Newspaper Page Text
8A
March 10, 2005
pinion
GUEST COMMENTARY By Marc. H. Morial
@
An Anti-21st century
ing to say
" “Seemed like such, like, an anti -21st century thing to say.”
So said a female undergraduate at the opening of the recent
ABC News' “Nighdine” edition devoted to the controversy over
Harvard University President Larry Summens” speculation why so
few women are rising to the top levels of the sciences and mathe
matics in higher education.
- In January Summers, who possesses a glittering resume of top
level service in academe and government (he was Treasury Secre
tary during the Clinton Admunistration), speculated while
addressing a small academic conference that the paucity of women
in these fields has three major causes, and he brietly listed them in
what he said was their probable order of importance.
The finst, he said, was the possibility that women were choosing,
family commitments rather than try 0 meet the eighty-hour
workweeks high-level achievement in these fields demand.
The second was that tewer women than men have the genetic
ability — he spoke of it at one point as “a ditferent availability of
aptitude” — 1o do the kind ntlernmnuhui work that would win
them top-level places in math and science.
Summers’ third hypothesis involved the possibility of sexist dis
¢rimination — but he immediately largely discounted the role it
might play.
Since then, the controversy those words provoked has sparked a
taculty uprising at
Harvard itselt, and occupied a good bit of space on the media’s
airwaves and editonal and op-cd pages.
Some bevond the vied walls of Harvard. or academe in gener
al. might be tempted o shrug this debate ot as a matter of aca
demic politics.
That would be a mistake; tor the broader issues involved here go
to the heart of the
values this nation has been debating for all its existence: faimess,
opportunity, inclusiveness, tolerance, and just plain human decen-
Q.
Its all to the good that the reverberations from President Sum
mers “speculations” show no signs of abating tor, it one had w
choose just a tew words to charactenize and place them in context,
those spoken by the temale undergraduate on “Nightline” will do
st fine.
* Yes, thisis the 21st century: and the attitudes his words conveyed
should have no place in it. They are an anti-21st century thing to
believe and to Sy
It was this country’s great loss that those attitudes — imposing
second- and thirdclass atizenship on some Amencans - did have
“a prominent place in the l'nith States of the past.
In that past, from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth cen
turies, bogus scientific notions about “innate ability” and which
groups of human beings have it in abundance and which dont,
helped stretch a tarpaulin of rspectabiliny over the callous con
. signing of millions of women — and white-cthnic immigrants and
Americans of color, too-to the ghettos of the Amernican social and
occupational hicrarchies.
~ Its only been in the last four decades that Amencan society has
begun to overcome the loss of “human capital” discrimination
disguised as a matter of “innate nabiliy” caused — and all of us are
right to be suspicious when it 1s used 1o explain or even hypothe
size about the present status of any group.
As Johnnetta Cole, president of Bennett College for Women, an
historically black college, said on the “Nightline™ edition, “I have
been through this. Women, Jews, African Americans, all kinds of
underrepresented groups. When our behavior is (said to be)
explained by some innate inability, we need to be caretul with this.
- Its associated with the assumption that there is an Aryan supe
rionty on this earth. We have no such evidence.”
In fact, Cole later pointed out that the so-called innate differ
ences explanation has been discredited as a justification of differ
ences in group status. She referred 1o the substantial advances
women have made since the 19605 in all sorts of arcas, from col
kege and professional-school attendance to occupations of every
sort. ”I)icr\w all of a sudden become innately more capable?” she
casked rhetorically. “Or does this have to do with tl}lc crcum
stances? Does this have to do with plain, old discrimination? How
do you avoid that kind of evidence and bring torward the sugges
~ton of innate inability?”
In fact, the evidence is widespread and compelling that women's
“place” in society — and girls” tests scores on standardized tests, for
example-have impmvdfiu shibboleths about their lack of ability
-and LEC structural barriers they supported have been shattered.
Those who've criticized Larry Summers for being wrong on his
scholarship and wrong in this instance on his responsibility as the
president of, not only Harvard the preeminent institution of high
. er learning, but Harvard the nchly diverse community of people,
are :g)u — as he himself has staruf in the numerous apologies i:c's
‘issued since the controversy broke.
. Let no one pretend that criticism of those remarks is an attempt
1o limit academic freedom or the pursuit of intellectual inquiry.
Instead, it acknowledges a responsibility we all bear: buflding a
21st-century community in which all Americans are free to
" achieve to :Kc best of their ability.
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When does the war on terror end?
President Bush recently
gave a major speech at the
National Defense Universi
ty. In thart speech Hhe
revealed nothing new
about his approach to ter
rorism. He said what any
good cowboy would say.
The United States 15 going
to chase the terrorist all
around the world and
shoot at sundown. As
appealing as the chase the
terrorist policy appears the
question becomes when do
we stop the chase? How
much will the chase cost?
