Neil DeGrasse Tyson Said What He Thinks About Race Now That He's Made It, And Almost Nobody Noticed

[caraher]

Good takedown of "maybe genetics explains under-represented groups" in science fields.

[longship]

1. And I believe the video also has...

Richard Dawkins, Neil, Ann Druyan (Carl Sagan's widow), DJ Grothe (moderator), Victor Stenger (physicist).

Not sure about Druyan, but I think that's her.

I wish I had no band limits so that I could watch this stuff on line from beginning to end instead of these snippets.

[caraher]

12. Definitely Dawkins...

I actually don't know any of the others by sight... thanks for the roster!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. WOW! I'm going to send this video around. It's amazing. nt

[oldandhappy]

3. excellent!!

And true for other situations also. Go Neil.

[daleanime]

4. Major K&R...

[bhikkhu]

5. Excellent explanation!

I couldn't have said it better myself, though being a tall, reasonably good looking white male, my perspective is more of one who has had all those doors open to him most of the time, and of having had no social barriers.

Having two daughters myself I can say that the barriers (as I have seen them) begin around 5th grade, where my daughters, good at math, good at science, were generally pushed away from both. The social punishments for following a path outside of normal role-expectations begin with peer-pressure, reinforced by teachers. I wish I could say my own efforts were sufficient to encourage them, but they weren't.

If one wanted to look at the genetics, you have only to look at the beginnings of any mind, male or female. We are all born with far more neural material and connectivity than we need as adults, and the growing-up process is much more one of paring down and weeding out than it is of nurturing from a limited stock of material. Everyone of any race, any gender, is born with characteristic differences, but also with much more capacity than is needed to excel. Shepherding that development along is something that we do very poorly as a people, and beating down differences is a big part of human culture.

[mzteris]

6. Totally amazing.

Equality of opportunity. People don't get why that is so hard. Why that inequality is such an impediment. It's THE reason. Women, moriorities, etc., are "less than".. Not less smart or less capable or less able.. What they are , are less afforded the opportununity to even try. To even try to learn to try to learn, to be equal, to be anything they damn well please.

[jtuck004]

7. K&R Very good. Thank you for that. n/t

[Enthusiast]

8. K&R!

[xocet]

9. k & r n/t

[TxDemChem]

10. He's absolutely right.

Growing up, I knew I wanted to be a scientist, but as a black female, I was constantly told by a certain type of person that science is man's work and since I used to sing a lot, I should look into getting a recording contract. Everytime I heard those types of comments (including from my own mom), it made me want to work harder just to prove them wrong. I
My dad taught me, and I am teaching my daughter, that we already have 2 strikes against us: we're black and we're female. We have to work twice as hard just to get the same amount of credit as a white woman and 4 times as hard to get the same as a white man.
You'd think in 2014 that my daughter would not have do deal with that sort of inequality, but we are minorities in Texas and that is the way the game is sometimes played. When my dad would tell me to work harder, I used to say life was unfair. His response was that the fair only comes once a year , meaning sometimes you'll get lucky and not have to deal with inequality, but don't expect that luck to be forever in my favor.

[caraher]

11. Thanks for your story

May I ask you a question? As a college faculty member (white male) in a male-dominated field (physics) I struggle with working out how I can best help women and underrepresented minority students. What advice would you have regarding what I should do for the African American woman from Detroit or the Latino from Chicago, who arrive with so much less privilege than most of our students? I do get the strong sense that a big part of success is what you and Neil DeGrasse Tyson suggested, unwavering determination; what I see happen to some of these students is that everything falls apart when doubt creeps in, and since this happens to everyone (because science is hard!) I think the most effective intervention has to come in managing those times of doubt.

[TxDemChem]

13. For me, it was teachers who pushed me. My 6th grade teacher,

who unfortunately passed when I was in 7th grade, graded me and another classmate at the college level. She always told us that we could do whatever we set our minds to, so we set out expectations high . I'm now 31 and not a year goes by without my dad and I thinking of her. Twenty years later and I feel terrible for never thanking Ms. Krutilek for her kind words. In short, you can encourage those students to fight for what they want. The fact that you even asked the question tells me that they are already in good hands. Sometimes it only takes one teacher/professor to push us one step closer to success.

[steve2470]

14. excellent video ! nt