Geology is ‘racist’ and linked to ‘white supremacy’ claims university professor

A professor at Queen Mary University of London has claimed that geology is “riven by systemic racism” and linked to white supremacy in a new book.

Professor Kathryn Yusoff argues in her work ‘Geologic Life’ that the study of earth’s rocks and natural resources is fundamentally connected to colonial practices and racism.

The geography academic suggests that geology, including the extraction of metals such as gold and iron, has created hierarchies and promoted materialism whilst destroying environments.

She also labels palaeontology as “pale-ontology”, suggesting the study of fossils has enabled racism.

In her book, Professor Yusoff contends that geology began as a “colonial practice” that led “toward the white supremacy of the planet”.

She argues that the theft of land, mining and other geological aspects of colonialism resulted in what she terms “geotrauma”.

“Geology continues to function within a white supremacist praxis”, she claims in the book, which focuses on geological practices from the 17th to 19th centuries.

The academic also suggests that the study of rocks is “racialised”, writing that “to tell a story of rocks is to account for a eugenic materialism in which white supremacy made surfaces built on racialised undergrounds”.

Professor Yusoff, who describes herself as a professor of “inhuman geography” at Queen Mary University, makes striking claims about racial relationships with the earth.

“Broadly, black, brown, and indigenous subjects… have an intimacy with the earth that is unknown to the structural position of whiteness,” she wrote in her book.

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This perspective forms part of her broader argument about the relationship between geology and racial hierarchies.

Her work examines how geological practices have shaped racial dynamics and environmental exploitation over three centuries.

This comes amid broader demands to decolonise university courses across the UK, backed by official bodies including the Quality Assurance Agency for higher education.

This movement, which began in social sciences and humanities, is now spreading to hard science and mathematics subjects.

It draws on critical race theory to argue that knowledge taught in universities is predominantly male and white.

Activists claim this knowledge has been used to attain and perpetuate Western global domination through racism and injustice.

The push for decolonisation has gained traction among activist students and lecturers at various institutions.

However, the claims have faced strong criticism from other academics who view them as undermining scientific principles.

Dr John Armstrong, a reader in financial mathematics at King’s College London, said: “The programme of decolonisation is politically contentious, anti-scientific and consistently associated with calls to lower academic standards.”

Chris McGovan, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, dismissed the assertions entirely.

He said: “Geology is no more racist than ‘fish ‘n chips’! It is an entirely neutral term. Those seeking to decolonise the curriculum are, in fact, building their own sinister empire of thought-control and intolerance.”

McGovan added that practices like mining are “almost as old as mankind and not race-dependent”.