What do we really get out
of the chase? Are we safer?
And will the chase result in
an end or decline to terror
ism or will it develop more
mobile and agile terrorists?
What is missing in Presi
dent Bush’s approach is a
creative strategy for diplo
macy in a volatile and vio
lent world. President Bush
(lnd his posse have yet to
deal with the root causes of
Dan Rather was no liberal
When Dan Rather
stepped down this weck
after 24 years as anchor
of “CBS Evening News,”
he was frequently char
acterized as a liberal.
However, a review of
Rather’s career shows
that, if anything, he was
more conservative than
his counterparts at NBC
and ABC.
The idea that Rather
was politically liberal
can be traced to a testy
1974 press conference
exchange he had with
President Richard M.
Nixon. At the National
Association of Broad
casters’ convention in
Houston, Nixon called
on Rather to ask a ques
tion. When he did, there
was a burst of applause
for the hometown boy
who had made good.
Nixon, in an awkward
attempt to be humorous,
asked: “Are you running
N TR T T
-
” g
black in the city
.
ha i
Wor Ov Makoh ¢ Woskine WRRICH
state sponsored terrorism.
As much as big guns are his
answer for everything we
have tound in the recent
years that big guns don't
work. Big guns have not
stopped the proliferation
of nuclear weapons. The
nartons \\}lu now hd\('
nuclear weapons are
increasing on an annual
basis. The threats by the
United Srates and the
coalition of he killing will
not \\u!l\.
I'he challenge before the
Bush Administration and
Hli\('! \\:)l'H ]L'.l(lk"'\ s 100
find a way that we can
coexist 1n this world and
t
acn'
‘*-4"
, ’
A
)
Geor&é‘flurrv
for something?” Rather
quickly retorted, “No,
sir, Mr. President. Are
you?”
Five months later,
Rather was replaced on
the White House beat by
Bob Schietfer who, iron
ically, is ‘sitting in
Rather’s seat until the
network decides on the
format and person or
persons to be involved in
the post-Rather news
cast.
In the meantime, the
perception exists in
many quarters that
Rather was a political
liberal. As wusual, the
promote justice and free
dom via diplomacy not
war. In war no one wins.
When you look at list of
those who have died in
Iraq tell me who the win
ners are. Everyone from
military men and women,
to innocent civilians to
Italian security forces, no
one wins. Is President
Bush’s policy to reproduce
Iraq where ever he feels the
need? Where will we go
next?
As much as President
Bush claims he is chasing
terrorist 1n the end we
know this is all a smoke
screen. He was chasing oil
and his daddy’s enemy in
Iraq and we are paying for
this mess to the tune of
over 100 billion dollars per
year. Will we pay 100 bil
lion for each of his violent
fishing trips in the name of
chasing terrorist? There
has to be a better way.
What we do know 1s that
excellent researchers at
Fairness & Accuracy in
Reporting (FAIR) have
examined Rather’s
broadcasts and they have
arrived at a different
conclusion. In a report
bh i Yeb Mk,
www.fair.org, the organi
zation reveals: “...The
notion that Rather has
used his CBS platform
to disseminate left-wing
propaganda over the last
two decades does not
hold up to scrutiny.”
FAIR scrutinized the
broadcasts of ABC, NBC
and CBS, which remains
stuck in third place.
“If Rather were indeed
liberal — or just more
liberal than his network
competitors — one would
think that the CBS
Evening News would
include more critical
perspectives in its news
cast, particularly during
a Republican adminis
President Bush will not
find this better way. He
only knows one way. The
job of the average Ameri
can is to look for a better
way. We must prepare now
for our future. Our furure
is not with a party and a
leader who shets first and
asks questions later. As
much as | enjoy the rheto
ric of our president I know
that in the end his plan
leads us down the road of
being in an eternal state of
war, no exit strategy, no
end in sight! We need
someone in the White
House who can think and
deal with this complicated
world. President Bush is
not the one. Who will it
be?
Dr. Watkins is a sociology
professor at Augusta State
University and the president
of Unity Council Inc... He
can be reached via his web
§ 7 t e :
www. ralphwatkins.org.
tration,” the report says.
“But FAIR’s study of
guests and sontces
appearing during cover
age of the Ilraq war
(3/20/03-4/9/03) actual
ly found that Rather’s
broadcast had the high
est percentage of official
U.S. sources (75 per
cent) and the lowest
number (less than one
percent) of U.S. anti-war
voices.
“A FAIR study of all
the network broadcasts
in 2001 found that CBS
Evening News had the
most Republicans and
the fewest Democrats
(76 percent vs. 23 per
cent). The difference
between CBS and the
other networks was slim,
but such analysis belies
the notion that Rather’s
network - or any of the
others — have a liberal
See llb.l'_;l:pagc 13A