Racism update 2024/02/20
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It's been a while since I've documented the current state of race relations, so I thought I'd provide an update.
Neil Degrasse Tyson, science educator extraordinaire, educates about racism in everyday interactions:
Link to videoDiscussing his appearances on The Daily Show, for which he prepared extensively:
"I get invited back 14 times, and what do people say? 'Neil, you're such a natural on his show'. 'Neil, the chemistry between you is so natural'. 'You have a gift'. <Pregnant pause, serious look into the camera> This is what I live through."He's upset because his contention is that black people are not given credit for working hard, and are assumed to have gifts instead. I lol'ed at the solemn "this is what I live through". NDT establishing yet again, that he's never once in his life been the victim of meaningful racism.
A very special episode of Law and Order SVU:
Link to video
A white woman is raped by a black man, but she doesn't want him prosecuted because she can afford therapy due to her white privilege, and his life would be over if he goes to prison. This one is more nuanced and I will leave the interpretation to the viewer.
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Thank you for this important update, @horace.
My respect for Prof. DeGrasse Tyson has changed!
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Thank you for this important update, @horace.
My respect for Prof. DeGrasse Tyson has changed!
@George-K said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
Thank you for this important update, @horace.
My respect for Prof. DeGrasse Tyson has changed!
He's a known overbearing bloward douche who apparently terrifies everybody around him sufficiently that they can't tell him how ridiculous his racism stories sound. Those aren't the only ridiculous stories he has. I've documented them before here in earlier episodes of my series.
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Remember the "Cosmos" reboot?
What a disgusting piece of television.
Sagan wept.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@Copper said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
Mr. Tyson has always been wrong about almost everything.
That's Professor DeGrasse Tyson to you, pleb.
He's not a bad physicist/educator.
Though I have no knowledge of how good a physicist he is. At least his academic credentials are better than Mr. Nye (the "Science" Guy).
Looking at his Curriculum Vitae, it looks like he's been unemployed for about 20 years (at least in academia).
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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There is exactly zero chance anybody would have ever heard of him, but for the color of his skin. Don't get me wrong, he'd be a scientist or physicist somewhere, but he'd be just another anonymous one.
@Horace said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
There is exactly zero chance anybody would have ever heard of him, but for the color of his skin. Don't get me wrong, he'd be a scientist or physicist somewhere, but he'd be just another anonymous one.
I don't think that's even remotely true. Ever meet any astronomers, or astronomy educators? Tyson blows them out of the water. It shouldn't be so, but just the same, it's a very rare person who chooses astronomy and astrophysics as their field of expertise and isn't absolutely boring as fuck when they talk about it.
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@Horace said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
There is exactly zero chance anybody would have ever heard of him, but for the color of his skin. Don't get me wrong, he'd be a scientist or physicist somewhere, but he'd be just another anonymous one.
I don't think that's even remotely true. Ever meet any astronomers, or astronomy educators? Tyson blows them out of the water. It shouldn't be so, but just the same, it's a very rare person who chooses astronomy and astrophysics as their field of expertise and isn't absolutely boring as fuck when they talk about it.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
@Horace said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
There is exactly zero chance anybody would have ever heard of him, but for the color of his skin. Don't get me wrong, he'd be a scientist or physicist somewhere, but he'd be just another anonymous one.
I don't think that's even remotely true. Ever meet any astronomers, or astronomy educators? Tyson blows them out of the water. It shouldn't be so, but just the same, it's a very rare person who chooses astronomy and astrophysics as their field of expertise and isn't absolutely boring as fuck when they talk about it.
I think it would be difficult to overestimate the buoyancy his skin color gave him in his job as the popular culture face of science. I doubt either of us are in a position to judge how many white people of similar skills might have wanted to be that guy, but I think we both know that Neil would have been eagerly promoted and shown off at every level of popular culture programming, over his white counterpart.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
@Horace said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
There is exactly zero chance anybody would have ever heard of him, but for the color of his skin. Don't get me wrong, he'd be a scientist or physicist somewhere, but he'd be just another anonymous one.
I don't think that's even remotely true. Ever meet any astronomers, or astronomy educators? Tyson blows them out of the water. It shouldn't be so, but just the same, it's a very rare person who chooses astronomy and astrophysics as their field of expertise and isn't absolutely boring as fuck when they talk about it.
