ADDENDUM Some Examples of our Salons
Throughout human history, people have tended to live and die in the same place, or at least the same region, in which they're born. Place is an important part of one's identity.
The ethnic and racial diversity were both irrelevant and advantageous for enhancing our discussion because of a diversity of experience. Miss New India (2011), in which Anjali leaves her traditional family in Bihar and moves to Bangalore. A woman determinedly pursuing personal happiness is a revolutionary – a threatening concept for her traditional parents.”
I've included some items in this listing below to provide more focus. We will discuss responses to the questions. The readings are intended to give a sense of my perspective as well as spark your own perspectives leading to a lively exchange. Unlike a book club, we won't critique the essays per se.
And as I did in San Francisco, I thought we could make our exchanges more fun if we added a wine component in the form of a mini people's choice wine taste-off. Both activities reflect our populist times as well as my own anti-expert bias.
For this outing we will evaluate 10 value wines--the kind with a more attractive Qualilty Price Ratio that you would have with Tuesday dinner at home. The come from non Napa AVAs for obvious reasons of cost. In the future we will also judge Napa Cabs which are offered for sale at a much higher price
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For another event we considered the following questions raised by the Oscars. After the questions I have listed some links that provided more background..
Fully two-thirds of white voters without college degrees voted for Donald Trump, as did over 80 percent of white evangelicals. Are we locked in class warfare? Will the election season ever really end?
Do we live in a bubble producing a generation of liberals and progressives narcissistically unaware of conditions outside their self-defined groups, and indifferent to the task of reaching out to Americans in every walk of life as the Oscars proclaimed?
Can there be assimilation without resorting to a “whitelash” in Van Jones term, or “whitewash?
Can we achieve creating a sense of being in this together going beyond group identities or are we speaking different languages?
Can we achieve creating a sense of being in this together going beyond group identities or are we speaking different languages?
How do we bridge the chasm between classes and education levels?
At the Oscars it was mentioned that women do it better-- Opposing without hatred Might this lead to a bias against women because, on average, they are less combative than men?
Do you agree that women approach the world differently?
Do those who argue for differences in gender and race deserve to be challenged or are these differences a starting point?
Christina Hoff Sommers recently defended herself against charges of misogyny and sexism for emphasizing how small average differences between the sexes at the ends of Bell Curve might lead to substantial differences in career choices and social interests.
Should Lawrence Sommers, a tireless advocate for equal treatment of women, be considered a sexist and fired as President of Harvard for asserting that men seem to have a greater capacity for doing advanced mathematics?
Should we accept that men and women are different in some of their proclivities in part because of evolutionary pressures that shaped those differences in our species?
We know that STEM majors at elite universities are far more often men than women; conversely low-skilled men are becoming less employable than women, and are dropping out of the workforce at higher rates in industrialized countries ? Any suggestions for improving these trends beside GE’s committment to adding 20,000 more women to their tech labor force. Or Hyatt’s “Love Sweet Love”
Do you agree with this quote from Steven Pinker: ”The desire to work with people versus things. There is an enormous average difference between women and men in this dimension…And this difference in interests will tend to cause people to gravitate in slightly different directions in their choice of career. The occupation that fits best with the “people” end of the continuum is “director of a community services organization.” The occupations that fit best with the “things” end are physicist, chemist, mathematician, computer programmer, and biologist.
Should we encourage people to sort themselves into college majors and job occupations that they’re reasonably good at and enjoy doing.
Is upholding orthodox Christian views of marriage and human sexuality not an act of hate? Is not expressing concern about the effect of large-scale immigration on wages and job opportunities an act of racism?
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"Homeplay" Assignment:
The titles below are also links that will take you to several short essays on our theme of 'isms' .
How should this diversity shape our politics? The standard liberal answer for nearly a generation now has been that we should become aware of and “celebrate” our differences. Which is a splendid principle of moral pedagogy — but disastrous as a foundation for democratic politics in our ideological age. In recent years American liberalism has slipped into a kind of moral panic about racial, gender and sexual identity that has distorted liberalism’s message and prevented it from becoming a unifying force capable of governing.[click on the title to access the rest of the piece]
Like “racist”, the definition of “sexist” seems to have ballooned in such a way as to include any claim about average differences between males and females from the neck up. Some feminists, in particular, fear that assertions about differences between men and women threaten the social progress we’ve made over the past few centuries. Perhaps they have a point (as we discuss below). But we should consider whether such an expansive definition of sexism is helpful, or whether it actually represents a hindrance to moral progress.
[click on the title to access the rest of the piece]
It's come to light this week that the comic superhero's controversial tenure as the United Nations' honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls will be coming to a close this Friday.
That's less than two months since the character was unveiled as the face of a U.N. social media campaign to promote women's rights via tweets and facebook callouts. The decision sparked protests both in and out of the organization, with nearly 45,000 people ultimately signing an online petition that called the choice of a fictional character with "an overtly sexualized image" to represent gender equality "alarming" and "extremely disappointing."
The charge of “racist” represents a scalpel that has been substantially dulled in recent years. The result is an inability to cut cleanly around the cancerous tissue of racism. The term has been co-opted by well-meaning social justice advocates, and is no longer reserved for people who treat members of other groups as inherently inferior to members of their own group. Nor is it used to identify people who fail to treat members of other groups as the individuals that they are. Instead, “racist” is casually hurled at anyone who expresses ideas that have been emblazoned on an intellectual “no-fly list.”[click on the title to access the rest of the piece]
DAVID FRENCH, NATIONAL REVIEW
Millions of Americans are furious with the scolding progressive impulse that’s branded “political correctness.”
IMANI PERRY, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
We have a long history of responding to the suffering of “working class whites” by maintaining their status above others.
JIM SLEEPER, YALE UNIVERSITY
Legitimate criticism of overreactions to racism needs to account for other real concerns that have angered and frightened some groups.
ROBB WILLER, STANFORD UNIVERSTIY
Even people who harbor consciously negative views of minority groups rarely see themselves as racist.
MICHELLE GARCIA, DIRECTOR, "AGAINST MEXICO"
A culture of siege produces victims, and victims will sacrifice anything for their survival, even democracy itself.
HAPPY PONDERING
HAPPY PONDERING
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