American Humanist Association (AHA), one of the most recognized humanist organizations in the world, recently received heat for retracting one of its most prestigious awards from noted evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
Dawkins was awarded the Humanist of the Year Award in 1996. In a recent tweet posted on April 10, 2021, Dawkins made a statement asking for discussion about transgender people, which led AHA to immediately rescind his award.
Anyone who has been observing AHA over the years would not be surprised by this “cancel culture” move at all. In fact, one would wonder what is taking AHA so long to cancel all former award recipients? AHA has clearly morphed into an organization where touting whatever is trending in social justice circles trumps all else.
Steven Pinker, a noted psychologist, and also a former recipient of the Humanist of the Year award, pointed this out in a letter he wrote protesting AHA’s action. He said, “This will only intensify when critics discover that past Humanists of the Year, whose awards have not been withdrawn, include Margaret Sanger [founder of Planned Parenthood], a proponent of eugenics, and Alice Walker [author of The Color Purple], who advances lunatic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”
That is a good point. Why hasn’t AHA retracted Margaret Sanger’s award when it is well known she spoke to a Ku Klux Klan group and, in her words, supported the “gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stocks–those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization”?
Why does AHA give Alice Walker a pass on promoting anti-Semitic ideas that the Nazis echoed?
Margaret Sanger and Alice Walker are just the tip of the iceberg of questionable and horrible views that recognized Humanists have had.
I predict AHA will eventually cancel itself out completely. Anyone who has been awarded by AHA should relinquish their award to save their reputation.
On a final note, Jordan Peterson has published the most comical response so far to this incident.
I pray to the God Dawkins doesn’t believe in that you never get what is rightfully and justly coming your way AHA. You pathetic cringing cowardly malevolent self-righteous weasels…. https://t.co/6sBlAc2rm3
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 21, 2021
Lauren Ell is an American blogger born and raised in Southern California and is currently based in Sweden. She discusses Epilepsy, Politics and Fun. Professionally Ell is an Online Marketing Consultant and Virtual Assistant. She is also founder and president of Republican Atheists and Nordic Republicans. Connect with Lauren on Facebook and Twitter.