COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015 | NEWS | THE BALTIMORE SUN 21

South Carolina’s racist history Maryland’s

T
he massacre by a
young white man, ac-
cording to police, of
nine African Americans last
week at a Charleston church
Bible study has drawn the
nation’s attention to lingering
racial hatred in America. If
there is a more appropriate
then immediately began trying to
renege on that bargain.
John Calhoun, the state’s most
prominent19th-century politician,
divined the theory of nullification
— the idea that states can simply
ignore federal edicts and court
rulings with which they disagree
— as a thinly veiled but clever legal
authority to protect
white superiority despite having fathered
a child with a black teenage family
servant. His 1948 Dixiecrat presidential
campaign remains the great electoral
the Chesapeake is
eyesore of postwar America.
The following decade, South Carolina’s in jeopardy
Clarendon County was the original,
segregation-defending litigant in the By Bob Irvin
bundle of cases generally associated with

M
place to draw that attention Thomas F. justification for state autonomy in Topeka, Kan., thanks to the Supreme aryland and its economy depend
than South Carolina, I don’t Schaller service to the perpetuation of Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education on a healthy Chesapeake Bay.
know it. state-sanctioned terrorism of mil- landmark ruling. And get this: Well into Right now, the state is negotiating
In its perpetual resistance lions of enslaved blacks. the 20th century, many white South with energy company Exelon over water
to the Union — which ultimately stood Everybody knows the first shots of the Carolinians refused to celebrate the quality threats posed by the Conowingo Dam
down slavery, racism’s most dehumaniz- Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, and Fourth of July, preferring instead to — and who will pay to address them.
ing form — and its racist legacies many recall that South Carolina was the recognize Confederate Memorial Day. However, Congress is considering legislation
including segregation, the Palmetto State first to secede. But before that, in This week, South Carolina Gov. Nikki that will take away Maryland’s authority to
has had few peers. No state mounted November 1860, the first formal call to Haley and Sen. Lindsey Graham called negotiate and allow Exelon to stick state
greater opposition to the Republic for secede and form what became the for their state to remove the Confederate taxpayers with the bill to repair any water
which we stand, nor resisted federal Confederacy was issued on what’s known flag that flies on the Capitol complex in quality damage the dam causes.
power and legitimacy so ardently, nor as Secession Hill in Abbeville, a small Columbia. That flag represents a defense Proposed federal legislation (The Hydro-
fought as vigorously on behalf of the town in the western part of South of slavery before and after the Revolu- power Improvement act of 2015) would strip
establishment, continuation and justifi- Carolina. So fervent was South Carolina’s tionary era, and before, during and even Maryland of its authority to hold hydro-
cation of slavery in America than South devotion to slavery that the state actually after the Civil War that supposedly power dam owners accountable for water
Carolina. threatened to secede from the Confedera- created racial equality. Its resilient dis- quality violations and end critical protections
That’s a bold claim to defend. But in a cy when the other 10 Confederate states play validates the state’s treasonous acts for fish and wildlife at hydropower dams.
chapter I published last year about South refused to join South Carolina’s call to against the Republic in service to human- This federal power grab would give Mary-
Carolina’s long, sordid history of resisting begin importing slaves more than a ity’s most odious practice. Good riddance. land’s authority to the Federal Energy
the American consensus (see “Nation half-century after the Constitution’s orig- But those who think its removal is a Regulatory Commission (FERC), an obscure
Within a Nation: The American South inal, 1808 deadline. panacea, or who conveniently charac- agency based in Washington, D.C. that
and the Federal Government,” University Following the Civil War, South Caroli- terize the Charleston church slaughter as regulates the interstate transmission of
Press of Florida), I make exactly that case. na was one of many states that used the the senseless act of some misguided loner, natural gas and electricity.
In deference to demands by South 13th Amendment’s oft-forgotten “except miss the point. We can make sense of it, What’s at stake for Marylanders? Exelon
Carolina slaveholders, Thomas Jefferson for punishment of a crime” clause to and the alleged shooter is not alone, Corporation is currently seeking a new
removed condemnation of slavery from perpetuate slavery for decades through because a long and sordid history pre- 46-year license from FERC to operate the
the Declaration of Independence, stain- the nefarious convict lease system. South cedes him. Conowingo Dam, located at the head of the
ing forever via this omission the first of Carolina’s Wade Hampton and his in- Thomas F. Schaller teaches political bay near the Pennsylvania border. It needs
America’s two core documents. As for the famous “red shirts” — forerunner to the science at UMBC; his most recent book is Maryland to certify that the dam’s operations
nation’s other core document, the Consti- Ku Klux Klan — used domestic terrorism “The Stronghold: How Republicans will not violate state water quality standards
tution legalized slavery and the contin- to subjugate the freed slaves who couldn’t Captured Congress but Surrendered the before FERC can grant the license. Right
ued importation of slaves until 1808 be tossed into prisons. White House.” His column appears every now, our state officials and natural resource
because South Carolina and other slave Twentieth-century South Carolina other Wednesday. His email is agencies have the authority to negotiate for
states extracted these conditions in ex- gave the country Strom Thurmond, a schaller67@gmail.com. Twitter: changes to the license that benefit Mary-
change for joining the new union—and proud segregationist and believer in @schaller67. landers and the bay. The hydropower
industry would like to change that.
Nearly 200 million tons of sediment are
trapped behind Conowingo, and during big

