The Coq mailing list

[Sam Kuper <sampablokuper AT posteo.net>]

Dear Randall,

On Tue, Jun 09, 2020 at 05:38:28PM -0600, Randall Holmes wrote:
> [It] is false (and deeply relevant to what we are all doing) to claim
> that the research enterprise of mathematics and computer science is
> built on a foundation of white supremacy.  [..]

Your statement above (which I find questionable) seems to be
contradicted by your statement below (with which I agree).

> There are powerful social forces at work (which are discouragingly
> hard to challenge, and sometimes disturbingly hard to even catch at
> work) which make it difficult for black people, and women, and members
> of other disadvantaged groups, to find their way into mathematics and
> computer science research and thrive there.  [..]

In other words, the "powerful social forces ... which make it difficult
for black people ... to find their way into mathematics and computer
science research and thrive there" that you mention in your second
sentence are arguably indistinguishable from the "foundation of white
supremacy" that you dismiss in your first sentence.

As for your following remarks ...

> But the obstructions are not essential to the enterprise of
> mathematical, computer science, or even general academic research.
> The program of mathematical and computer science research does not
> benefit from making it hard for blacks and women (and other
> disadvantaged people) to participate.  If we were more diverse...we
> would still be doing the same thing, and doing it better because there
> would not be artificial obstructions to finding the best people to do
> it.

... they are surely true.  They also seem to be consistent with the
point of the original post in this thread.

Regards.

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