I wrote about dissent -- on the left -- about language around race and gender. nytimes.com/2021/11/01/us/… Some progressives feel like the hyper-focus on words is a distraction from more important matters -- a code that only a narrow, highly educated slice of the country can understand. Others feel like it's an easy out, a substitute for substantive action on social justice.

I wrote about a racial awakening in what struck me -- and many people I interviewed -- as an unlikely place: a chapter of a mostly-white college fraternity that is known for claiming Robert E. Lee as its "spiritual founder.'' nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/… I spoke to young white Kappa Alpha alumni for this story who had chanted "1,2,3, Robert E. Lee, 3,2,1, South should have won'' a few years ago and were now revolted at having done so. Some credited their classes at Southwestern U for their changing views.

The story goes that Galileo, forced to recant his belief that the Earth orbits the sun, muttered a defiant 'and yet, it moves,' as his inquisition ended. Good line. Except in my feed, people have been invoking it on behalf of another science icon & his belief in racial hierarchy. The Galileo tweets are responding to news that @CSHLaboratory is removing the name of Jim Watson, the Nobel-winning biologist, from its graduate school. Watson said in a documentary last year that he thinks IQ differences between Blacks and whites reflect genetic differences.

With the 12th case of coronavirus in U.S. confirmed today, here are some things I learned in my embed @SnoHD, a few blocks from where the first confirmed case was sequestered in a hospital isolation unit. What I saw was both inspiring and daunting. nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/… 1) At least 69 people were potentially exposed to the coronavirus in the 5 days between when the man, 35, returned from China & when he was admitted to Providence Regional Medical Center. That includes fellow-passengers on plane, co-workers, people at clinic, healthcare workers.

A white mathematician I respect wrote privately to me to object to my including in the @edraygoins story the suggestion I heard from several of his colleagues, that he is "sensitive.'' Since others may have a similar reaction, I wanted to publicly reply. nytimes.com/2019/02/18/us/… "I appreciate what you're trying to bring to light'' the person wrote, "but I don't know how the word "sensitivity" got past your internal screen in the context of what you're trying to do, or past your editors."

I didn't have space for all the telling stories & insights shared with me by those I interviewed for my story on the mathematician Edray Goins and the type of racism among academics that by its nature goes mostly undocumented. nytimes.com/2019/02/18/us/… Here are some I left out. A favorite quote of readers (and of mine) that WAS in the story came from Nate Whitaker, head of the department of math and statistics at U-Mass, Amherst: “Who do they make eye contact with? Not you.'' But he went on:

Apropos of Race-IQ Twitter complaining I didn't spell out its argument for why black people are intrinsically less likely than whites or Asians to be mathematicians, allow me to again not give them a platform. Instead... ..here's the full quote from Fields Medalist @wtgowers I partial-quoted in this story, nytimes.com/2019/02/20/rea…, which followed my first one, on the black mathematician Edray Goins and the under-appreciated toll of anti-black racism among PhD faculty at elite universities.

1) Lots of scientists in my feed saying “about time’’ with regard to Cold Spring Harbor Lab’s severing of final ties to Jim Watson. But also lots of people saying Watson is being persecuted for unpopular scientific opinions “just like Galileo.’’ nytimes.com/2019/01/11/sci… 2) Here’s a screenshot so you get the idea.

1. In NYT’s Race/Related newsletter this week, I quote neuroscientist @NathanASmith1. He wondered how many scientists privately share Nobelist Jim Watson’s view that blacks are less intelligent than whites. I didn’t have space for the full story behind his quote. But here it is: 2. Shared with @NathanASmith1’s permission: “I will never forget something that happened to me during my first postdoc… [MORE]

For those trying to justify Watson's speculation that the average racial gap in IQ scores "is genetic” since 1) IQ is partially inherited from parents 2) we know a gap exists: please see quote from prominent IQ researcher @RobertPlomin in my article. nytimes.com/2019/01/01/sci… MORE I sought out @RobertPlomin’s comments precisely because he has staked out the extreme end of the nature-and-nurture continuum. His book is “Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are.” His recent piece for @sciam is “In the Nature-Nurture War, Nature Wins.’’ blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/i…

Got an early look at the new PBS documentary on Jim Watson, out tomorrow. It is infuriating and sad to see him reaffirm his infamous view — unsupported by any genetic evidence — that black people are intrinsically less intelligent than others. nytimes.com/2019/01/01/sci… When his original comments were published in a British newspaper in 2007, he immediately backtracked. Of course he had to, given the international firestorm. But he’s been largely out of the public eye for awhile now. This seems like a conscious choice, to make this his legacy.

1. On Friday the @GeneticsSociety denounced the new wave of attempts to legitimize the political ideology of white supremacy with claims of genetic racial distinctions. Nice to see this acknowledgement of the troubling phenomenon I recently reported on. nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/… 2. As I wrote in this story on the society’s statement, it contains important basic information about how “race” is different from genetic ancestry, and how genetic ancestry is tied to the history of human migration.
nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/….