How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race • Hacker News Board

Re: How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race

#11

Post by throwaway_java » Tue, Sep 06, 2016, 2:58 AM UTC

throwaway_java wrote: post #4

randyrand wrote: post #2

Most people that helped nasa with the space race have been forgotten. to imply that these women should not have been forgotten because of their race and gender seems silly to me. we don't generally remember people because of their race or their gender, we remember people primarily for unique/influential/pivotal actions. that said the article was still good, and not really all that about the title.

No. We emphasise the actions of white men as being more important those of other groups. We write out of history the acts and perspectives and contributions that other groups have made and somehow manage to convince ourselves that we are not biased. You describe a meritocracy that we aspire to and yet is almost completely detached from reality.

I don't understand the down votes happening here. This is clearly an ingrained facet of Western politics and society.

Why else would minority groups be over represented in prisons and below the poverty line, generally lower educated, generally compensated at a lower level than white male counterparts of the same skill and education level.

Coincidentally because of an inherent superiority of white males? I don't fucking think so.

Re: How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race

#12

Post by michaelbuddy » Tue, Sep 06, 2016, 3:14 AM UTC

nadezhda18 wrote: post #8

randyrand wrote: post #2

Most people that helped nasa with the space race have been forgotten. to imply that these women should not have been forgotten because of their race and gender seems silly to me. we don't generally remember people because of their race or their gender, we remember people primarily for unique/influential/pivotal actions. that said the article was still good, and not really all that about the title.

I wish the history forgets white men once in a while.. .so far, it never happened

U.S. History is not going to 'forget' white men. If you want non white history, there are plenty of countries books you could read. White men don't even make an appearance in Japanese and Chinese history for the vast majority of their history. If you want female only history. Well good luck on that one.

Re: How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race

#13

Post by michaelbuddy » Tue, Sep 06, 2016, 3:24 AM UTC

best comment from the page: "If history forgot.....why are we reading about it? Why can I find countless accounts of this online? Why are their books talking about? TV interviews? Print articles? Etc etc.

Nobody forgot - a low level of interest is not akin to history forgetting. I guess that wouldn't make for such a dramatic headline though!"

It's true. Some media article is always telling us how we're bad and we forgot. Except we didn't. And our textbooks at least since the 80s have had this kind of content in them.

Re: How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race

#14

Post by michaelbuddy » Tue, Sep 06, 2016, 3:34 AM UTC

throwaway_java wrote: post #11

throwaway_java wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. We emphasise the actions of white men as being more important those of other groups. We write out of history the acts and perspectives and contributions that other groups have made and somehow manage to convince ourselves that we are not biased. You describe a meritocracy that we aspire to and yet is almost completely detached from reality.

I don't understand the down votes happening here. This is clearly an ingrained facet of Western politics and society. Why else would minority groups be over represented in prisons and below the poverty line, generally lower educated, generally compensated at a lower level than white male counterparts of the same skill and education level. Coincidentally because of an inherent superiority of white males? I don't fucki…

>Why else would minority groups be over represented in prisons

I find that interesting. And it's also interesting that certain minorities are overrepresented in prisons outside the United States as well.

> Generally lower educated.

Well the cat is out of the bag that the poor performing minority schools are actually getting more funding per-pupil than majority white schools. So what's the problem, is it because of white males in the U.S. somehow?

> Compensated at a lower level

Do you know how easy it is for an average-skilled black man or woman to get hired in their trade? Do you know that if you're say an electrician's union, you will get placed on vastly more projects than white workers just because of skin color and project demographic scoring? Do you know that once even a private company grows to a certain point they begin getting hounded by the gov't and private groups over their demographics? The structural racism is not only a lie it goes in the opposite direction. Anyone who works in gov't, education or private trades knows this full well.

Re: How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race

#15

Post by throwaway_java » Tue, Sep 06, 2016, 8:30 PM UTC

michaelbuddy wrote: post #14

throwaway_java wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the down votes happening here. This is clearly an ingrained facet of Western politics and society. Why else would minority groups be over represented in prisons and below the poverty line, generally lower educated, generally compensated at a lower level than white male counterparts of the same skill and education level. Coincidentally because of an inherent superiority of white males? I don't fucki…

>Why else would minority groups be over represented in prisons I find that interesting. And it's also interesting that certain minorities are overrepresented in prisons outside the United States as well. > Generally lower educated. Well the cat is out of the bag that the poor performing minority schools are actually getting more funding per-pupil than majority white schools. So what's the problem, is it because of wh…

you seem to be arguing that the necessity for controls to counteract systemic racism are evidence that the racism does not exist. That's a total contradiction.

You're also holding up the trades as the potential high point that black folk can aspire to, which (no disrespect to the trades as they are extremely important) seems more than a little racist itself. Electrician is a great job, but isn't it curious that you didn't mention top level management executive, lawyer, knowledge worker, doctor, engineer...

Re: How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race

#16

Post by michaelbuddy » Thu, Sep 08, 2016, 1:03 AM UTC

throwaway_java wrote: post #15

michaelbuddy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why else would minority groups be over represented in prisons I find that interesting. And it's also interesting that certain minorities are overrepresented in prisons outside the United States as well. > Generally lower educated. Well the cat is out of the bag that the poor performing minority schools are actually getting more funding per-pupil than majority white schools. So what's the problem, is it because of wh…

you seem to be arguing that the necessity for controls to counteract systemic racism are evidence that the racism does not exist. That's a total contradiction. You're also holding up the trades as the potential high point that black folk can aspire to, which (no disrespect to the trades as they are extremely important) seems more than a little racist itself. Electrician is a great job, but isn't it curious that you d…

I hold up the trades because they are real legitimate work where it's easy to spot a fake. Things constructed by electricians are inspected, regulated and above all must work. But it's also a field I'm a bit familiar with in that people close to me work in that trade.

Oh you want to talk about bias towards blacks in the world of medicine? Lots of info on that. Management positions? Plenty of black people in those. I see them often. So what? If you don't, where the hell do you live? Because where I live half the management is black Should I ask them, how did you beat the systemic racism everywhere? They'd laugh at that. Real working blacks think that white knight liberals and BLM are idiots and destructive.