A Tim Hunt witch hunt?

storms large quantities of this sediment are
flushed into the bay. Maryland is pressing
Exelon to agree to clean up the dam before
the state will sign off on the new license. If
Congress passes the proposed bill, Mary-
land’s authority disappears, and Exelon gets
to pass the costs of dealing with the dam’s
Did the Nobel Prize pollution along to taxpayers.
Exelon, which will control about 80
winner get a Bunsen percent of Maryland’s electric market now
that its merger with Pepco has been
burning at the stake? approved, is one of the country’s largest
energy corporations. Exelon is also a mem-
By Jonathan David Farley
ber of the National Hydropower Association

N
obel Prize winning scientist Tim
Hunt joked that men and women
in the same lab tend to fall in love,
and that tends to get in the way of their
work. He also said that when female lab
workers get criticized, they tend to cry.
As a result of this criticism, women
cried, and Mr. Hunt resigned within days.
Was Mr. Hunt wrong? I once told a
female friend about a program I created
called Equations of Peace, aimed at
helping girls in conflict areas study math.
My friend thought that I didn’t know
enough to create such a program. When I
defended my decision, she started to cry.
I’ve never personally seen a man cry who
wasn’t cradling his dead son.
Women do cry. Feminist role-model
Sheryl Sandberg herself said, “I’ve cried at
work.” But it was Mr. Hunt who was
Bunsen-burned at the stake.
By contrast, the Globe and Mail news-
paper recently published an essay espous-
ing the “Male Idiot Theory,” stating that
men are more likely than women to risk
life and limb. No men cried as a result, to
my knowledge, nor did they call for the
female author’s head.
(Incidentally, one could formulate an-
other “MIT” theory: When I was a visiting
associate professor of applied mathemat-
ics at MIT, I recall only one female
professor compared to dozens of male
ones. Moreover, the Male Idiot Theory
ignores the men who, on the same
impulse, rush into burning buildings to
save women; who mine, like my co-
author’s grandfathers, the coal that makes
our civilization run; and who drop out of
college to create the computer companies
whose software feminist writers use to call
men idiots.)
Feminists also lambasted Mr. Hunt for
using the word “girls,” but the feminists
who scoff at that term worship at the altar
of Lena Dunham, whose hit television
show is called “Girls.” This hypocrisy
reminds us of the uproar over the
European Union’s attempt to attract more
girls to science, a program called “Science:
It’s a Girl Thing!” Its promotional video
“featured sexist cliches including high
heels and lipsticks,” according to The
Guardian newspaper — as if women don’t
wear high heels or lipstick.
Mr. Hunt’s joke finished with his
suggesting sex-segregated scientific
spaces, which everyone had to pretend
was outrageous; but how does one then
English biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate Richard Timothy ’Tim’ Hunt said he was
forced to resign from University College in London because of comments about female
scientists.
explain that the “Denver Museum of
Nature & Science [is] excited to host a Girls
and Science event … where girls will meet
women scientists”?
There was a related furor last year when
Mattel pulled the book, Barbie: I Can Be a
Computer Engineer, because, in it, Barbie
asks two boys for help. (Gasp!) Never mind
that only 15 percent of techies in Silicon
Valley are female, so the probability that
Barbie would randomly meet two women
in tech is less than 3 percent. (Trust me:
I’m a mathematician.) It seems as if
feminists want Barbie to exist in a
sex-segregated space.
Those leading the witch hunt twisted
what Mr. Hunt was saying into “girls can’t
do science,” and cited Marie Curie to prove
him wrong.But if that Nobel laureate in
physics and chemistry thought the way
today’s feminists think, there would have
been no Marie Curie, because Marie
Skłodowska would have sued Pierre Curie
for sexual harassment the first time he
asked her out for coffee in an elevator.
Even if what Mr. Hunt said was wrong,
there must be room for redemption. James
Watson, another Nobel Prize winning
scientist, became an “unperson” after
