I initially strongly upvoted this post but have since retracted my vote. I think the statement is vague as to which āwordsā it ācondemnsā. It would be better for CEA to take a firm, concrete stance against scientific racism (āSRā) specifically. As other people on the forum have pointed out, the promotion of SR in the community is harmful for many reasons: SR ideas have directly harmed people of color, discussion of SR deters people of color from participating in the movement, it makes the movement look bad, and it distracts from the movementās actual priorities.
As a step further, CEA should consider banning all promotion of scientific racism on the forum. At a minimum, CEA should make it clear that SR ideas have no place in the EA movement.
Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority. Historically, scientific racism received credence throughout the scientific community, but it is no longer considered scientific. The division of humankind into biologically distinct groups, and the attribution of specific traits both physical and mental to them by constructing and applying corresponding explanatory models, i.e. racial theories, is sometimes called racialism, race realism, or race science by its proponents. Modern scientific consensus rejects this view as being irreconcilable with modern genetic research.
+60% on scientific devaluing on poc(true or false) deterring poc from participating.
Not sure if overall would be good though. The clearerThinking podcast w/āMagnus Carlson say that allowing misinformation to be voiced may be effective at reducing misinformation. Ex. can point out why the view may fall short.
Yeah I think thatās a good point. An interesting perspective is that freedom of speech includes the right to express controversial ideas as well as the right to listen to them. Members of the EA community have the right to learn about ideas that may be classified as scientific racism and decide for themselves whether they are true and false. (And of course, my use of the term āscientific racismā presumes that these ideas are pseudoscience, which other people on the forum have disputed.) However, I really think that the EA Forum is not the right place for these discussions for the reasons I gave above. At least they should be limited to the āPersonal Blogā section.
I initially strongly upvoted this post but have since retracted my vote. I think the statement is vague as to which āwordsā it ācondemnsā. It would be better for CEA to take a firm, concrete stance against scientific racism (āSRā) specifically. As other people on the forum have pointed out, the promotion of SR in the community is harmful for many reasons: SR ideas have directly harmed people of color, discussion of SR deters people of color from participating in the movement, it makes the movement look bad, and it distracts from the movementās actual priorities.
As a step further, CEA should consider banning all promotion of scientific racism on the forum. At a minimum, CEA should make it clear that SR ideas have no place in the EA movement.
Clarification: is scientific racism something like āthere is a scientific paper relating to race and IQ, [discussion on implication]ā?
āScientific racismā is admittedly a bit of a misnomer because āscientificā racism is not scientific.
+60% on scientific devaluing on poc(true or false) deterring poc from participating.
Not sure if overall would be good though. The clearerThinking podcast w/āMagnus Carlson say that allowing misinformation to be voiced may be effective at reducing misinformation. Ex. can point out why the view may fall short.
Yeah I think thatās a good point. An interesting perspective is that freedom of speech includes the right to express controversial ideas as well as the right to listen to them. Members of the EA community have the right to learn about ideas that may be classified as scientific racism and decide for themselves whether they are true and false. (And of course, my use of the term āscientific racismā presumes that these ideas are pseudoscience, which other people on the forum have disputed.) However, I really think that the EA Forum is not the right place for these discussions for the reasons I gave above. At least they should be limited to the āPersonal Blogā section.