A committee that makes an effort to have gender, geographic, racial, age, and experiential diversity might want to avoid having two people of the same race, gender, workplace and (roughly) experience on the ballot. That they came from a workplace with influential people in the field makes me think it's problematic: what will happen if both of them win?
The nominating committee should have chosen one person from this workplace, and left the other for another year.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
shutting down the debate
I've been following a promising new blog recently. The newest blog post was an interesting reflection on how thinking carefully about race made the blogger change opinions about a new book. That's fine, but it's also fine to have a differing opinion. I've read several thoughtful pieces on both sides of the debate.
So to have it framed as "if you don't agree, you're just not thinking carefully about race", or (as a commenter suggested) that if you don't agree with the blogger's take on the book you don't care about people of other races, makes me angry. It boils down to a difference of opinion about a text, not a litmus test about racism.
So to have it framed as "if you don't agree, you're just not thinking carefully about race", or (as a commenter suggested) that if you don't agree with the blogger's take on the book you don't care about people of other races, makes me angry. It boils down to a difference of opinion about a text, not a litmus test about racism.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
manners vs etiquette
I've found myself cranky several times in the past fortnight about matters of etiquette, enough so it has tipped over into a blog post on the subject. For example, I was annoyed that a soi-disant celebrity posted pictures of her wedding the day before her cousin's wedding, and that that woman's mother wore white to that cousin's wedding. I was a bit shocked to read details of one person's misbehavior at a private dinner on a relatively well-known blog; while I agree that the behavior was problematic, why air it in public by naming the person whose behavior was problematic?
There's quite a bit of etiquette that I'm prepared to overlook; for example, wearing white shoes after Labor Day is a victimless crime. But in all of the cases listed in the first paragraph, the etiquette matters. Etiquette is just a handy way to codify thoughtful behavior: manners, in other words. I'd like to see better manners.
(Which is why I didn't post links to any of the people whose behavior I found unmannerly! I didn't want to join their ranks.)
There's quite a bit of etiquette that I'm prepared to overlook; for example, wearing white shoes after Labor Day is a victimless crime. But in all of the cases listed in the first paragraph, the etiquette matters. Etiquette is just a handy way to codify thoughtful behavior: manners, in other words. I'd like to see better manners.
(Which is why I didn't post links to any of the people whose behavior I found unmannerly! I didn't want to join their ranks.)
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