I made a note of what I wanted to write about a few days ago and forgot what it was but looked forward to using it today. I thought it was something fun, but it’s serious. Not only that but I’m a man and I have to talk about tampons. In a sense that’s the point.
Now that I got you hooked I go back and look at things in order. Yesterday was Friday so I had therapy. Ugh! I just realized that I forgot something important. I forgot that to tell her that I was called for jury duty. I need to discuss that with her. I’m not sure if I might have to miss a session. I could probably get out of it but I decided that I should go. It’s as convenient a time as any for me. I forgot to tell My Gentle Readers too. I better not forget to go.
Therapy was interesting as I’ve been feeling good. I think the most important thing is my switch to tan Breathe Right strips. What? How can that be. They stay on all night unlike the clear ones I had been using. That means I sleep through the night and I’m not always tired. I’d like to do two sleep studies, one with the strips and one without. My guess is that without I have sleep apnea, but with them I don’t. A downside for everyone else, I might snore less now but I talk more and I talk faster. Yes that’s possible. I feel much more like myself.
I made a mistake, I didn’t go out last night. I thought I had plans and I didn’t. Worse, I thought I had plans for today and I don’t. Good thing I have plans for tomorrow. You should join me, B at the Bitter End. You need to know B.
Oh wow. After saying how I’m sleeping better and have energy I fell asleep after righting that last sentence. I typed over 9000 characters, mainly e and i with an occasional j. You can figure out how my hands were positioned on the keyboard. I’m sleeping better but I stayed up way too late last night.
Now on to the shape of prejudice and the value of diversity. I think about this often but was motivated to write this by something Clare Malone said in a FiveThirtyEight Podcast [Politics Podcast: Elizabeth Warren’s Path To The 2020 Nomination at 30:35 seconds remaining]; “Healthcare savings accounts don’t cover tampons but they do cover contact lens solution, to me that was like, a guy wrote these rules.” Listen to the podcast, especially that segment, FiveThirtyEight is about more than crunching numbers. It’s about recognizing sources of error and distorted perceptions. I’m sure the people that made that rule weren’t thinking, “I hate women, let’s make them pay!” It was either not realizing how important tampons are, what they cost, or perhaps not thinking of them at all. That would not happen if a woman was involved in the decision making.
There is more to prejudice than hate-filled men in hoods burning crosses. I suspect that’s not even the kind that does the most damage. We live in a bureaucratic society filled with rules and regulation. Those burden does not fall on all people equally and without representation in the decision-making process. When the location unpleasant infrastructure like sewage treatment plans and garbage dumps are decided they disproportionally end up among the poor and minorities because their views were not represented during the placement process. A case where a minority point of view was considered is in New York City’s alternate-side=of-the-street parking rules. Exceptions were made for the Jewish holidays. Why? There are a lot of Jews in New York and they (should I say we) are well represented in the bureaucracy.
Something even more pervasive is the concept of making a good impression. If you think of an ideal job candidate you probably think of a well-dressed clean-cut white man. You might include a woman. My Gentle Readers are overwhelmingly white and I suspect that you didn’t picture a person of color. If you did it’s likely because you knew it was what I was getting at, even if you think to yourself that it’s not the reason. That’s the nature of the kind of prejudice I’m discussing. It’s not a conscious thing. It’s not about hatred. It’s about expectations based on experience. No one person’s experience is a representative sample. That’s why we all gain from diversity in decision makers.
It goes beyond even that. If you giving a job interview you judge by the connections you make with the candidate. If a candidate brought up the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, that would be a huge plus for me. Have you looked around the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival? The people are wonderful, but also overwhelmingly white. You divide the people of color into three groups, Vance, Kim & Reggie, and everyone else. It’s not because we are a bunch of racists. It’s not that we wouldn’t accept people of color, it’s that our culture is balkanized and the folk world does not extend into black and Latino communities.
We don’t own an infinity gauntlet so we can’t snap our fingers and change that. If I’m wrong about that please let me see the gauntlet before you do the snap. That would be cool. But since we don’t what we can do is not use interviews when hiring. The data is there, it’s unreliable. It just lets us justify our prejudices. When forming a committee reach out to people different than yourself. The goal of diversity is not just helping minorities but helping everyone by including people with different experiences. Exclusive schools should not view affirmative action just as a way of helping minorities but as part of all the students’ education. It helps each student to be exposed to as many perspectives as possible.
When discussing these things don’t be quick to call someone a pejorative; racist or sexist. Having a limited perspective is human. The people from the discriminated groups are no better. Just as a man doesn’t know what it’s like to be a woman, a woman doesn’t know what it’s like to be a man. I’ve had women tell me things that they perceived as happening because they are a woman but have happened to me, and every man often too. You can’t tell from your own experience how frequently it happens to others. On the other hand just because it happens to people in the power group, doesn’t mean it happens more often to the unempowered group. Whites get stopped by the police, but blacks get stopped far more often. Men get interrupted but when get interrupted more frequently. We only know that because people did studies. Even then in one case it might well just be chance or particular circumstance. But it might be prejudice.
The podcast gets into that nicely. Many of the people that said, “I’d happily vote for a woman, just not Hillary.” Now say, “I’d happily vote for a woman, just not Hillary or Warren.” I don’t know why we are on a first name basis with Hillary but not Warren. Is there prejudice involved? I suspect it’s because if we say “Clinton” people might think we mean Bill. I wouldn’t be surprised if people called Marie Curie, “Curie” but her husband “Pierre.”
My point in writing this is to not think of other people’s prejudices but your own. Remember that while you might be very aware that you don’t know what it’s like to be black, you also don’t know what it’s like to be a poor white male with only a high school diploma. Remember that someone being similar to you doesn’t make them more qualified. Remember that likability is a function of who you have been exposed to and to your expectations. Try to be better. Try to not be judgmental of others but to nudge them into less prejudiced ways of thinking. Nudge don’t push. Pushing leads to pushing back.
It’s late now, almost 7. I have spent all day sleeping and writing this. That’s not good. I’m not going to get up and get dressed now just to get eggs. That means I have to do that tomorrow before I go out to see B. I hope I remember. Now comes the tough part, figuring out what to make for dinner. Usually I say that about breakfast. I hate writing this late.
Wise Madness 