to celebrate them for their achievements made while fighting uphill and exponentially harder than their white counterparts in a society rigged against them in uncountable avenues
No? Minorities are marginalized all the time.
Also, if we are really going to suddenly be meritocratic above all else, we must immediately remove a lot of names from things. I don't want to get too far removed from engineering, but it's a great argument for getting rid of Confederate names.
> In an undated interview at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Tyson talked about being black and one of the most visible and well-known scientists in the world. He told a story about being interviewed about a plasma burst from the sun on a local Fox affiliate in 1989. "I'd never before in my life seen an interview with a black person on television for expertise that had nothing to do with being black. And at that point, I realized that one of the last stereotypes that prevailed among people who carry stereotypes is that, sort of, black people are somehow dumb. I wondered, maybe ... that's a way to undermine this sort of, this stereotype that prevailed about who's smart and who's dumb. I said to myself, 'I just have to be visible, or others like me, in that situation.' That would have a greater force on society than anything else I could imagine."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson#Race_and_s...
It's because every month is a white history month, and every month is a straight pride month.
A white child in the US is very unlikely to get the impression that their race might make it hard or impossible for them to become an engineer, so there is no need or benefit to specifically pointing out to your child that some great engineer is white.
Not so for a black child. There is a very real possibility that their being black will make it harder for them to become an engineer. Being show other people who faced the same hardships and overcame them can help keep them from getting discouraged.
There's also the very clear benefit of affirmative action that makes it easier to become an engineer, preferential treatment at top schools etc.
While a white child, and even more so an Asian one, might look at laws and statistics and Harvard and realize that, indeed, it is provably harder for them to become an engineer.
Also...I'm not a minority, but I can imagine that if I looked around and there were none of my kind in a position of power, I'd start to think maybe I shouldn't be there.
You can show a white child a picture of a white professional all day long and personally I wouldn't call you a racist.
> You learned about Helen Keller instead of W.E.B. DuBois
> You learned about the Watts and L.A. Riots, but not Tulsa or Wilmington.
> You learned that George Washington’s dentures were made from wood, rather than the teeth from slaves.
> You learned about black ghettos, but not about Black Wall Street.
More: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213622838
It's truly insidious how systematic this is in our lives.
> If their achievements were that incredible, we would've heard much more about them. Plenty of white engineers had successful careers, contributed to their program, performed well, but will forever go un-named
This isn't remotely true. The majority of things are named after white men to the exclusion of everyone else.
That's because the majority of scientific achievements to date, have been by white men. I'm not celebrating that fact, I'm just pointing out the source of the statistic you've pointed out. The things weren't named because the person was a white male, they were named because of a tremendous achievement that happened to be made by a white male. When the majority of engineers are white men, that's when you get that trend. As we see more black men/women achieve great things, we will see more things named after them.
Unfortunately, the rate of scientific and natural discovery in my opinion is slowing down. There will never be a black Christopher Columbus because there are no continents left to discover. There won't be a black Thomas Edison, because we already have light globes. Going out of our way to inflate other achievements just for the sake of naming buildings after minorities is a ridiculous thing to do.
Yes, this is a throwaway. Yes, I shouldn't do it. But frankly, it's the only way I would ever comment on something like this. Everyone involved in American culture war subjects is too toxic. Too many norms of debate about almost every topic are toxic. It'll be the end of your country if this continues.
Would you like to give an example to back up your claim though? There is no statue in the US celebrating somebody for discovering the number zero, or gunpowder, or paper, or anything else I can think of that was brought over to the West.
If you're saying we should never celebrate anybody that builds on the achievements of others, well then we shouldn't celebrate anything in science at all. All discovery and progress builds on the work of those that came before us.
Also I get your point that at NASA and in the USA we have mostly white scientist until recently, but I take issue with your statement about the majority of scientific achievements.
Historically there are thousands upon thousands of Arab and Chinese scientific achievements, to name a few cultures that aren't white. I don't think that is what you meant though.
That's because everyone else was excluded. To overcome this pervasive and hostile environment takes exceptional ability.
Stop trying to prevent black people from receiving praise.