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Kareem Carr 🙃

@kareem_carr

30 Jan

I've noticed a kind of tribal individualist that's common online. They move in mobs, make nearly identical objections, claim not be a group or believe in groups, and are extremely hostile to the identities of others.

They've also been REALLY BAD for online scientific discourse.

Many people believe in individualism so strongly that they seem incapable of perceiving anything to do with groups. They don't understand sociology as a category of knowledge or social problems as anything more than a collection of the unique challenges of individuals.

Many individualists don't believe in sociology. They see it as a false science. Since groups don't exist for them, only individuals, they don't think sociological can exist either. After all, how can one scientifically study groups when groups aren't real?

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Kareem Carr 🙃

@kareem_carr

25 Jan

I wrote a short thread on being a racial minority within math academia. I didn’t propose any changes to the status quo or solutions. Just pointed out why I think race is an issue in the context of my experiences. Here are some of the EXTREMELY racist responses I got back. 👇🏾

It’s funny because a lot of the responses say it’s not about race and accuse me of forcing race into the conversation. Meanwhile, many of those rather naive comments are located right next to insanely racist crap like this...

This one came close to calling me the N word but chickened out at the last moment. (I’m not American or African!Nobody has even metaphorically come close to “giving” me any of these things.)

Read 12 tweets

Kareem Carr 🙃

@kareem_carr

24 Jan

It's said that when women started working more, divorces increased. It seems that once women had their own money, they no longer wanted to deal with men's shit. Similarly, I suspect many of the prosperous non-whites (and women!) of today are becoming tired of white male bullshit.

In this analogy of civic life as a marriage, cancellation and the associated financial ruin which many white men fear in their public life is the equivalent of divorce and financial ruin which coincidentally many men in the mostly white "manosphere" fear in their private lives.

I frequently have white males telling me that from their perspective, people are being divisive by "bringing up" race and gender when these weren't issues before. What one needs to understand is just because something hasn't been an issue for YOU doesn't mean it wasn't an issue.

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Kareem Carr 🙃

@kareem_carr

24 Jan

Have you heard of the "probability paradox" known as The Monty Hall Problem?

In my opinion, it's BARELY about probability and is DEFINITELY not a paradox! It's OVER-HYPED by folks that get a buzz out of "tricky" math puzzles!

I'm going to explain it to you WITHOUT ANY MATH. 👇🏾

FIRED UP? LETS. DO. THIS! First, let's talk about what the Monty Hall Problem even is...

You're on Mr. Monty Hall's game show. There are 3 doors. One of them has a car behind it. The other two have goats. You pick an unopened door. At the end of the show, you get to keep whatever is behind your door.

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Kareem Carr 🙃

@kareem_carr

23 Jan

Many white males seek out math as a refuge from the complexities of society. So when I bring up the role of race in math culture, they see me as destroying their safe space. As a black man, I too wish for math to be a safe space from race. Sadly, for many black folks, it is not.

"Who do they make eye contact with? Not you."

This is a good article on what it can be like to be black in mathematics and reflects a lot of my own experiences: nytimes.com/2019/02/18/us/… )

Who am I to say this? I have a MSc in Math. I once gave a report to the president of the American Mathematical Society. I worked directly with the vice-president. I've been on committees within the AMS. I'm not some rando that has no clue what US mathematics culture is like.

Read 7 tweets

Kareem Carr 🙃

@kareem_carr

23 Jan

I'm kind of an Afro-pessimist about black folks in science. What I've learned from the recent successes of women in breaking down barriers is nothing will happen if you don't have a critical mass of people. Black folks are spread thin. Programs often only let one or two in. 🧵👇

There aren't enough black folks in most scientific fields to build our own community, to demand respect for our norms, values and interests, and to create an organic self-sustaining pipeline of black scholars that exists outside of majority white institutional power.

One analogy I've used before is this. Imagine you're switching from fossil fuels to sustainable energy. Do you think that this could happen without a massive investment in providing subsidies for new businesses and building up the sustainable fuel infrastructure?

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