Ask HN: How do you separate art from the racist artist?

[Toyentrepreneur]

I've recently gotten into self-learning philosophy, economics, science, and mathematics and it's been eye-opening to read about how the most revered people felt about those like me (african american) ie. Plato, Aristotle, Darwin, Marx

I understand it was a different time and I'm not naive enough to disregard all of their work due to some personal beliefs, but do any of you have any tips on disassociating the bad and keeping the good?

[buboard]

They did not know you. To them you were "the stranger". Imagine them as blacks, saying the same things about "those strange white people". Racism is kin-preference , kind of ingrained in people, and it takes a sophisticated society like ours to rise above it because we, truly, don't need it anymore, it's a relic. Do you think that their view of strange people has a bearing on the other things that they said, or do you think their teachings express truths that are universal among people? There has been very intense research in the "racialization" and "genderization" of science and philosophy in the past decades, but maybe ask yourself if we learned useful things from it, things that are actually actionable.

Also, realize that american attitudes towards race are somewhat different from the rest of the world. Race in modern america is politicized, while for most of history around the world, races generally mixed with little political component, especially under great empires.

[thedevindevops]

Have you read up on Alan Turing? He was a member of a minority like you that faced similar prejudice of his time.