Neil deGrasse Tyson uses science to destroy the age-old racist “monkey” slur once and for all
Adam Goodes, the Australian rules footballer jeered by crowds for his celebratory Indigenous dancing, became the topic of global conversation this month. Many of these conversations forced Australians to reexamine the country's race problem, and shortly thereafter, a social media movement under the hashtag #IstandwithAdam was born.
On Monday, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on a panel for the Australian Broadcasting Association's Q&A where he was asked to comment on Goodes and race relations today.
Tyson, who said he wasn't at license to speak for Australia, offered, instead, a "cosmic" perspective on the news story.
"What we do in math is you separate the variables and what’s happening is all the variables are jumbled together and people are reacting but if you separate the variables, it can be revealing,” he said.
Tyson continued:
“For example, he is celebrating his score at the end of a game. Correct? I mean, during the game and he does it in a way that’s different from everyone else gesturally and, to me, that’s a form of freedom of expression, a freedom of speech. If you don’t like that, at some point you have to confess to yourself you’re not a fan of freedom of speech and so if you are going to do that, that’s a different country from what I understand Australia claims to be. That’s A.”
