NASA names headquarters after first Black female engineer Mary W. Jackson

Post by cyberlurker » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 3:46 AM UTC

Thorentis wrote: post #46

tartoran wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a symbolic gesture relax. While it irks you it might inspire a young black kid to become an astronomer or phisicist or astronaut. As a white there are plenty of inspiring people. Some of them have been power hungry and ruthless and nobody knows how many people they trampled on. Some of those are white symbols. Why not let balcks have their own?

I find it interesting when race is pointed out as a positive trait in some contexts but not others. E.g. a black engineer is a good inspiration for a black child because they are both black. Whereas if I showed my child a great white engineer because the engineer was white, I'd be criticised for being a racist. If race doesn't matter, why do we need more of x race as engineers? If race does matter, why isn't the curr…

Post by justin66 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 4:05 AM UTC

nickff wrote: post #19

cyberlurker wrote: post #14

I've seen negative comments of people claiming this is fruitless and that it pretends to solve racism forever (here and elsewhere). No one involved in naming this thought that was the case. They are giving overdue recognition. I can't imagine why people would be negative about this besides feeling threatened.

NASA seems to have started a pattern of naming things after people featured in movies, rather than those who contributed deeply to its achievements. Re-naming the Dryden Center to the Armstrong Center appears to have been part of an unfortunate trend.

Post by starpilot » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 4:06 AM UTC

Thorentis wrote: post #43

philistine wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is one important way you fix the problem, by honouring again and again the few examples of minority success. Stop trying to prevent black people from receiving praise.

I hope you're joking. There is nothing more dishonoring and patronizing than to change the goal posts for somebody, just because of their race.

Post by tzs » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 4:08 AM UTC

Thorentis wrote: post #46

tartoran wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a symbolic gesture relax. While it irks you it might inspire a young black kid to become an astronomer or phisicist or astronaut. As a white there are plenty of inspiring people. Some of them have been power hungry and ruthless and nobody knows how many people they trampled on. Some of those are white symbols. Why not let balcks have their own?

I find it interesting when race is pointed out as a positive trait in some contexts but not others. E.g. a black engineer is a good inspiration for a black child because they are both black. Whereas if I showed my child a great white engineer because the engineer was white, I'd be criticised for being a racist. If race doesn't matter, why do we need more of x race as engineers? If race does matter, why isn't the curr…

Post by astronautjones » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 4:10 AM UTC

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #41

Thorentis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The majority of things are named after white men to the exclusion of everyone else. That's because the majority of scientific achievements to date, have been by white men. I'm not celebrating that fact, I'm just pointing out the source of the statistic you've pointed out. The things weren't named because the person was a white male, they were named because of a tremendous achievement that happened to be made by a w…

Mate, shut up with the nonsense. There are many scientific concepts that originated in Asian/MiddleEastern civilizations that simply happen to have a European name because the latter person popularized it in the West.