I encounter a lot of fuckery on Facebook. Like a mind numbing amount of fuckery. One of the more recent forms of fuckery is the Hotep movement. Now what that is is a Pro-African and African-American movement that has evolved from black Americans trying to be more Afrocentric. Now I have no problem with this whatsoever, or better stated, WOULD have no problem with it, if it didn't accompany a staggering amount of idiotic pseudoscience. As Damon Young of the website "The Root" puts it perfectly: "...the working definition of “Hotep” has morphed into an all-encompassing term describing a person who’s either a clueless parody of Afrocentricity—think “Preach” from Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood—or someone who’s loudly, conspicuously and obnoxiously pro-black but anti-progress."

Now what do Hoteps usually have in common? Well the five core similarities are essentially:

1. A strong belief in illogical conspiracy theories, especially if they are about black extermination or hidden prejudices and injustices that oppress the Black community (usually by "The White Man").

2. Zero respect for ANYONE with a deferring ideology or point of view (especially if it preaches against their own Hotep views).

3. Sexism and Homophobia (as being gay is a "white thing" and black men must rule the lives of their women).

4. Unwavering support of any black person accused of a crime... even if the person in question's guilt is obvious (or they already confessed to the crime).

5. Everyone in Ancient Egypt was black. Which isn't always the case. I also wanna briefly point out that Hoteps use Egypt as the golden standard for African culture.

The root (no pun intended) of this problem is actually a widespread lack of scientific understanding in the African-American community, as this meme goes to prove:

You get my drift.

Many Hoteps believe that their melanin, a dark brown to black pigment occurring in the hair, skin, and eyes, gives them superpowers. Yes, you read that right. Superpowers. This Nietzsche-esque idea was the subject of Bernard Ortiz De Montellano's essay "Melanin, Afrocentricity, and Pseudoscience." In it, Montellano states that "..the melaninists, has been developing and publicizing the properties of melanin." He also goes on to say that a lot of these "special properties were discussed in an essay by Dr. Frank Barr and that "Barr's scientific objectivity is somewhat doubtful because he is affiliated with The Institute for the Study of Conscious... his research was funded by the Institute for Noetic Sciences." Now based of my quick search of these two organizations, I could tell that they were essentially "Centers for Pseudo-scientific Bullshit."

If this idiocy spreads like wildfire, we will have an even larger pool of scientific illiterate African-Americans who believe that modern science is somehow equal or inferior to Hotep science. As Montellano writes in another essay "Multicultural Pseudoscience: Spreading Scientific Illiteracy Among Minorities", "Minorities are already greatly underrepresented in science and engineering. Teaching them pseudoscience will result in making it much more difficult for these young people to pursue scientific curricula because they will face ridicule at the point they encounter a true science class." In sum, these Hoteps think that they are helping the African-American community by teaching them bullshit, when in reality they are bringing their community down.

I encourage the African-American members of my audience to not partake in this idiocy. Instead take part in STEM and learn how to better your community, and the world, by using REAL science.