Monday, April 20, 2020
"Diversity" is a topic that gets a lot of attention at universities in all sorts of ways -- in deciding whom to admit to grad school; in deciding what postdocs to hire; in other hiring decisions; in deciding whose opinion to solict in making important decisions. There are two arguments used to support this: (1) Certain groups (women, minorities, etc.) have been marginalized in the past, and continue to be, both explicitly and implicitly ("implicit bias"), so we need to actively combat the discrimination; and, (2) We just want a diverse environment -- it's good to work with and hear from the full spectrum of humanity, and not be as narrow in focus as in the past.
I agree with both of these. I have, in fact, gotten into some very nasty debates with people online over diversity issues, and have always defended the need for diversity using both positions. For example, a friend of mine went off the deep-end a few years back, and started sending me some very dumb content generated by people in the Gamergate orbit; and I argued against it, and he accused me of "strawmanning" and using "red herrings". I just couldn't understand where he was coming from, given that he was a 50-year-old man at the time, and so was much too old to have anything in common with that community.
However, I think that what counts as "diversity" itself needs to be diversified. There are lots of people who I would argue count as "diverse", yet aren't in one of the recognized oppressed or marginalized groups. An obvious example is people who have Asperger's Syndrome or Autism Spectrum Disorders, particularly the milder versions, which are too close to "normal" for people to consider making accommodations for. I probably am mildly autistic (almost unnoticeable, based on a short interaction); but have never been diagnosed. Unfortunately, I grew up in a time and place when the disorder was not understood, and when such people were merely labeled as "strange" or "weird". And, I would say that most mathematicians have some degree of autistic traits; for some of us, it is more severe than others.
I do not want to go inito all of the ways that autism can affect a person's life; I will say, though, that most of the time, it's bad, and can drain away self-esteem and motivation. What can help make life better for those afflicted is if more people understood what those on the spectrum have to deal with. This short video introduces a YouTube channel devoted to it:
YouTube video
A small taste of what the guy has to go through can be found here:
YouTube video
ADDENDUM: I will add that, one of the common mistakes that people make, when dealing with people on the spectrum, is to assume that they think just like them. And so, when the person does something "strange", there is a tendency to moralize, and roll ones eyes, which can further damage self-esteem and cause the person to avoid them. What the "normal" person is doing, without realizing it, is exercising a cognitive bias, called the "psychologist's fallacy":
Wikipedia link to the Psychologist's Fallacy
QUOTE: "In this alternative form, the fallacy is described as a specific form of the "similar to me" stereotype: what is unknown about another person is assumed, for simplicity, using things the observer knows about themself. Such a bias leads the observer to presuppose knowledge or skills, or lack of such, possessed by another person."