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what’s… what’s going on here?
New type of cat just dropped
but what is the source of the “white guy” controversy? where are people reading about this new cat and commenting on the race and gender of the discoverer?
Some people online have started to either seriously or jokingly equate headlines saying “Scientists discovered” with “white guys found out something the natives have known about for years”
This is a specific type of callout post with justifiable ire about that, but to the tone of “for fucks sake not all scientists are white guys. Behold; the scientist who discovered the new cat.”
Female Bolivian scientist to be precise
Did it land on its feet?
Most under-rated question. Purrfect.
I feel like this isn’t about a cat
People were assuming that the biologist that discovered the new cat species was a white guy. She’s a Bolivian biologist who is decidedly not a white guy.
Just your average casual sexism weaving it’s way through social media as usual.
I saw the article before but didn’t read the details, if I had seen the name ending with an -a I would have thought a woman. But that’s also probably because I knew a guy named Paolo.
There is absolutely sexism as well as racism still lurking around in the average person’s assumptions. Seems a connected world hasn’t (yet) fixed that. Might take more time.
Oh. Well, if that’s the whole story, then this is a pretty weak science meme
Eh there’s value in calling out sexist assumptions.
I guess so, it just would be nice to see two people verbally sparring, instead of a one-person narrative about a supposed firestorm
It’s an old trope that people assume any scientist is a white man.
People were assuming that the biologist that discovered the new cat species was a white guy.
where?
I’m answering what the OG post is talking about. I can dig up examples just as well as you can, but I’m not at my desk at the moment.
The OP says “this site” and it looks like maybe Tumblr?
I can dig up examples just as well as you can, but I’m not at my desk at the moment.
you should have done that before posting this screenshot out of context. If you’re not willing to verify something is true, then don’t repost it on social media.
I didn’t post the screenshot
I’m not the OP
So why is tumblr’s issue our problem?
If you didn’t assume she was a white guy, then this isn’t targeting you. You can put your pitchfork down.
yes but what’s all the “white guy” stuff?
There’s a running assumption that the scientist that discovered this new cat species is a white guy. It’s not.
There’s a running assumption
citation needed
If you read the comment section, someone already did:
that’s just another person doing the same thing you did.
What did I do?
on tumblr especially, there is a belief that science is essentially only a thing white european/american men do and they impose their vision of the world onto everyone, hence “discovering” a new cat species (which was actually known to locals since forever)
it’s an understandable belief, given the very imperialist and colonialist history of science and the legacy that this leaves behind. but it also completely erases the many contributions to science from other people, like here, where the tilcayo was first formally described by a Bolivian woman, and named after the name local Indigenous people give to the cat
Well explained.
It’s in response to an assumption that’s described here, but not included here.
I want to snuggle with the kitty.
And here I was imagining a diverse group of scientists, because science is rarely done by just one person anyway.
Holy fucking strawman
We discover a new species. what’s the first thing we do? We put it in a cage.
Humanity in a nutshell.
I think the cat ended up in a shelter (I don’t know the reason though) and then they discovered it didn’t match the other cat species known about. So it happened the other way around.
It was apparently found as a kitten by someone who thought it was a standard cat, then after a year of what I can only assume was murder kitty behaviour, they took it to a shelter
It really is peak cat when it takes a full year with a wild, feral animal to notice it’s behaviour isn’t just cat being cat.
Ive heard stories about people taking in bobcat kittens before realizing. But the story that takes the cake is someone raising a dog for years before realizing it was a fucking bear.
https://abc11.com/pets-animals/woman-unknowingly-rescues-bobcat-thinking-it-was-kitten/5570293/
The name is Paola not Paolo so that should have been a hint right there.
If only Black MESA had hired differently. Tragedy, really.
Have people been assuming they’re a white guy?
I can’t even really think of a context when discussing the cat when the scientists gender and especially race would come up?
I am normally pretty pessimistic, but can’t imagine this either, like someone would say “did you hear about that new cat they found?” not “hey, did you hear about that new cat some white, straight, Christian guy found?”
At no point did I think of the scientists gender. I don’t think I ever have considered the gender of a scientist.
Hell another cat could’ve discovered this cat and I’d never know until someone mentioned it.
Wasn’t this cat discovered a year ago?
One was taken in in 2016, then taken to a sanctuary. Then they studied it, did genetic testing, looked for and studied them in the wild. The new thing is the official designation and the publication of the research from the last ten years.
A quick search says it was just this month.
I’m trying, but where do I accent Ascarrunz? AscarRUnz or AscARrunz?
As-CARR-unz if it’s pronounced as in Spanish
I did not, I actually did not think about the scientist at all. I was distracted by the tiny cat. CAT!
The tiny super cute cat.
so cute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilcayo#/media/File:Leopardus_tilcayo_(5x3_cropped).jpg
Look at this tiny house cat in a leopard costume
I didn’t either. I kinda assumed it was them having a group of already identified cats and then doing science-y stuff and saying “wait! This one’s different!” And poof, new species.
That’s kinda exactly what happened. There were 4 known species. One cat ended up in a shelter that was not exactly like any of those, so they decided to take DNA from 35 cats from the 4 (now 5) species and showed the 5th was a separate species.
Not only did I not assume that but this is also the first time I’ve stooped so low as to waste time discussing whether or not we think a scientist is a white guy based on their name.
P.S. Has anybody ever in their life met a white guy named Paola?
Ooh, Kitteh!!
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