[242] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What can we do?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ray Jones)
Fri Apr 27 13:26:21 2001
To: Shamik Das <shamikd@MIT.EDU>
Cc: rjones@pobox.com, mit-talk@MIT.EDU, ifc-talk@MIT.EDU
From: Ray Jones <rjones@pobox.com>
In-Reply-To: Shamik Das's message of "Fri, 27 Apr 2001 12:26:51 -0400"
Date: 27 Apr 2001 13:26:05 -0400
Message-ID: <ppwlmomdzki.fsf@PIXIE.MIT.EDU>
Shamik Das <shamikd@MIT.EDU> writes:
> [...]
>
> All but the most self-assured incoming freshmen question the validity of
> their admission. The Extropian mailing *to these freshmen* stating that
> (a) they seek membership from the intellectual elite and (b) they
> believe that minorities and women at MIT disproportionately do not
> qualify for this category is inherently racist and sexist. It is one
> thing to believe that MIT employs lower standards for admissions for
> minorities and women. It is another to combat the administration with
> data, if it exists, supporting this belief. It is a third thing entirely
> to target members of that minority with the message that they are more
> likely than others not to belong. This is racist and sexist, and it is
> about as subtle as this very sentence.
Good points, all. I disagree on a couple of terms [1,2], but in
general I am willing to agree that the mailing was racist and/or
sexist, possibly from lack of critical reasoning on the part of the
Extropians, possibly from just plain old hate.
The more important question, however, is should the Administration be
vetting student publications for racism and sexism? It's not an easy
question, in general, or in this specific case. [3]
Ray Jones
[1] I don't think we can say that the mailing was "targeted" at the
minority; it was sent to the entire freshman class.
[2] from a piece of your message not quoted above, a statistical bias
does indicate racism or sexism, assuming enough data is gathered. it
might be systemic rather than individual in cause, which makes it much
harder to detect on-the-fly and avoid.
[3] Well, it's not a hard question for me, but I'm pretty deep in the
Kors/Silverglate/Strossen camp on this one.
