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Dr. Blackwell was born in 1919. If you are unaware, at this point in US history there was both de facto and de jure segregation in the United States. As the art
by tshtf 16y ago
Dr. Blackwell was born in 1919. If you are unaware, at this point in US history there was both de facto and de jure segregation in the United States. As the article states, he was initially denied an invitation to become a faculty member at both Princeton and Berkeley due to his race.
Although society is more colorblind today, the United States was a racially biased society for most of its history, and most of Dr. Blackwell's life.
- amichail 16y agoBut maybe he would want to be remembered for his academic accomplishments only.
- tshtf 16y agoSure. But the historical context of his achievements is an important part of his life story.
- c1sc0 16y agoEspecially working for RAND with his background.
- _delirium 16y agoI could buy that he'd want to be remembered primarily for his mathematical work, and he doesn't really emphasize his biography in interviews. But he doesn't avoid talking about it either, and discusses it matter-of-factly. From this interview, it seems like he doesn't see himself as a big pioneer or civil-rights activist, but it was still a factual part of his life that being black had impact on his career trajectory: http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.ss/1177013814 http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.ss/1177013814 So I guess I'd agree this article probably devotes more space to his race and less to his Bayesianism than he'd do himself, but I'm not sure he'd object to the mention of his race. And in a mainstream media article, it's not particularly unreasonable to assume that his biography is more interesting to most general readers than his Bayesian-statistics advocacy.
- cma 16y agoWe don't remember people based on what they want to be remembered by.
- miked 16y agoI believe that the NYT still has all their obituaries "approved" in advance by their subjects. I.e., when a person the NYT considers notable gets older, the NYT sends a copy of their proposed obit to the individual for suggestions. That's what they used to do, at any rate.