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What's hostile about the title? And you say that these articles are racist.. that kind of reaction is really common when actual racism is being pointed out. It can be hard to differentiate and I've found myself feeling something/someone is racist when it's really that they're pointing out how I'm being racist, and my reaction is to be defensive, instead of actually examining inside and unwinding my conditioned thoughts a d responses.

You say it's not white men's fault that thy were innovative early in AI. Consider though when the field of AI was first being developed (in the late 50s) which black or people of color in the US would even have had access to the same resources that e.g. John McCarthy had. And why would they have had difficulty accessing those resources? Because of the laws white people had in place then.

So to say that it's white men's fault may be too simplistic, but it also has historical truth.



> What's hostile about the title?

It's a direct attack on a particular gender and race.

1960 was 56 years ago. It has no relevance on people studying the field today.


But explain how it's an attack. I wager that /you/ feel attacked.

Saying that a distance in the past has no relevance on people studying the field today is ridiculous. You're saying "the past has no relevance". Especially considering scale, 56 years is not a long time for things to change. There's ample examples of how what was so socially and politically that affected black people 56 years ago continues to exist today.


It says that there's a problem and it lays it at the feet of white men. If that's not an attack, I don't know what is.

EDIT: Since I can't reply anymore, I'll just add my comment here. I (and most people) are in no way responsible for the lack of women in AI. If you personally feel responsible because you know you've been sexist/racist, great, make amends and don't do it anymore. Tossing blame at people you don't know and saying they're responsible for your actions is not the correct course. Blaming white men is racist and sexist so you can take this opportunity to learn and hopefully stop making generalizations about people regardless of their gender or race.


If someone has done an action, we can say that they're responsible for that action. There's no attack in identifying responsibility or ownership, but as I explained above, I myself have often interpreted this as an attack on me, when for example, someone was pointing out to me how I was being racist.


It's not blame or racist when it's true, so you're just being defensive. If you're "neutral" (think that you're not part of the problem) then you're still supporting and benefitting from the system that IS racist. You're complicit in your lack of action.




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