How else would we have known who is the Frenchman?

Mark Eugenikos writes:

Regarding the French elections and the whole “Who is French?” question, I submit the attached photo. It comes from an article at livescience.com titled “Why Pygmies of Africa Are So Short.” The caption says, “Study researcher Alain Froment, of the Museum of Man in France, in the striped shirt with a group of Pygmies.” For those who are not sure what a striped shirt looks like, I have graciously circled the researcher:

Study researcher Alain Froment, of the Museum of Man
in France, in the striped shirt with a group of Pygmies.

LA writes:

The combination of rigidly orthodox PC with unconscious, non-PC instincts that subvert the PC orthodoxy makes this photo and its caption unique. To begin with, the editor who wrote the caption felt that he could not simply write, “French researcher Alain Froment with a group of pigmies,” because that would imply that Froment could be distinguished from the pigmies and identified as French solely from his physical, racial characteristics, which would violate the liberal dogma that race doesn’t matter. So he added the risibly superfluous information that Froment is wearing a striped shirt. But the poor editor somehow didn’t notice that one of the Africans in the photo is also wearing a striped shirt, making it equally likely, according to the editor’s own caption, that the African is the French researcher. But the editor didn’t notice that huge mistake, because, notwithstanding his extravagant PC gesture, he actually knew, though he couldn’t admit it consciously to himself, that it was perfectly obvious which man in a striped shirt is the French researcher.

- end of initial entry -

Christopher B. writes from England

The second photo in the article is also interesting. I suppose that there could be a pygmy named Sarah Tishkoff.

Study researcher Sarah Tishkoff (center)
with Pygmy women from Cameroon.

LA replies:

Without the helpful indication that Professor Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania is the woman in the center of the photo, how else could we have known which woman is Sarah Tishkoff? Sarah Tishkoff might be the woman on the right, or maybe the woman on the left.

April 30

Tiberge of Galliawatch writes:

You wrote:

.”.. because that would imply that Froment could be distinguished from the pigmies and identified as French solely from his physical, racial characteristics, which would violate the liberal dogma that race doesn’t matter.”

To say that race doesn’t matter is to imply that there is such a thing as race, but that it’s insignificant. Naughty naughty.

François Hollande has said that he will remove the word “race” from the French Constitution, if he is elected.

Article 1 of the Constitution reads:

“La France est une République indivisible, laïque, démocratique et sociale. Elle assure l”égalité devant la loi de tous les citoyens sans distinction d’origine, de race ou de religion.” (France assures equality under the law for all its citizens without distinction of origin, race, or religion.)

He explained:

“The Republic does not fear diversity because diversity is movement, it’s life. Diversity of paths, of origins, of colors, but not diversity of races.”

So you can no longer mention race since there is no such thing. You have lost three Brownie points. Possibly more. Your passport may be seized if you try to enter France.

LA replies:

Very interesting.

P.S. Actually, I’d say that Froment looks Jewish. :-)

Tiberge replies:

I don’t think he looks Jewish at all. But he’s terribly dressed. A striped shirt that’s too bold and too big with windowpane plaid pants. I guess you can’t expect him to be spiffy among the natives. I’ll concede though that of all eight persons in the photo, he is the one most likely to be Jewish.

Charles G. writes:

By these standards, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” was not a wry joke, but a serious inquiry.

Paul K. writes:

That photo, with that caption, is funnier than any cartoon I’ve seen in The New Yorker in the last ten years. You point out that the editor went out of his way not to imply that the white man was obviously not a pigmy, but he also steered away from mentioning that the man of normal height was not a pigmy, as that too would have been unforgivably gauche. What a fix!

Larry T. writes:

Your post reminded me of this picture.

It appeared a review of Sapolsky’s new book in my local paper years ago. I thought it was hilarious.

LA replies:

Looks like an early instance of anti-speciesism at the New York Times.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 30, 2012 10:10 AM | Send