Why are we taught in the Nigerian school system to revere White scientists?

Think about it, were you ever taught about Nigerian scientists in school?

I recently wrote an article, while rewatching Young Sheldon and thinking back to science classes in Nigeria.

Growing up, most of the scientific figures we studied in school were European names — Newton, Boyle, Charles, Einstein, Aristotle, etc. Those discoveries obviously matter and deserve recognition, but it made me wonder how certain intellectual traditions become treated as “universal knowledge” while others become historically invisible.

The article explores:

I. how colonial education systems shaped African curricula,

II. why African scientific/intellectual figures are rarely discussed in mainstream education,

how media influences our perception of what a “genius” looks like,

III. and whether scientific history has been taught through a heavily Eurocentric lens.

I also included references to African scholars like Imhotep, Ahmad Baba al Timbukti, and Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Fulani al-Kishnawi, alongside academic sources discussing coloniality in science education.

The piece is less about denying European scientific contributions, and more about questioning how educational systems decide whose intellectual history becomes “standard” globally.

Would genuinely be interested in hearing different perspectives on this.

18F and I'm looking to get my first toy.

Now, dildos are off the table, I'm a virgin and I plan to keep it that way.

Bullets scare me.

The stick (not sure that what it's called) is to bulky, it's not something I can easily hide.

I don't know any others.

Which brings me to the Rose. The tongue version, not the suction. It's compact and easy to hide.

My only problem is I don't know much about these things to make an informed decision, I need y'all's help.

I've been publishing on substack since March of this year. I know my account isn't that old yet but how do y'all get thousands of likes, comments and pledges on substack?

I asked this question somewhere else and the popular answer was promoting outside of Substack. Even Substack themselves sent me an email about it. It's the reason why I fired up my Reddit account after it was dormant for 3 years.

But even after sharing on my Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube and Reddit, so far the only engagement I've been getting is from reddit. Still, it's not that much.

So I'm curious, the people who promote outside of reddit how do y'all do it. Because clearly I'm doing it wrong? Is there a certain planning that goes into it or y'all are just winging it like I am right now?

Every time my brothers do something to me, my mum always tells me sorry on their behalf. But the moment I do something to them, I am the problem, she will yell at me "I'm being a bad sister, I should apologize to my brothers, is this how I will behave in my husband's house." I'm sick of it.

Today, my brother barged into our (me and mum's) room while I was bare assed on the bed. Instead of him closing the door completely and leaving, he only closed it enough for his hand to still be in the room holding out something he wanted to give my mum, and waited for me to cover up before dropping what he wanted to return. He did apologize, and when he left my mum did too. I pointed out to her that if the situation were reversed, she would not let me hear the end of it and she did nothing.

Something like this happened before, my brother (a different brother) was coming to our room, we knew because their door creaked loudly. I was in just a shirt, with nothing underneath and holding a hot plate of food. My mum yelled at me to tie something around my waist because my brother was at our door. I told her I would, but I hadn't yet, because I was looking for where to set down my plate.

The next thing she started shouting at me, "why would I keep my brother at the door, don't I know it's disrespectful, why am I so slow." She said so many things to the point where I had to defend myself, and the next thing, I was getting hit. I ended up called my dad on her.

My question is why don't I get the same pass as my brothers? The moment I do something, she will scold me right there in front of them. But when it's my turn I get apologies on their behalf.

She even just tried to make an excuse for my brother who barged in. I hate it, I really hate It.

For once, I just want to see them brought down for offending me, the same way my mum does it to me.

I previously posted My article on the Writers sub because, I wanted professional advice on my writing from a wide spectrum of people. Let's just say, it triggered people. So, I'm sharing it here with sisters who understand the importance of this topic.

I decided to start this article series on my substack publication. I know the title Everything is Racist is provocative, but the series is really about examining how systems—often unintentionally—can reinforce bias.

This is the first piece and it focuses on early camera technology, and representation.

Everything is Racist: Who the Camera Was Built For

Have you ever wondered why the Black characters in old Hollywood films often looked... off? In this article I will explain why you and I felt that way. Through this series called Everything is Racist, we will explore everything –whether intentional or not– that fostered racism not just towards Black people, but as a global issue.

Early visual technologies weren’t designed to exclude Black people –but they were built around whiteness as the default, and that bias shaped global beauty standards, casting decisions and even self-perception.

Companies like Kodak used something called “Shirley cards” (Test images of White women) to standardize colour and exposure. Labs optimized skin tones based on lighter complexions–a design that would have never worked for women who looked the opposite and were just as beautiful.

As a result, darker complexions often looked underexposed, flat and lacking detail.

As a child I was first exposed to Hollywood movies. White actors looked defined, polished, and almost perfect on screen. I felt the opposite towards Black actors, when they were even present at all.

I never understood it because the people who I saw in my daily life didn’t look that way. They were vibrant, expressive, and full of life – nothing like what I saw on screen.

The impact didn’t stop at appearance. Watching mostly Western media, I began to associate certain experiences– love, soft teenage moments, even the ability to make it in life –with a specific kind of life, in a specific part of the world.

It created the illusion that these things were rare, distant, or somehow unavailable to people who looked like me or lived where I did.

It makes sense to me now, but back then I didn’t want to see darker skin tones on my screen.

This is where the conversation shifts. The idea of the “palatable” Black woman. Because it was never about dark-skinned women being less beautiful or less talented. It was about systems that failed to represent them properly. When lighter skin appeared better on screen, it became easier to label it as more “marketable”.

It didn’t only exist in Hollywood. Outside it, there was Nollywood. The Nigerian film industry. Early Nollywood relied on affordable video cameras, limited lighting and fast production timelines. But those cameras were built on global “standard” that didn’t account for dark skin tones.

The visuals were flat and looked harsh. Keep in mind that Nollywood only made use of these cameras, because they were marketed globally as the “standard.”

Which begs the question, the “standard” for who?

Kodak’s technique is like beauty brands of today making shades for a specific race of people and marketing as “all inclusive”. They are using the kind of language that centers whiteness and leaves other races out of it as subgenres. That phrasing quietly reinforces exclusion.

Thank God for creators like Golloria who constantly remind us that we can demand better from those brands.

There’s nothing wrong with making a product that is meant for people who look a certain way. But marketing that product to different looking people as “the standard,” implies that their natural features need to be modified into the likeness of the first group for them to be considered beautiful.

The concept of “passing” and having proximity to whiteness existed long before the media came about, but that is not to say that early camera calibration didn’t make it worse. It only meant that if someone were rejected for being too dark, people across the world could see it and take notes.

It’s hard not to wonder whether these visual standards contributed to the boom in bleaching cream production and hair relaxer creation.

If the cameras helped shape how we see beauty, then it also shaped who we learned to value –and who we didn’t.

I started with this topic because it was inspired by a video but, there are many things I've noticed that foster racism; clothes, apps, phones, emojis, passports, etc.

Do you think this series is relevant or is the whole "everything/one is racist" thing so overdone, that I'm beating a dead horse with a stick at this point, and should go touch grass like one of the comments on the Writers sub said?