“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” -Frederick Douglass
I thought we were past this, I really did. Having grown up ...
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” -Frederick Douglass
I thought we were past this, I really did. Having grown up in New York, having lived in eight different states and traveled to 39 others — as well as maybe a dozen different countries — I truly thought there were a few things that were obvious. One of them, of course, is that you’ve got to give something a shot to know whether you like it or not. Hopefully, no matter who, where, or what you are, you’ll enjoy this upbeat song by Bob Schneider as much as I do, so have a listen to
Mudhouse.
Another, even more fundamentally simple and obvious one, is that people are individuals, and ought to be judged solely on their merits as individuals. You might be tempted to make generalizations about someone based on your preconceptions about their race, their gender, their country-of-origin, their sexual orientation, etc., but at the end of the day, each one of us is an individual.
And in no way — to me, at least — is that more obvious than when it comes to studying the Universe.
Image credit: Tanja Sund of http://astrotanja.com/.
Which brings up my point: do you think race, gender, or ancestry determines who can or cannot succeed in a given career?
If the answer isn’t a swift and immediate “of course not” for you, congratulations, you might be a scientific racist! I would’ve thought this had gone out of fashion after World War II, and I certainly didn’t think I’d encounter it ever in my lifetime. In a famous statement all the way back in 1950, UNESCO had the following to say:
The biological fact of race and the myth of ‘race’ should be distinguished. For all practical social purposes ‘race’ is not so much a biological phenomenon as a social myth. The myth of ‘race’ has created an enormous amount of human and social damage. In recent years, it has taken a heavy toll in human lives, and caused untold suffering.
And yet, here we are, studying things like gender-and-math-aptitude or IQ-and-race like these are actual sciences.
Image credit: Wikimedia commons user Quizkajer.
There are some of you out there who have no idea why this is offensive, why this isn’t science, and why this is racist.
Let me try to put this in perspective for you.
How do you feel when you see unequal treatment, based on race, in situations such as this?
Image credit: Alexandra Dal of http://alexandradal.tumblr.com/.
Do I need to explain to you why this is offensive, why this is racist, or why this is grossly unfair treatment? Do I need to explain to you that the person on the left and the person on the right in each case deserve to be treated equally, regardless of what any test, statistic or study has said about outcomes?
Here’s why, for those of you who need the explanation: Every person in this world deserves to be treated with the dignity and respect that we, ourselves, would like to be treated with.
The idea that tests like an “IQ Test,” the “SATs” or the “GREs” are somehow indicators of what races or genders are better suited to certain types of careers are meritless, not borne out by evidence, and also incredibly offensive. And yet, you can apparently get a Ph.D. in this from Harvard.
Image credit: screenshot from Jon Wiener’s blog at http://www.thenation.com/.
This. Is. Not. Okay.
People have been using studies like this to argue about genetic inferiority for centuries, contending that some races are genetically inferior, the female gender is inferior at math, and that this makes them ill-suited to careers that involve heavy amounts of math/science/detail-oriented work.
And yet, if you’ve ever gone to school or met a substantial number of human beings of any race, gender, or ancestry, that notion seems like utter lunacy. It’s as
