6 ms·
5 books, 5 white men. sigh
by JoergR 12y ago
5 books, 5 white men. sigh
- sp332 12y agoWell, it's not that surprising that a white guy likes books written by white guys. And it's possible that the advantages of being white and male contribute to being in a position to write really good books, too.
- seizethecheese 12y agoActually, this response is exactly what is wrong with the original comment. No, the fact that Bill Gates is a white guy has nothing to do with the race and gender of the authors of these books.
- sp332 12y agoI think it does, and I think the influence is pretty obvious. If you ask Jack Ma for his 5 best books, I would be really shocked if he picked books by 5 white authors. A person's culture changes the way they see and appreciate things.
- axlprose 12y agoAs a minority that's been closely tied his 'non-white' culture his entire life, I would strongly disagree. Most of my favourite books this year have probably been written by white men, but that's just because white male authors are common in the genres of books I like to read. I'm not going to force myself to read books from people of my culture (or non-white in general) just to meet some arbitrary bigoted quota. I respect authors for their ability to write well and make solid arguments, not for their skin color, culture, or anything else. If your view of minorities is that we're so prideful/nationalist that we [should] read mostly books by non-white authors, then I find that highly offensive.
- sp332 12y agoI didn't say should, I said does. And don't you think it's suspicious that your favorite genre is dominated by white male authors? What happened to all the other authors? Edit: Sorry if it came across as saying that you should feel bad for reading the books you read.
- axlprose 12y agoNothing probably happened to "all the other authors", they most likely just haven't existed in that sub-genre yet very much. It would take a long time for enough people to become interested in writing books for certain fields for author demographics to really approach anything nearing a reflection of the global population, so I don't expect every genre of book to be equally diverse in its authors. "Suspicious" is also a really strong biased word. I could just as well claim that I'm 'suspicious' as to why most parenting books are written by white women. But as I mentioned before, I do not care about the author (unless their biases shine through in their writing too much). And it's completely reasonable to expect that mothers would be more likely to write about their experiences parenting than fathers at this point in time, and that only in developed 'white' countries would parents have the free time and luxury to write books about their experiences raising children. Similarly, if I read science books, I would expect (and want) authors of those books to come from places that have well developed science programs (like the US, which is predominantly white). If the author isn't in the majority of that sub-population, then good for them! But ultimately that does not dictate what I read. Neither the readers nor the authors should be blamed for the statistical outcomes of the environment. If you want more non-white authors, petition for the US to adopt a better immigration policy that would be welcome to experienced creative individuals from poorer countries; calling racism at readers/authors isn't going to solve anything.
- mariusz79 12y agoHa, so what, is it racist and bigoted to read books simply because they were written by a white man? Who even cares about what race and gender is the author of a book? What about their religion? Hair and eye color? Should we start vetting movie directors and screenwriters before renting a movie? Or maybe would you like for the governments to setup quotas, and federally funded programs to support minority authors?
- JoergR 12y agoEveryone except white men cares about it. Without seeing different points of view, empathy, diversity and understanding of people is not possible. Which is, plainly, ridiculously simple to see unless you are trying really hard to stay ignorant in privilege.
- another_sigh 12y agoCompletely off topic, but I always figured that you'd get better mileage out of "blessed" rather than "privilege".
- happyscrappy 12y agoI think you are letting your hatred of white men cloud your judgement.
- sp332 12y agoIt's obviously racist to include only books from white authors. This isn't about each book, it's about the collection.
- bossmojoman 12y agoOr maybe, according to the laws of statistics, maybe, just maybe, (let me add in another maybe here,) The dude just happened to like 5 books that HAPPENED to be by white men? Possibly he most likely didn't even care who wrote them as quality knows not race, sex or orientation? I mean we should TOTALLY believe the dude trying to rid the third world of malaria is TOTALLY a racist, right? God, tumblr is leaking over into hacker news now.
- worklogin 12y agoArtificial race and gender requirements. Sigh. Note to self: If I write a seminal work on macroeconomics and WEALTH INEQUALITY I should make sure to have my pen name be a black woman to make sure it's suitable for more lists.
- Rainymood 12y agoIt's the worth of a book directly tied to the skin colour of it's author? What a weird remark imho.
- JoergR 12y agoI know, diversity is so WEIRD. Yucky girls and all...
