More Pink Liberal Wank

[madscience]

My response to this wankIt's doubtful there was anything racist about Kanazawa's methodology or conclusions. I've read his blog before, and it's usually pretty legit. Unfortunately, we can't see for ourselves because Psychology Today was cowed by the wank mob and pulled the article

Comments

[misslynn]

Um. WHAT?

You are clearly not familiar with enough black women or Asian men if you think that one looks masculine and the other looks feminine.... *shakes head* I'm so baffled I don't even know where to start.

[madscience]

Perhaps, but that's not something anyone should feel entitled to judge me for. I didn't choose where I was born, and I'm not about to go out looking for token black and Asian friends just so I can get familiar with their appearance. IMO, that would be racist. Or at least totally lame.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kanazawa's observation was simply that there are a lot of people like me. Acknowledging this fact is the first step toward changing it. Attacking Kanazawa for his very important work is the opposite of helping.

[misslynn]

I didn't read the links you provided, I admit. I'm more focused on what you said about yourself.

Nor am I calling you racist, but you can expose yourself to more diverse surroundings and people without "going out looking for token friends."

[madscience]

We live in a racially segregated culture, and I live in a very white state. I'm not going to encounter many non-white people unless I intentionally seek them out.

Not only that, but I suspect that learning a new face-recognition language as an adult would be as difficult as learning a new spoken language as an adult. It would take heavy immersion. Unless I make a point of it, I'll probably never see black faces (prosopemes, to coin an awkward word) the way someone raised around black people from birth would.

[misslynn]

Full of excuses. Which is your right, I suppose, but it seems an isolated way to live your life.

[madscience]

So what would you propose I do? Move to Africa?

I'm sorry, but I don't feel personally responsible for the structure of our society or the effect it's had on my facial-recognition system or any other aspect of my thinking. I feel you're implying that I should, and I resent that. I feel that I've fulfilled my responsibility by recognizing my own biases and making a conscious effort to avoid judging individuals based on those biases. Furthermore, I feel that I've gone beyond my responsibility by exposing myself to criticism for defending people like Dr. Kanazawa who, in my opinion, are working to untangle, explain, and ultimately solve society's problems.

[misslynn]

You lived at least part of your life in Fort Wayne, which is a fairly diverse city, did you not get any exposure to black or Asian people there?

You could watch movies & TV shows, look at photos, and otherwise try to gain a better understanding of different cultures.

It's great to recognize your own bias -- the next step is to try to correct it.

[madscience]

Fort Wayne, fairly diverse? There were two black kids in my class from K-8. Each was there for only one year. There were about five black kids in my entire class in high school. One of them was the class president, and the other four kept to themselves when they weren't on their soapbox about the class president being an Uncle Tom.

[misslynn]

North Side was at least 30% black and had a good representation of Asian and Latino kids too, so. Yes. I stand by what I said.

[madscience]

To whatever extent Fort Wayne is diverse, it's also extremely segregated. I lived a couple blocks from North Side, but that neighborhood is entirely white. The black kids who go to North are from the neighborhood east of Anthony and south of the Maumee. The only place I'd ever see them was at the Rogers/Scott's on North Anthony.

[misslynn]

It's not my fault if you segregated yourself in addition to the neighborhoods. I'm not saying it's your fault, necessarily, but I do think that as adults we're responsible for challenging and changing our own biases. Just recognizing them isn't enough.

Also, I lived in the Lakeside neighborhood and there were a decent number of minority families in that area.

[madscience]

I segregated myself? No. And that's exactly the suggestion I take offense to.

[misslynn]

"I'm not saying it's your fault, necessarily"

Reading is your friend.

[madscience]

That "necessarily" just adds to the implication that it was and is some choice of mine to live in a segregated society. And saying that I segregated myself makes it pretty explicit.

[misslynn]

As kids/teenagers we have little say over where we live, but we can choose who we interact with. As adults, we have a lot more choice over where to live. So did you choose to segregate yourself in Fort Wayne? Probably not. But you do choose it now, to some extent.

[madscience]

Only in the sense that I don't choose to do something unreasonable, like move to an all-black neighborhood where I can be accused of contributing to gentrification, or volunteer for a black charity where I can be accused of racial guilt and trying to play the white hero. No thanks.