Is Homework Racist?
with Sylvester Gates
In this week’s episode of The Glenn Show, I sat down with physicist Sylvester “Jim” Gates to talk about diversity in the sciences. In this clip from the end of our conversation, I ask him what he thinks about the DEI industry and cancelation. Short answer: He’s a fan of neither.
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1st of all, I object to the word "homework". As a higher % of BIPOC are homeless, the word "home" in this context is problematic. Similarly, unemployment rates are higher among BIPOC, so I'm similarly offended by the use of "work" .
Brush up on your Kendi, folks. The question is not if it is racist, question is only how its racist.
A great question and a great set of answers!
Is homework racist? Is having to show your work racist...is being forced to write a complete sentence racist? Is it racist to be required to speak such that you can be understood? Is it racist to demand logic? Racist to require proof? Is it racist to say that the creation of Quality (in whatever form, be it a 30 pt. game in basketball, a 4:00 minute mile, a 100% on your Calc Final) is the sine qua non of a Good Life, a Good Human Being?
Of course not.
At birth, we are an 8 lb. crying, smelly lump of unknown potential. That's it. We, our little mewling, complaining selves, don't have a clue. Unlike baby giraffes, we're not required to immediately stand and walk. We're only expected to eat, cry, and poop.
Everything else is learned.
Everything else, in one way or another, is imposed upon us, poured into us, pushing our maturing selves, at greater and greater rates, into a world filled with more and more complexities. Our job is to learn it all. And not just learn it, as in spit it out on next week's pop quiz...but internalize it, make it our own, be able to apply it to create something new, something better. And that whole process is painful.
If it's not painful, then it's not sufficiently demanding. The child (the adult!) is not being stretched. The capabilites which existed initially only as 8 lbs of potential are not being challenged, not enlarged, strengthened or made more robust. As a result -- we become something less. We settle for half-assed. And that's not nearly good enough.
So no, homework's not racist. What's racist is the thinking that produces the assertion that it is.
Anytime we declare that requiring ME to perform to standard is an unfair, no good, biased imposition upon my freedom to be entirely mediocre (if we're lucky) -- that assertion, that belief is the very thing we accuse the requirement of being.
It's racist to make me work. No, it's racist if you assume that your race somehow exempts you from work. It's sexist to make me show my calculations. No, it's sexist if you believe that your sex exempts your from discipline.
And that is why DIE is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Standards separate wheat from chaff. But standards are not INCLUSIVE; they've EXCLUSIVE. They differentiate and elevate. And in the end, they do not create Equity; they do the opposite... as those who are brighter, and work harder, and produce better results thrive and those who don't, don't.
When we're in the Operating Room, waiting for heart surgery what we distinctly do NOT want to hear is that our surgical team has 1 Hispanic, 2 Black Gay Men, 1 Transgendered female, and a Native American artist who's a genius with pastels. No. Never. Not at all. What we actually want is a team filled with the best damned cardiac surgeons in the nation. No one cares about anything else; nor should they.
In the end, it's just hard work, like always.
So.... Buckle Down, Winsocki... Buckle Down! And do your homework! Run that extra mile!