Mad About Science

The Mad Scientist is one of the most recognizable figures in our culture. In many ways, he represents the growing inhumanity in science after rapid industrialization in Europe and America. Huge academic and government laboratories replaced the individual scientist's salon, where he explored the nature of the universe. Not only did industrialization make science about production, rather than exploration, it also boosted the rate at which science was conducted. Our rapid rate of discovery led to an astounding mastery over nature.

Of course, this frightened us. For the first time, a single individual, with the proper education and access to resources, could create atomic bombs. If science held this sort of power, what else could someone do with that sort of knowledge.

The Mad Scientist was born. He (always he) pursues scientific understanding without regards to morality or consequence. Then, the Evil Mad Scientist used this information to control and manipulate others... or just plain ol' destruction and devastation.

With this level of cultural representation in mind, how is it that I cannot think of ONE major Mad Scientist character that isn't white? I mean, we people of color can threaten you with a gun or steal your children, but we can't seem to use nuclear power to destroy the world.

Take the growing stereotype of terrorists, for example. They can build bombs and weapons, grow pathogens and get them safely into envelopes, even manage to lick the stamps without dying... but are they Mad Scientists?

NO!

Perhaps black Mad Scientists blend in with their nocturnal surrounding? Maybe this is why we never see them!

Of course, the problem is historical. Science has always been taught as originating from brilliant white men in England and Germany, Isaac Newton, Francis Galton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and maybe a French Louis Pasteur or two... However, science has become a mass enterprise. Yes, research laboratories are still like medieval feudal states, but overall, it's a cooperative endeavor.

Regardless of this shift in science, women and people of color are continually disregarded as candidates for Evil Mad Scientist-hood. Historically, science has been a white male enterprise and it follows through to modern times.

I tell you, the Mad Science community needs some affirmative action, quick!