Gender and Race

Just like many other things, white supremacy has found its way into evolution. It digs its wicked claws into the science and evidence and some individuals believe that the world was made to follow a patriarchy and can be used as an excuse for people to claim that this is the way it is ‘supposed to be’. This kind of thinking leads to more inequality and discrimination to Black individuals because they are not seen as equal, even in present day. Evolutionary thinking like this in the wrong hands can lead to people justifying civil rights restrictions, human rights violations, white supremacy, and the patriarchy and as a result evolution is avoided. 
Black feminist theory is used in historical archaeology to help get rid of the idea of the patriarchy in evolution that can be used to provide different perspectives from events that have taken place in the past by examining the practice of archaeology and by building interpretive approaches that include the identity and difference of human interaction in the past. Kathleen Sterling states in her article, “Black Feminist Theory in Prehistory” that this theory explores inequality worldwide that has been documented in the past such as race and gender. Racism has limited science and how people think about people in the past. Black women have been exposed to racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism. One quote from this article that I think hits the nail right on the head is, “Black women do not suffer discrimination because they are Black or because they are women; it is because they are Black and women”. This is a very powerful quote that expresses the layers if discrimination that these individuals have to deal with in work environments, public areas, academia, and anywhere else including the movements that they have been involved in. 

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