The MIT Free Speech Alliance and Adam Smith Society are co-sponsors of this debate, presented at MIT's Wong Auditorium on November 2, 2023. In this debate, two teams will debate the resolution, "Resolved that STEM is Systemically Racist."The debate is long and boring.Debating in support of the resolution are Dr. Chad Womack, Vice President of National STEM Programs at the United Negro College Fund and guest editor of a series of special issues in Nature on racism in science, and Dr. Jaret Riddick, Senior Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University, formerly serving as Principal Director for Autonomy in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the Pentagon.
Debating against the resolution are Dr. Luana Maroja, Professor of Biology and Chair of the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Program at Williams College, and Dr. Erec Smith, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania and President and Co-founder of Free Black Thought.
Serving as debate moderator is Nadine Strossen, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and Past President of the American Civil Liberties Union.
I have not heard of any examples of someone's science/STEM career being hindered because of being Black. Just the opposite, Blacks are given extra opportunities and promotions. So I wondered if the debaters would offer any examples. No, they did not know any either.
The only real argument for racism was some studies of disparate outcomes based on race. And complaints that Black parents have to tell their sons not to fight policemen.
Not much mention of Asians.
Although this was supposed to be a free speech debate, it wasn't really. Nobody even talked about several of the possible explanations for racial disparities. You cannot blame racism unless you give direct evidence for it, or evidence against the alternative explanations. They did neither.
1 comment:
The school I attended openly discouraged white men from participating in their STEM fair...to the point my Java programming teacher asked "Why do you even want to go, your grade is already an A?"
I asked "Why not?" She responded that the fair was really for meant for minorities and women to shine. I responded "I'd be glad to go ask the Dean for clarification about what attending a STEM fair has to do with my race and gender."
She backed off right mumbling something about "I didn't say you couldn't go." To which I responded "No, you just were trying to discourage me from going or participating. I'd like to know Why?" She never answered me, and I never respected her again.
Post a Comment