- daktanis 12y agoYeah because that is what he meant and said in his post.
- malyk 12y agoWell, in the US at least the skin color and gender of the author doesn't have an impact on the worth of the book, but if all the books you read are by white men, as in this case, then your perspective on the world is inherently shaped by white men. There's a lot to be said to being exposed to different perspectives. And no one knows what other things Bill Gates read this year, but that the best are all white men is a little...disappointing I guess.
- adamnemecek 12y agoAlright, what are best 5 books from 2014 written by non-white men or women?
- JoergR 12y agoSee below. You're like the fourth of fifth who is trying this stupid gotcha. No, I actually DO MAKE A POINT of reading diverse authors. I no, it must be inconceivable for people of your ilk.
- adamnemecek 12y agoYou forgot to include a Yupik potatokin author you disgusting bigot.
- codezero 12y agoDo you have some more diverse recommendations?
- JoergR 12y agoSure, my Top 5 books by non-whitemen I read in 2014 are: FICTION 1. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah 2. Terezia Mora - Der einzige Mann auf dem Kontinent (not translated yet I think) 3. Octavia E. Butler - Parable of the Sower 4. Jose Saramago - Blindness 5. James Baldwin - If Beale Street Could Talk NONFICTION 1. Melba Patillo Beals - Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High 2. Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir - Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much 3. Laura Fermi - Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi 4. Judith Newton - From Panthers to Promise Keepers: Rethinking the Men's Movement 5. Sikivu Hutchinson - Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels and as a bonus, because it's written by a white man... Jeffrey Haas - The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
- codezero 12y agoAwesome, thanks, I'll have to check some of these out!
- toth 12y agoNot that I hold it against him, but José Saramago was a white guy (although he was pretty tan). It is a pretty great book.
- JoergR 12y agoTrue, mixed him up with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Whoops...
- another_sigh 12y agoHow about top 5 all time good books by non-whites (not just what you read in 2014).
- another_sigh 12y ago0 recommendations for a great book by a non-white author. sigh
- justathrow2k 12y agoYou realize that despite the authors sharing the same skin color that they come from different countries, different walks of life, and each have entirely unique perspectives to offer, and that you're marginalizing them just based on one obvious superficial trait, right?
- another_sigh 12y agoYou realize that my comment was in response to another comment, and not at the top level, right?
- justathrow2k 12y agoYes sir or ma'am. I believe whatever you were trying to convey might have been lost and is not made obvious by your comments position in the responses. The downvotes on your original comment seem to support this theory, but perhaps my reading comprehension is just off today.
- vph 12y agoSign. This is why we can't have good things.
- hackuser 12y agoWhile JeorgR's point isn't well articulated, it's sad that almost any suggestion of racial discrimination appears to be reflexively downvoted and shouted down. So far we're unable to discuss the issue intelligently, which is what our society most needs. Racial discrimination is widespread, and often unconsciously. For example, one of the first things you learn about hiring is that people instinctively hire employees like themselves. That's why comments like JeorgR's are valuable, to bring it to our attention. If ~33% of the U.S. population (I'm guessing at the proportion of white males) dominate so much of our reading, our government, business, entertainment, technology, etc. -- just looking at the data, it raises serious (and what should be intellectually interesting) questions about how that happens, and about justice and fairness for the 66% whose opportunities are apparently much reduced. EDIT: added a bit to the last sentence
- frogpelt 12y agoDo you really think Bill Gates selectively reads book only by white males? Do you really think Bill Gates would hesitate to put a book on his list of best books if it was written by someone other than a white male? It's a ridiculous claim when there's absolutely no proof to back it up. Also, how does it help the problem of what you call "widespread", "unconscious" racial discrimination to artificially include books by non-white, non-male authors just to meet a race/gender criteria? Does that really help the problem?
- hackuser 12y agoI'll only respond by noting for other readers that frogpelt made those claims, not me.
- rl3 12y agoYou praised JoergR's comment on the basis that it is valuable, because comments like his serve to bring racial discrimination to our attention. I think it's fair to say that what frogpelt said was more or less in line with what most perceived your implication to be.
- _tb 12y agoI hate to sound like a teenager edgy redpill, but social-media-SJW like you are one of the worst things that happend to the internet since hitler.