3 ms·

Good point. Whenever I read articles like this, I often wonder if we are over-optimizing for racial discrimination and under-optimizing for other other forms. I

Good point. Whenever I read articles like this, I often wonder if we are over-optimizing for racial discrimination and under-optimizing for other other forms. Interestingly, the people who cry out the loudest for racial discrimination often could care less about the type of discrimination you just pointed out (from my experience).

potatolicious 12y ago
The two concepts are IMO not so easily separable - see the widespread finding of blacks in the US to be "unattractive". Attractiveness is, despite the loud griping of evo-psych proponents, largely cultural. Our perceptions of race, of gender roles, of etc etc, contribute greatly to attraction. Discrimination in all its forms are often hard to disentangle.
- steveeq1 12y ago
  Not always. Short people, for example, are biased against in job interviews and most people don't care.
  - potatolicious 12y ago
    The short people thing IMO supports my argument. There's a lot of evolutionary psychology drivel about how we're genetically predisposed to disliking short people due to lack of fitness, etc etc. But a lot of the bias against short people is cultural in origin and hasn't always been the case. See the historically shifting attitudes towards fat people (from envy to disdain, as societies have industrialized). We're taught by our upbringing and our surroundings to be biased against certain features in certain contexts - whether that's skin color, height, gender, orientation, or anything else. Some of this is colored by racism, sexism, or any number of other -isms we suffer from.
    - steveeq1 12y ago
      The shortness-bias is fairly culturally-universal, actually. And your point does little to refute that no one makes a big deal about this particular bias. (Not that I'm saying they shouldn't).
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
rmc 12y ago
There are pleanty of groups fighting to end other forms of discrimination (incl. unconsciencous), such as ending gender, or sexuality based discrimination. "Intersectionality" is a term for what happens when you're at the short end of the stick of several forms.

potatolicious 12y ago

The two concepts are IMO not so easily separable - see the widespread finding of blacks in the US to be "unattractive". Attractiveness is, despite the loud griping of evo-psych proponents, largely cultural. Our perceptions of race, of gender roles, of etc etc, contribute greatly to attraction. Discrimination in all its forms are often hard to disentangle.

steveeq1 12y ago
Not always. Short people, for example, are biased against in job interviews and most people don't care.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  The short people thing IMO supports my argument. There's a lot of evolutionary psychology drivel about how we're genetically predisposed to disliking short people due to lack of fitness, etc etc. But a lot of the bias against short people is cultural in origin and hasn't always been the case. See the historically shifting attitudes towards fat people (from envy to disdain, as societies have industrialized). We're taught by our upbringing and our surroundings to be biased against certain features in certain contexts - whether that's skin color, height, gender, orientation, or anything else. Some of this is colored by racism, sexism, or any number of other -isms we suffer from.
  - steveeq1 12y ago
    The shortness-bias is fairly culturally-universal, actually. And your point does little to refute that no one makes a big deal about this particular bias. (Not that I'm saying they shouldn't).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

rmc 12y ago

There are pleanty of groups fighting to end other forms of discrimination (incl. unconsciencous), such as ending gender, or sexuality based discrimination. "Intersectionality" is a term for what happens when you're at the short end of the stick of several forms.