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Gladwell has a few racist bones in his body: "And then there are the math geniuses who, as anyone can’t help noticing, are disproportionately Asian. Citing the
by thomasmallen 18y ago
Gladwell has a few racist bones in his body:
"And then there are the math geniuses who, as anyone can’t help noticing, are disproportionately Asian. Citing the work of an educational researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Gladwell attributes this phenomenon not to some innate mathematical ability that Asians possess but to the fact that children in Asian countries are willing to work longer and harder than their Western counterparts. That willingness, Gladwell continues, is due to a cultural legacy of hard work that stems from the cultivation of rice."
That's right up there with claiming that Africans and African Americans excel at athletics because they purportedly once chased or were chased by wild animals: Patronizing and offensive to the extreme. People in entertainment have lost their careers for saying such things.
- zzzmarcus 18y agoBy your logic, stating the obvious fact that there are differences between races makes you a racist. There are differences between the races and some do stem from environmental factors, a fact that is well documented and is part of the theory of evolution and natural selection. It's ridiculous to call Gladwell a racist for pointing out one of those differences and theorize on its cause.
- unalone 18y agoMy good-at-math friend is Asian, and her parents instilled a very powerful work ethic in her. That's not racism. It's a cultural difference.
- thomasmallen 18y agoWhat you've said is 100% correct. Notice how you didn't attribute it to a history of rice farming, but rather to academic prowess and diligence.
- unalone 18y agoI think you're associating two things that Gladwell didn't. He brings up rice farming for the anecdote about fallow-fields versus 360-days-of-work.
- thomasmallen 18y agoIn that case I was wrong to trust the article linked here.
- unalone 18y agoYeah. It's a pretty bad one.
- thomasmallen 18y agoI just remembered that I read "Tipping Point" years ago and didn't detect any prejudice or really any negativity. I just didn't put two and two together (Gladwell's name doesn't stand out to me).
- SkylerNovak 18y agoThe article is good. Just look a the discussion it's begun.
- unalone 18y agoBut the discussion exists because the topic is so vivid. The article itself is rambling, incoherent, and at many times wrong.
- time_management 18y agoIt's not a theory he came up with, that Asian cultures tend to have stronger and more rigid work ethics because rice is labor-intensive, whereas Europeans tend to seek clever ways of eliminating work because the farming of traditional European grains is capital-intensive. I don't buy it, but it's not a crack theory and Gladwell isn't the first to propose it.