4 ms·
Big systemic problems can't be solved with spot treatments. A personal example: the SCOTUS ruling in favor of marriage equality didn't end homophobia. People cl
by mkr-hn 7y ago
Big systemic problems can't be solved with spot treatments. A personal example: the SCOTUS ruling in favor of marriage equality didn't end homophobia. People claimed it did out of ignorance, but it didn't. See: Pulse. I was afraid to leave the house for a week, and looked over my shoulder outside for months. That fear affects everything, and it didn't go away completely once the memory of the event faded. The fear is reinforced through negative stereotypes in media and the occasional gaybashing/murder.
Affirmative action and legal victories can help, but it doesn't mean much without a society-level movement. I do see how this could become a problem at the university level if the pipeline situation isn't fixed. You can see it in other fields where the gender balance flips. Programming became highly paid and women got pushed out. PHDs became overworked and underpaid, and now men don't want to do it because they can access better opportunities.
It becomes a matter of status and culture where people who don't look like everyone there feels it and goes on to other fields. Men may not care about the pay difference, but they do care about the bullying in the workplace and the negative stereotypes.
Spot treatments are usually a frustration thing. They come when people run out of energy trying to fix the system and start looking for Infinity Stones.
- specialist 7y agoHow useful, effective have Truth & Reconciliation efforts been, historically? It seems to me that much of the pushback is from people who can't even imagine, much less perceive, that there's a problem needing fixing. Any way, learning about these truth telling exercises, like done at the end of Apartheid in South Africa, is on my to do list. Input, ideas, and tips most welcome.
- DuskStar 7y ago> See: Pulse. I was afraid to leave the house for a week, and looked over my shoulder outside for months. Hilariously enough, the Pulse shooter didn't know it was a gay nightclub [0]. Not that this hurts your position - after all, fear doesn't have to be real. But it does offer a (potential) parallel to the "women are being discriminated against in tech!" issues we've been seeing lately... 0: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/5/17202026/pulse-shooting-lgbtq-trump-terror-hate https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/5/17202026/pu...
- mkr-hn 7y agoI didn't know about that. But you're right. People looking to start something just need the motivation. Events are motivating on all sides of an issue even if it turns out to be bogus, misreported, or planned. But I also based that on the report of his father saying he planned the attack after seeing people kiss outside the club. I'm sure he figured out what it was when he saw the room full of people there for Latin Night. It may be that he knew what it was and had it as a backup because of what it was. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_nightclub_shooting#Motive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_nightclub_shooting#Mot... >> "On the day of the shooting, Mateen's father, Mir Seddique Mateen, said that he had seen his son get angry after seeing a gay couple kiss in front of his family at the Bayside Marketplace in Miami months prior to the shooting, which he suggested might have been a motivating factor." One theory is that he was deep in the closet, self-hating, and knew about it because he went there. The FBI thinks not because they found no evidence, but it's normal for people in the closet to bifurcate their lives. If he were planning to go out like this, ensuring no one found any evidence of that would be a priority. History is hard to pin down when the people in it are dead.