Phil Plait And The Utah Science Community Are Like Republicans (Saying They Want More Blacks Involved,...)

If anybody can make a crowd nervous, I can. I just re-discovered that, again, after attending a science lecture by The Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, at the Clark Planetarium. How nervous? Let me break the whole thing down for you: 

   

I hate to begin with this, but it matters - It's the planetarium's 10th anniversary, and I was one of only two blacks at this gala event. No big deal, but after I'd entered the venue and obediently stood in line with everyone else to get my ticket, one of the planetarium's staffers came up to me, security guard beside him, wondering if he can "help" me.

   

Now, alright, I'm a big boy. I've been here before. But, still, it stunned me. I was standing in line for a fucking science lecture. I'm sure my eyes were imploring them not to do what I knew they were doing, but all I got out of my mouth was "Excuse me?"

 

The staff member - smaller than me but well built, bald head, slightly thuggish for a white guy - asks me why I'm there. BOOM. Confusion is over. Clarity. Now I'm looking at a couple of idiots. I look at each one individually, and then stare at the big neon sign saying TICKETS before asking "Why?" He said he didn't know - he just wants to "help." I stepped out of line and waved my arms, in a gesture indicating the others still in it, and asked him if he'd offered to "help" anybody else. "No, but,..." "Yeah, no butt my ass" I said and got back in line, dismissing them. Immediately, a white couple, who saw the whole episode, jokingly asked me why I was there.

We laughed, but I already wasn't sure anymore.

   

On top of that, my next shock came when the ticket was $30.00 I didn't have (if you know what I mean). I paid it, and after wandering around the suit and tie crowd for a minute, found myself outside with the bad kids, smoking cigarettes where the scientists couldn't see 'em. The white couple who witnessed my ordeal with security was out there, and we made nice, soon to find ourselves hanging inside, next to a giant swinging pendulum, trying to scarf down as many beers from the open bar as we could before the lecture. Dude - it was thirty bucks!

   

 I got a good seat. Third row, all the way to the right, maybe 50-60 feet from the lectern. I could look Phil Plait in the eye. Cool.

After the museum auctioned off a trip to Florida, a four-star hotel stay, and lunch with an astronaut at the Kennedy Space Center for $5,500 or something else totally insane, Phil Plait gave a talk that, honestly, didn't add up to much, gussied up with clips from stupid Hollywood movies that get the science of disaster wrong.

But,...he started his talk by saying he called himself "The Bad Astronomer" because he began his online career debunking misconceptions, and he ended his talk by saying science is important and challenging us to get involved. Of course, that's my cue for the announced 10 minute Q&A portion of our show.

   

Now don't ask me why a scientist - in front of a group of people who paid 30 bucks-a-pop to hear him speak on the hard science of comets and asteroids - was also begging us to support science, but there he was. I also didn't understand why the first question he got from this well-heeled and supposedly serious science crowd was (I'm being completely serious) whether or not Phil Plait would eat the moon, if it was made of spare ribs instead of, as it's often said, cheese.

I shit you not.

I have no idea.

Luckily, my bit made everybody else confused - and hostile.

   

 I began by saying "I'm The Crack Emcee from the blog The Macho Response" and then said I'm dismayed with the language scientists use online, like he and Orac, that I don't think is sufficient to the job of defeating misinformation. I reminded him of James Randi's saying that trying to fight misinformation is like trying to empty the ocean with a paper cup - why can't he use a BIG GULP? I ended with the example of homeopathy, referring to it as the "low hanging fruit of quackery," and how scientists always give us their boilerplate answer of it being "no more effective than placebo" - a rather bloodless answer - instead of going for the jugular and informing the public of the ways people are being killed.

   

O.K., let me back up, because several things happened while what I just wrote was occurring. The crowd, which sat politely and patiently for that little spare-ribs-on-the-moon fiasco, grew loud when they discovered I wasn't presenting a Tweet. One guy (reminding me of the insulting treatment I regularly got on that circle jerk known as the Althouse blog) yelled out that I just wanted to promote TMR. (Wait - I've been doing this for how many years now? I don't advertise the damned thing - anywhere. There's no angle. And, good lord, do I hate it when dummies assume what little they can think of - which is usually so unimaginative it's an insult, like asking a scientist about killings, in a scientific setting, can somehow be construed as "promoting" my blog - becomes my individual motivation, without anybody ever asking me what I, myself, have in mind. It's enough to make me want to kill, it happens so often.)

   

Another thing that happened is, at the mention of the blog, Phil Plait smiled. I couldn't tell if it was in acknowledgement or not (I didn't care to remind him during his Q&A that I'd also criticized him online) but he did smile. He also admonished the crowd when they got testy, saying my question addressed a very serious issue.

And then he fucked up:

   

 The man gave us more boilerplate after I had specifically asked him to stop doing just that.

   

 He told the crowd my "serious subject" was the Steve Jobs scenario, as in, when someone uses homeopathy too long and dies before medicine can save them. I hesitantly corrected him - no, I was speaking specifically about killing people (active) not someone passively "dying." I mentioned we are in Utah, home of the Mormons, where weird beliefs run rampant. And that's when Phil Plait, along with everyone else, got nervous. And when Phil got visibly nervous (partially because someone doesn't agree with what he said) our hosts for the evening, the Clark Planetarium, shortened our 10 minute Q&A to about six, and - before apologizing to me - that was that.

No, Phil Plait wouldn't have any time, after the lecture, to speak with me. Nobody did - except the white couple I had made friends with. Everyone else either stared or diverted their eyes.

   

 Outside, my new friends said I was great, but were also like, "What did you expect? You can't challenge a guy like Phil Plait." I told 'em I could try. I have before. Even at Tea Party meetings. They asked me how it's worked out.

"It's always they same. These guys are protected."

 

 They're protected from new ideas, themselves - you name it. I've been a celebrity before. You'd be amazed at the damage an adoring crowd can do. In this instance, one guy attempted to diminish me by claiming I'm not sincere, but only out to promote this blog, and the rest basically showed me they can make it so the Phil Plait's of the world don't have to answer uncomfortable questions about how he's conducting himself in the face of science's preventable murders. It's the same every single time. And they think they're doing science a favor as they do so. I find the madness of it - it reminds me of The Devils - to be simply mind boggling.

   

 Anyway, that's another trip I took outside into the lovely, sane, compassionate, intelligent world today. This time, I guess, as the supposedly-coveted "black man" trying to engage with science. My mistake?

 I actually attempted talking to someone.

   

 I'll try not to let it happen again, too soon:

 

It really makes me dislike people a lot,....