IP: Re: degreeless talent

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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>Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 09:54:34 -0400
>To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
>From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed@reed.com>
>Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: IP: degreeless talent
>
>Perhaps my irony was too subtle in my original comments.  So here's some 
>decoding.
>
>I am deeply offended by the chauvinism/racism inherent in the idea that 
>the ethnic background of research lab workers is a measure of whether 
>Americans are innovative.  Most of those under-45 HP'ers are not on H1B 
>visas.  The majority are just Americans who happen to have last names that 
>are Asian or Hispanic or European.  My alma mater (MIT) and my son's 
>(Caltech) are also now full of people who don't have the traditional 
>surnames associated with "Americans".  If the "New Democrats" focus on 
>surnames as a measure of "Americanism", they deserve to fail (and as one 
>who votes Democrat often, I hope they wise up).  The Democrats of the 
>'70's would never have played this game of equating ethnicity with 
>American.  Thus my snide comment about "white boys" - intended to poke fun 
>at those who measure "American" by such stereotypes.
>
>I mention Bush, Gates, and Andreesen's attitudes about education because 
>their public comments devaluing learning are also deeply offensive to 
>me.  As Dan Lynch points out, they are indeed full of shit, but as our 
>recent dot-com hysteria points out, American culture (at least the 
>news&media) tends to celebrate the idea that learning is useless, 
>clever/sharp dealing is more worthwhile than scientific understanding, and 
>technical skills are less important than glamor and power.  America is no 
>longer the culture that celebrated Einstein in the first half of the 20th 
>century.
>
>A couple of people seemed to think my comments were "racist".  It's hard 
>not to use some concept of race or skin color in responding to actual 
>racist remarks such as those uttered by the HP lab director and embraced 
>by the "New Democrats".  Let's instead focus on helping everyone learn - 
>no matter their name, skin color, or country of origin.  Innovation comes 
>from diversity of inputs, and our (world) economy will succeed if we stop 
>trying to draw boundaries between America and non-America.
>
>



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