Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a national treasure. If you aren’t very familiar with “your personal astrophysicist,” there are hundreds of thousands of minutes on YouTube of his talks that range from the nature of “black holes having a temperature” to “a scientific fact is something that is true whether you believe it or not.”
He has an undergraduate degree from Columbia and a Ph.D. from a combination of the University of Texas and Harvard. He is a proud foodie and someone whose interests go well beyond the chain reaction that happens once a star begins to produce iron in its core.
He is one of many Black American scientists. But given he is one of the most visible scientists anywhere and an excellent public speaker, he wields immense power. He is the Director of Manhattan’s Hayden Planetarium with an endowed chair for research. Obviously, he is asked a lot of questions about race relations in the United States.
Chris Wallace asked about his role in race relations and what his example means to young people of color. in typical DeGrasse-Tyson style, he answered, but not quite in the way that Wallace expected. Neil turned the question around and asked what he meant to white people in the United States, a far more interesting question, bringing racism front and center. Transcript from Mediaite:
CHRIS WALLACE: You talk about your journey and you’ve used this phrase as “the path of most resistance.” A young Black kid from the Bronx becoming an astrophysicist. How tough was that path and how important do you think it has been for people of color to see Neil deGrasse Tyson in the place that you occupy?
Wallace wasn’t “wrong” in his question. He was just less interesting. It is fairly obvious what Neil represents to young POC in America. Hope. But there is a more interesting question, and Neil gently – he’s always gentle – humiliates Chris for not seeing it this way.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: I will invert that and say, How important is it for white people to see me where I am? That’s a way more important force operating, especially if that is the community that wields resources and opportunities. And if you see a Black homeless person in the street and you never saw a Black academically achieved other human being, you’re prone to say, “Oh, that’s just their lot in life.” But now you’ll see me and you’ll see the Black homeless person and you have to like, deal with that. It’s like, “Oh my gosh, there but for the lack of opportunity goes,” you know, you get to…
CHRIS WALLACE: A lot of people.
To his ever-lasting credit above, Wallace answered honestly, sensitively, and appropriately. Even though he had just been put in his place somewhat, he knew that he needed that answer as much as anyone and wasn’t going to hide from his reaction.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: A lot of people. So I just want to put that front. It was a path of most resistance because, yes, I was also physically fit and athletic. And you see a Black person who is that, particularly in the day, it’s “you should be an athlete!”
He was an elite classical dancer.
And that just simply fulfills people’s bin that they would put you because they’ve never seen your kind do anything else. And my father, who was active with the civil rights movement and a sociologist, he had way worse life encounters than I did dealing with society. And he was never bitter.
He said, these people don’t know better. That’s how they were raised. Have a conversation. Show them what’s possible. And so I’ve carried that with me ever since, I’ve never been bitter. It just is. And I’ll deal with it. Of, it’s it’s force to have me achieve that much more to the extent that that ever becomes visible and will matter to anyone.
And that’s what Neil does. He is both jaw-droppingly informative and knows how to capture an audience. If you have never seen him speak, I beg you to watch part of this:
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: MUCH LEFT ADO
You are right, Neil deGrasse Tyson is a national treasure.
I hate to be a buzz kill but the “national treasure” was accused of sexual misconduct by four women — but he gets to keep his jobs. He’s a horse’s astrophysicist and I could say a lot worse about him.
Accused. Has he been convicted of such conduct or has he admitted to such conduct?
I notice a LOT of accusations being thrown around every day. I don’t see a lot of accusations being found to be credible every day. I’m not saying he did not do what he was accused of but I haven’t heard any definitive proof either.
A lot of shit we, men AND women, have bantered about in our conversations over the years is now being labeled as this or that as is a lot of what at the time was consensual behavior. It looks very different in 2020+ than it did in the late 20th century.
Not trying to excuse the man IF he did what he is accused of doing. Just sayin’
The story I read of one of the accusations, was very chilling. It also sounded totally plausible. I suppose that Tyson is the “victim” of women ganging up to lie about him. That was pretty much Andrew Cuomo’s defense for years until things caught up with him.
My experience with these issues is that when there’s a pattern of multiple incidents and multiple accusations that sooner or later you find out it was real. And I am biased in favor of women, admittedly, considering how much assault, molestation and rape has gone on in this world, consequence free. I believe other women.
That behavior was never consensual. Men thought it was consensual and pressureed women into believing it too – or at least accepting they would not be believed.
I’ll let you imagine what that did to out self esteem.
I’m with you. Tyson did a power trip on these women, like Cuomo, all of them.
To quote another black American shaped by the gospel, ” I dream of the day when my children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Point taken Ursula.
As I said in the other comment above, I believe women. I believe a string of women saying the same thing. I point out that Bill Cosby had a great PR campaign going for a very very long time until it came to light who and what he really was.
Cosby was a monster. He behaved abysmally to the cast and crew of his show. I know first hand because I knew one of the crew members and she told me that he “was just that way.” People went to work and endeavored to avoid his wrath. And that was the tip of the iceberg. Then there was all the sexual abuse.
I remember a stat in a news report about rape that only 1% get prosecuted. Given the thousands of rape kits sitting in storage rooms without followup, AND the number that go unreported, I have to agree with you Ursula. I lost a workout friend, a lawyer high up in state government, over the Kavanaugh hearings. He supported that serial rapist by excusing him as being in a “he said she said” situation. I pointed out that was not true. His friend was in the room, so there was a witness. I mentioned that I thought lawyers cared about facts and he got pissed. I still contend Dr. Ford told the truth and several things saved her. First, kavanaugh and his friend were drunk. Second, she had a one piece bathing suit under her clothes, difficult to remove even for the person wearing it. Third, his friend was there and their horsing around gave her an opportunity to escape. We NOW know this was a pattern of behavior on his part with 4500 tips, including his college roommate, buried by the FBI, trump, and grassley. Note to all you men out there: rape one of my daughters & you better hope the law catches up with you before I do. Read up on how the commanches dealt with captives and put yourself there. So when multiple women make the accusation then I believe it.
Well I’m an old bird of 83 now, understand totally what you are saying, as do most women. I’m convinced it’s only because women are far less likely to do so that there are not more murders of males who rape – because thinking about it makes me a REALLY, REALLY angry woman, and I’m convinced if it were my daughter that he had better be far out of town & stay there else his life would be severely in danger ! Males seem to have a very casual attitude to this, never recognizing that to a woman a secxual encounter is an intrusion into one’s most personal body space, and unless welcomed, is murder inducing behavior. All I can say is ‘watch out males you are in danger’ because you seem not to recognize that fact !
I think that’s who they had on CNN today. They were interviewing a 9 year old kid who is in his first year of college. This kid thinks this guy is cool.