I’d also add that this concern applies in a domestic context as well. Efforts to influence US policy will require broad coalitions, including the 23 congressional districts that are majority black. The representatives of those districts (among others) may well be skeptical of ideas coming from a community where just 3 of the 459 people in my sample (.7%) are black (as far as I can tell). And if you exclude Morgan Freeman (who is on the Future of Life Institute’s scientific advisory board but isn’t exactly an active member of the Longtermist ecoystem), black representation is under half of a percent.
I think percentages are misleading. In terms of influencing demographic X, what matters isn’t so much how many people of demographic X there are in these organisations, but how well-respected they are.
Thanks Milan!
I’d also add that this concern applies in a domestic context as well. Efforts to influence US policy will require broad coalitions, including the 23 congressional districts that are majority black. The representatives of those districts (among others) may well be skeptical of ideas coming from a community where just 3 of the 459 people in my sample (.7%) are black (as far as I can tell). And if you exclude Morgan Freeman (who is on the Future of Life Institute’s scientific advisory board but isn’t exactly an active member of the Longtermist ecoystem), black representation is under half of a percent.
I think percentages are misleading. In terms of influencing demographic X, what matters isn’t so much how many people of demographic X there are in these organisations, but how well-respected they are.