Chances are, if you're reading this blog, you're already aware of this debate.
I recently came across a really contentious debate that may or may not result in an LSE professor being dismissed. Dr Kanazawa published an article in Psychology Today in which he described and discussed a method by which he was able to rank the beauty according to race. Black women were placed last in all his 'findings,' while black men came out at the top. If you want to find out more, go to the Times Higher Education website. I think the original article has since been removed, but suffice to say, it was... interesting. I don't usually entertain this sort of thing, but the issue has been given so much fire, it would be irresponsible not to bring it up.
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| A graph from the original study |
Now, as you can imagine, there has been a huge outcry from black students in particular. A protest is being held next week with the aim of putting pressure on LSE to dismiss Dr Kanazawa. I can't speak on behalf of anyone else, but I personally was not offended by the article. At the end of the day, I know who I am and a graph is not going to tell me I'm ugly. One LSE student even says on the events page of the protest:
"Moreover, our students pride themselves on being able to question what we're told and form our own views."
However, I can understand why people are angry.
The problem is: where do we draw the line between acting against racist views and suppressing one's freedom to express what they believe to be scientific findings, no matter how unpopular the opinion? Both sides of the debate seem to make some very good points, but I suppose we will just have to await the outcome.
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As always, what are your views? COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT!
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HAHAHHAHA i remeber showing this to Jo in lectures and just laughing...I actually wonder how he got his 'findings' and where he went to collect his data, beacause to go and take a subjective thing such as beauty and then QUANTIFY IT, takes a lot of 'cahones'.
ReplyDeleteHe must have known what an outcry it would cause. Especially being in London.
The thing is, yes he MAY have made a scientific discovery, but with all research it should aim to HELP the scientific society and it should be built upon to help human kind ultimately. That is what I think. Though I am not too bothered by him personally (because why should i let a graph tell me how beautiful I am??), this seems to be, in my opinion, time not well spent.
Also, on being politically correct. There is a line... somehow I have an inkling, that he is just one of those people who like to rebel against it, just for the sake of it. He likes to ROCK the boat so to speak... LOL hahahahhahaha and its costing him his career.
I agree. I think that's the main reason I couldn't get angry or take him seriously; the 'science' was just too wishy washy and quite frankly, isn't even particularly scientific. Oh well, who knows?
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