn Anthropologist Alan Mann after he was hired by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner to provide specialist advice and identify the children’s remains. Mann has since then been in possession of the bones and has transported them to Princeton from Penn when he transferred.
Rally demands: MOVE children deserve to rest in peace
By Betsey Piette posted on April 29, 2021
Philadelphia
YahNé Ndgo opened the rally outside the Penn Museum in Philadelphia April 28 by denouncing the University of Pennsylvania’s sadistic desecration of the remains of two young Black MOVE family members. Ndgo, representing Black Lives Matter Philadelphia, stated: “We can never forget the humanity of Black people, and we should never have to remind people of the value of our lives. Black and Brown bodies are not subjects for you to study. We are human beings, and our lives matter!”
Banner honoring Tree and Delisha Africa leads march in Philadelphia on April 28.