You Don't Want To Drive The Bridge Built By The Engineer Coddled Via "Different Ways Of Knowing"
There's an ongoing push to erase merit as a way of assessing quality and granting positions, especially in colleges.
At Quillette, Lenny Pier Ramos writes about the recent and increasing crazy -- the secular religion that's entering science education and science, including scientific journal articles.
As he sees it, "these demands [to 'decolonize the university'] seem tailored to ensure that students learned absolutely nothing in university except a bloated regard for their own internal realities." He continues:
Evidence of racism, such as is presented in these articles, is primarily traced to a lack of racial diversity among scientists. And there is no doubt that some minority groups are under-represented in many programs--this despite the fact that university admission offices and faculties, as well as funding bodies, have, for decades, worked to offer preferential opportunities to applicants from historically marginalized communities. But in recent years, political arguments surrounding the lack of diversity in education have become more intense and rhetorically ambitious. Many advocates now have turned against the very idea of objective meritocratic standards in education. Some accuse entire academic disciplines of being inherently racist.A popular idea here is that different groups have different "ways of knowing," different modes of sense-making, and even different epistemic paradigms. To insist on the exclusionary standard of "Western rationality" would therefore amount to suppressing black, Indigenous, or even female knowledges. And, since knowledge and power are said to form an indissociable nexus, the insistence on universal scientific standards is, by this logic, connected to the perpetuation of (male) white supremacy.
The way to remedy this injustice, some therefore argue, is to explicitly politicize science so as to reveal it as a culturally biased enterprise. In Canada, where I live, this political project is often referred to as the "decolonization of the university," and operates under the institutional umbrella of EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion). Though it sometimes couches itself in utilitarian or incremental terms (a demand for, say, better, more effective teaching methods that serve to develop the potential of all groups), the most far-reaching EDI initiatives effectively subordinate science to political activism and even mystical obscurantism.
In its most elaborate form, EDI subjects science to the same treatment as has already been meted out to the Western literary canon: a relentless deconstruction whereby each axiom, value, and commitment is presented as infected by cultural imperialism. This method of criticism has led, for example, to such oddities as feminist philosopher of science Sandra Harding's suggestion that Newton's laws might be accurately referred to as "Newton's rape manual." These critiques were once confined to social commentary that was distinct from the actual work of scientists. As I've learned first-hand, that may be changing.
There's much more at the link, worth reading.
Personally, the people I want "represented" in physics are those who show ability in it, as opposed to any with lesser ability who come from groups that don't include a lot of physics graduates.
The activists seek to admit people to disciplines who aren't qualified by crying racism, rather than doing what's much more difficult: Addressing what, if anything, might be keeping kids from these groups from becoming, say, physicists in greater numbers.
This possibly includes addressing issues like out-of-wedlock teen marriage and single parenthood in raising children.
Heresy, I know.
Newton's rape manual? I have to go google this...
NicoleK at June 21, 2020 12:44 AM
Out-of-wedlock teen marriage? That's a new one...
Lenona at June 21, 2020 5:38 AM
"That's a new one..."
We used to call it shacking up. i suppose that's too insensitive and hurtful for today.
iowaan at June 21, 2020 6:31 AM
I was joking. It was a mistaken oxymoron on Amy's part.
Lenona at June 21, 2020 8:32 AM
regarding the title...I don't know anyone that drives a bridge.
The Former Banker at June 21, 2020 9:14 AM
It includes a culture that does not value education. Thomas Sowell called it "redneck culture" and pointed out if afflicts blacks and whites, but not in equal numbers or equal historical eras.
Conan the Grammarian at June 21, 2020 9:54 AM
Scientific American has an article:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-racist-roots-of-fighting-obesity2/
That revolves around the idea that for black women to be fat is not harmful to them, but rather our *telling* them that they are fat is what does the harm.
Not sure what this means for fat persons who are not black women...
Ken McE at June 21, 2020 10:24 AM
We need a new civil rights bill that reforms the ones before -- to expressly allow discrimination on merit regardless of "disparate impact."
And we need an express requirement that children be able to pass a high school equivalency exam -- with no handicap given to anyone -- before graduating. No knowledge, no diploma, and no college admission.
jdgalt at June 21, 2020 11:40 AM
Literary deconstruction made some valid points that any writer was affected by his culture and times. This also proved true of historians who often skewed their interpretation of history to suit their racial or other views. However, this has proceeded to the view that there are no standards of merit or beauty at all: no "great books" or classic music or beautiful art. That a splash of paint on canvas is as valid as the great greek sculptures. This has now gone even further and declared that the dominant western culture (that much of the world is busy emulating) is simply an expression of racism. This "other ways of knowing" attempts to equate every other culture with western culture (ie none is superior) and now that includes science. Decades ago some feminists declared that they would create a feminist mathematics: what was masculine about math was never clarified and nothing ever came of it. The path this leads down is Know-nothing-ism. It also is the worst kind of racism because it assumes that minorities can't do science or math. This irony is that science is the most egalitarian field: all that matters is can you do the work--not your last name or what private school you went to. This is why US grad schools are full of brown people taking engineering etc. --they know their thick accent and foreign names will not hold them back. When you submit an article in science for publication, no one knows if you are black and usually not even if you are female (first initials are often used or the review is blinded). It can't get more fair than that.
cc at June 21, 2020 3:24 PM
I don't think most of these students are going to be getting, or even seeking, jobs designing bridges or airplanes. Some will become professors, and will propagate the same ideas to new generations of students. Others will become involved in inserting these ideas into K-12 school curriculums, thereby intellectually crippling many kids who *could* have become good scientists or engineers. Still others won't be able to get jobs in their 'field' at all, and will become increasingly bitter at the oppressions of Society.
David Foster at June 21, 2020 5:14 PM
My nephew graduated with a degree in computer science and engineering from a state school in the south last year. As white kid he was in the minority. Most of the graduates were Indian and Asian but I'm guessing they don't count as the right minority according to this article.
Shtetl G at June 22, 2020 6:55 AM
My nephew graduated with a degree in computer science and engineering from a state school in the south last year. As white kid he was in the minority. Most of the graduates were Indian and Asian but I'm guessing they don't count as the right minority according to this article.
Shtetl G at June 22, 2020 6:56 AM
As a fat person who is not a black woman it feels like black women are allowed to get away with it but the rest of us aren't. I want to be someone's sassy fat friend!
NicoleK at June 22, 2020 12:38 PM
For a while, Melissa McCarthy was leading that charge. Unfortunately, she overplayed her hand, being in too many movies and saturating the market.
Conan the Grammarian at June 23, 2020 6:06 AM
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