I think it would be difficult to overestimate the buoyancy his skin color gave him in his job as the popular culture face of science. I doubt either of us are in a position to judge how many white people of similar skills might have wanted to be that guy, but I think we both know that Neil would have been eagerly promoted and shown off at every level of popular culture programming, over his white counterpart.
@Horace said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
I doubt either of us are in a position to judge how many white people of similar skills might have wanted to be that guy
I know these folks far better than you do. I've met hundreds of people who have had Tyson's job. I also had a number of opportunities to meet Tyson in person, but I turned them all down because I didn't know that was what I was doing and he wasn't that big of a name back then. He was a planetarium director at the same time my dad was, so they went to some of the same conferences. (It's not that big of a community.) Those conferences were boring AF, in part because of the subject matter, but mostly because of the people.
Growing up, my mom would take me away and we'd figure out things to do while my dad was at these events. A couple of times I insisted I wanted to check them out, which was more or less alright by my dad, but I quickly gave that up. These people truly are that boring. If you have even an ounce of charisma, you have a leg up on nearly everyone else. And feigned or not, Tyson's got a lot of charisma.
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He speaks and performs well, for an overbearing blowhard. I mean it's not just me. The comments under that video are almost unanimous. Those who know him by reputation still have a lot of respect for him, but in that sense he is a figurehead, and he is a figurehead because he was promoted to be such. And he was promoted to be such due in large part because the west loves to promote people of color to classically white figurehead positions. Anyway obviously this is not provable and we can disagree. I'm not convinced that there is no bullpen behind him containing one or more white faces. Not that I care about who is or is not the popular face of science, I just can't not acknowledge the skin color aspect of that position and how giddy the culture is to promote an appropriate looking person in that role.
Education is extremely important.
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@Copper said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
Mr. Tyson has always been wrong about almost everything.
That's Professor DeGrasse Tyson to you, pleb.
He's not a bad physicist/educator.
Though I have no knowledge of how good a physicist he is. At least his academic credentials are better than Mr. Nye (the "Science" Guy).
Looking at his Curriculum Vitae, it looks like he's been unemployed for about 20 years (at least in academia).
@George-K said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
@Copper said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
Mr. Tyson has always been wrong about almost everything.
That's Professor DeGrasse Tyson to you, pleb.
He's not a bad physicist/educator.
Though I have no knowledge of how good a physicist he is. At least his academic credentials are better than Mr. Nye (the "Science" Guy).
SCIENCE!
Link to videoThe Brad
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I never saw the original Cosmos series by Sagan, but I don't think elite intellectuals like yourselves was the target for the Cosmos reboot. Yes I watched it, and yes I enjoyed it. Yes I have a simple brain. But sometimes it's nice to get a glossy overview of how things work out there in the........cosmos.
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I never saw the original Cosmos series by Sagan, but I don't think elite intellectuals like yourselves was the target for the Cosmos reboot. Yes I watched it, and yes I enjoyed it. Yes I have a simple brain. But sometimes it's nice to get a glossy overview of how things work out there in the........cosmos.
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@George-K said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
@Copper said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
Mr. Tyson has always been wrong about almost everything.
That's Professor DeGrasse Tyson to you, pleb.
He's not a bad physicist/educator.
Though I have no knowledge of how good a physicist he is. At least his academic credentials are better than Mr. Nye (the "Science" Guy).
SCIENCE!
Link to video@LuFins-Dad said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
@George-K said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
@Copper said in Racism update 2024/02/20:
Mr. Tyson has always been wrong about almost everything.
That's Professor DeGrasse Tyson to you, pleb.
He's not a bad physicist/educator.
Though I have no knowledge of how good a physicist he is. At least his academic credentials are better than Mr. Nye (the "Science" Guy).
SCIENCE!
Link to videoNDT is definitely smarter and better than Bill Nye (and actually less captured by progressive culture). But I think they play different roles. Nye was always a marginal figure and part clown, as far as I ever absorbed from him.
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Of all the pointless celebrities out there making a small or large fortune, people who actually try and educate us about science are quite close to the end of my admittedly rather long list of people to dislike.
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Considering the fact that neither Tyson or Nye are educating anyone about science and are instead trying to lend a false veneer of science to socio-political views kinda makes your point irrelevant.