making comments about inherent intelli-
gence that some called “racist.” But after
having lunch with Professor Watson and
his wife, I concluded that whatever he is,
there should be more like him. Give the
CSABA SEGESVARI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
man back his job. (Full disclosure: He paid
for lunch. And I’m black.)
In conclusion, Mr. Hunt spoke light-
heartedly about an age-old problem: How
can the sexes work together without
romance occasionally blossoming? When
it does, problems can arise, as emotions
collide with professional ideals. The sug-
gestion about segregation was not meant
seriously, it seemed. He was just saying
there is no solution to this difficulty, except
to try to be sensible and mature about it,
not to rush into ill-considered “solutions,”
like penalizing all such romances.
As if it heard the uproar on Earth, the
probe a team of British scientists led by
Matt Taylor — widely lambasted for
wearing a shirt with scantily clad women
on it — landed on a comet came back to life
this month. Its message? Science doesn’t
care about your social politics.
The critics of Messrs. Hunt, Taylor and
Watson should consider what advances
they’re derailing along with their targets’
careers. We should not have to choose
between women’s liberation and the
liberation of all mankind.
Baltimore resident Jonathan David Farley
is the co-founder of Girls Equal Math. His
email is jonathan@phoenixmath.com.
Professor Colin McGinn contributed to this
article; he is the subject of the New York
Times article, “A Star Philosopher Falls,
and a Debate Over Sexism Is Set Off.”
(NHA), the hydropower industry’s trade
association. Perhaps not coincidentally, the
NHA has called for legislation that in
practice would weaken federal and state
agencies’ authority to require hydropower
companies to protect water quality and
fisheries.
As Marylanders, who do we want in
charge of protecting our billon-dollar Chesa-
peake fisheries, our clean water and our
endangered species from the damage caused
by hydropower dams? The professional
scientists and policymakers at the Maryland
Department of Natural Resources and the
Maryland Department of the Environment,
who are accountable to taxpayers and the
governor; or FERC, a D.C.-based energy
permitting agency that has virtually no
accountability to Marylanders and no man-
date to protect the Chesapeake or any of the
communities that rely on it?
Fortunately, the state of Maryland is
fighting back. Gov. Larry Hogan and his
administration understand the importance
of the Conowingo Dam’s water qality
certification and are standing up for Mary-
land and for the Chesapeake Bay by opposing
this damaging legislation. Maryland’s Secre-
tary of the Environment Ben Grumbles and
Secretary of Natural Resources Mark Belton
recently sent letters to Congress pointing out
that the legislation being considered would
relegate states to “bystander or second-class
status” with regard to protecting water
quality. For defending Maryland’s right to
protect our waters, Governor Hogan de-
serves our thanks.
Maryland’s congressional delegation
should join with Governor Hogan in oppos-
ing this legislation. Rarely do our senators
and members of Congress have to defend the
bay from such a blatant attempt to roll back
environmental protections. Fifty percent of
the bay’s fresh water flows down the
Susquehanna River and over the Conowingo
Dam. The new federal license for Cono-
wingo offers Maryland a once-in-a-lifetime
chance to bring the dam into compliance
with modern laws and standards for envi-
ronmental protection. Maryland cannot af-
ford to lose its authority to protect the
Chesapeake Bay from Conowingo’s pollu-
tion.
Bob Irvin, an Olney resident, is president and
CEO of American Rivers, a national
conservation group; his email is
birvin@americanrivers.org.

What Maryland thinks

DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU Should South Carolina remove the
Confederate flag from its Capitol?

Yes 52%
No 44%
Not sure 4%
(229 votes, results not scientific)

NEXT POLL: Do you approve of plans to

rename Robert E. Lee Park in the wake of
renewed national concerns over
Confederate symbols?
Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote