On 8 Apr 1999, Karen Lee wrote:
> So, how do you get around the attitude that encouraging women and minorities
> to major in math and science, necessarily means that you will discourage white
> males? I have run up against this attitude several times. I just don't get it.
> Why is it that guys who HAVE JOBS, somehow feel persecuted? (Yeah I understand
> about the loss of privilege, etc, but...)
I sometimes wonder is it is their own sense of insecurity? We have
already talked about how women and people of color who "make it" are
generally the ones who are at least above average. I think that not matter
what their unknown prejudices, most men realize this on some level. It is
a whole new batch of competition and they may be afraid that they will not
cut it. And that perhaps the pendulum will swing the other way and they
will truly be disadvantaged.
To a great many, loss of priviledge seems to feel like a loss of
rights. That is the whole basis of the "anti PC" backlash. All of a sudden
people who have never had to watch what they say to others are having to
be polite. This would be, I think, a bit troublesome. The bit they don't
get is that the REST of us have had to watch what we say for generations
and have had to take some pretty offensive verbiage directed our way with
a smile (of course). To be "uppity" has meant at the very least being
branded a troublemaker, at the most extreme the loss of life (i.e.
lynching). So in the grand scheme of things, to most of us,taking care to
address people, for example, as they wish to be addressed seems a very
smally thing, while if you are used to saying most of what you want, it
seems like a huge task because you have not practiced the skills.
Linnea
