From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed May 29 2002 - 15:21:25 MDT
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, May 29, 2002, at 08:52 am, Aragorn wrote:
>
> > This is most startling!
> > Do you have any examples or urls to share?
>
> Sadly, yes. A Google search reveals the websites that seem to think
> Extropians are racists, or somehow connected to eugenics, white
> supremacy or other such groups.
>
> The worst example of this confusion were the Extropians@MIT, which
> caused a big stir by sending racist literature to new students using a
> stolen address list after their material was excluded from the welcome
> packets as being racist. They had their own mailing lists, websites,
> newsletter, chat forums, and printed literature.... all under our name!
> There were many online and printed articles attacking the "racist
> Extropians" and fighting the "racist Extropian movement" that was trying
> to push their way onto campus. As far as anybody could tell, they were
> us.
I will have to state here that the materials that the MIT extropians
sent to new students was NOT racist in any way. What happened was that
campus luddite/left wing groups, in concert with the campus newspaper
and the Boston Globe, claimed the materials were racist but failed to
quote anything from them as specifically racist. What the MIT Extropians
were debating was the fact that MIT has far lower standards for entrance
for blacks than for any other ethnic or racial group, and that MIT has
lower entrance standards for women as well. MIT Extropians thought that
these racist standards of demanding far higher performance from white
and asian applicants were offensive and a violation of the 14th
amendment. Since MIT is located in Massachusetts, possibly the most
liberal, left-wing state in the US, it is rather understandable how this
sort of dispute would cause problems for Extropians in general, but it
is rather like how Sasha Chislenko was treated in the USSR for his
pro-democracy dissidence. Those in power got to say whatever they wanted
to, and he was stuck with the label, the truth, that they allowed to be
published. It is not a mistake that Massachusetts refers to itself as a
"commonwealth", they really really mean it.
Now, as you can see, what this means is that by the standards of those
who cried 'racist', anybody who is opposed to Affirmative Action is a
racist. I was unaware that Extropy Institute supports Affirmative
Action, and if it does, you can cancel my membership.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:28 MST