Crazy how people think we have been only ignoring 50% of our potential when we were ignoring like 95%.
> I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
This is logic of capitalism. This is our society's justification for incredible differences in pay and wealth.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10793226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15659455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14282791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10451733
Why do rich people work?
They don't need to escape the cotton fields and sweatshops.
Slaves worked the American cotton fields - why did they work with no chance of membership in the elite?
I'm pretty sure people in 1860 justified slavery with the same argument "It is the only reason that our world has seen amazing advancements in science, technology and business."
> In December 1932 Einstein decided to leave Germany forever (he would never go back). It became obvious to Einstein that his life was in danger. A Nazi organization published a magazine with Einstein's picture and the caption “Not Yet Hanged” on the cover. There was even a price on his head.
He certainly had an uphill struggle and wasn't simply handed everything because of some innate privilege.
Of course, it doesn't disprove being born in favourable circumstances can and will affect your quality of life. But this list seems largely indifferent to how much money or power daddy has.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01369-4/tables/3
Potential is cheap and abundant. Using it is what changes the world.
Being recognized for it is what changes the world.
Virtually no-one knows who came up with the paperclip (Johan Vaaler), and still it is one of the world-changing inventions.
Way harder to fix because no one wants to do affirmative action for young boys born in trailer parks.
I don't think it helps to have a contest about which forms of discrimination are more impactful, because they all add up.
Gender, race, social class, within which nation's borders one is born... they all add up, and it gets worse if you "lose" in more than one category.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality
But there are cases when the comparison should be made, and I hint at it in my first sentence. We do spend more effort on gender equality than racial equality because, frankly, white women have more power and value in our society than black men or women. For example the #MeToo movement was triggered and driven by the injustices done to powerful, privileged white women.
Sadly, social justice is driven too often by self-serving interests rather than social justice itself.
But it often seems like some are easily overlooked. When I was born into a poor working family in Poland, my father's monthly salary was worth 15$.
When I was studying I had to carefully plan things like bread in my budget, and I was eating with homeless people regularly. Yet, I have preserved, got a job as a programmer and life has been relatively easy from that point.
On the grand scale of things I consider myself lucky. But it's tilting when I hear German doctor raised in upper middle class loudly complaining about how underprivilaged she is compared to me because I'm a man.
For example in france there was a real movement to make school accessible for "every citizen regarding of race, gender and class" during the 3rd republic. But still the new trend now in america is to promote "black-only school". WTF.
Sorry for trolling especially since we don't disagree but sometimes reading american forums is a constant facepalms i just cant' help.