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Real Anti-Racism:
Posted in Thoughts
Shaking the hand of someone you disagree with isn’t as much fun as shouting them down, but it is far more effective.
When you live in small groups on the savanna, as our ancestors did for most of our evolutionary history, it pays to be suspicious of strangers. Other groups were competition. Strangers didn’t drop by for a cup of tea and a friendly chat about our emotional well being. We couldn’t afford to see a stranger as a real person at all. It was an “us versus them” world. Fear and aggression were the only rational responses. People who did well in that world (AKA our ancestors, the people from whom we get our DNA), knew that the only safe thing was to beat strangers with a club first and ask questions later.
Fear of “The Other” is hardwired, and talking about it doesn’t help.
We may not live in small groups on the savanna any more, but our brains don’t know that. For better or worse we are stuck with our evolutionary baggage. Nothing is going to change that. When you encounter someone who your brain perceives as “other”– and by this I mean you personally, dear reader, as well as myself and every other human on the planet — all of that machinery jumps to life in milliseconds. Long before we are consciously aware of anything, our brains are screaming “Danger Will Robinson! Danger!”
Call this tribalism. Call it racism. Call it in-group/out-group dynamics. Call it identity politics. Call it polarization. Call it whatever you like. It all comes down to the same thing. When we perceive someone as other our reactions are hard wired, preconscious, and impossible to turn off.
Good intentions don’t matter. Get high and sing Kumbaya all night. Talk about it until the cows come home. Hold workshops. Post platitudes or scream about it on the internet. If you want to judge the effectiveness of those strategies all you have to do is pick up the paper. The louder the mob screams, the more ground they lose. We’ve tried those approaches. They make things worse, not better.
Quoting Einstein’s famous parable, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
There is only one solution: Humanize yourself by embracing the humanity of others.
If you perceive someone as other you will respond to them as a threat. There’s nothing we can do about that. Or is there? Take a step back and the answer is obvious. We can’t change how we react to other, but we can change who we perceive as other.
There is going on 70 years of really fascinating sociological, psychological, political and even neurological research that all supports the same conclusion: If you know and respect someone, it’s hard not to care about them. Break bread together, laugh together, talk deeply, listen, show respect (even when it’s difficult), build bridges, find common purpose and work arm in arm.
I could dig into that research, but mercifully for you I won’t. Instead I am going to share an uplifting and illustrative story of what effective anti-racism really looks like.
How did a Black musician change the hearts of hundreds of Klansmen?
Daryl Davis is a Black blues and jazz musician with a very strange hobby. He goes to events like KKK rallies not to shout or protest, but to listen, shake hands, talk, and befriend. Literally hundreds of the Klan members who Daryl Davis has become friends with have renounced the Klan. He has a large collection of their robes, including the robe of a man who, when they met, was the Grand Wizard himself.
Read that last sentence again. Then if you honestly care about fighting racism you owe it to yourself to invest 18 minutes and listen to Daryl Davis’s story in his own words.
This is not your Woke friend’s Anti-Racism.
It feels good to gang up and shout at people. The difference between the shouters and the shoutees makes it really easy to tell who is “us” and who is “them.” Our brains love that. The dopamine flows like a river.
But that is not what Daryl Davis did. There was no shouting about racism. Terms like “White privilege” and “White fragility” were never used. Daryl Davis never complained about microaggressions or political correctness. DEI workshops were not part of the program. Mr. Davis did not wear his feelings on his sleeve. Quite the contrary, Daryl Davis listened even to open hatred and tried to understand where it was coming from. There was no talk of victims and oppressors. There were no social media attacks or calls for deplatforming. There was no virtue signaling about Wokeness.
Instead, Daryl Davis treated those who were predisposed to hate him with dignity and respect. He listened. He questioned. He befriended. He humanized himself by seeing and acknowledging the humanity of others, including those with whom he deeply disagreed. In the process he did what few have ever accomplished. Daryl Davis changed the hearts of hundreds of the most committed racists in the nation.
This is what real, effective anti-racism looks like. And as Davis mentions at the end of his talk, if he can do it, so can we.
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Watching Rome Burn & Hell Freeze
Posted in For Your Consideration
What do record fire seasons in the West, record hurricane seasons in the Atlantic, record winter storms in the South and the hottest years in history have to do with each other? Everything.
This article originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Schools in the Time of COVID
Posted in Thoughts
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. Yes, schools are desperately important to kids. No, COVID-19 doesn’t care, and COVID is making the rules right now. Attempts to open schools this fall will fail of their own accord. The relevant question is how to meet the needs of children, families and the community in the face of that reality.
COVID-19 Arrives
Posted in Thoughts
Currently new cases of COVID-19 in Arizona are doubling every 7 days. ICU beds in the state are already full. The rest of the country isn’t that far behind us. You do the math.
Correctly Predicting Failure
Posted in Thoughts
Now is not the time for scientists to be circumspect and silent. We are on the short end of a battle over whether truth even matters. If scientists do not stand up for what is real, who will?
Typhoid Mary on Two Wheels
Posted in Thoughts
The morning cyclist in my neighborhood may not be standing in the Michigan Statehouse carrying a gun and demanding her right to spread contagion far and wide, but she may as well be.
Pine Boxes
Posted in Success & FailureThoughts
You know those nice charts and graphs that make it look like we are over the hump of COVID-19 and that things are about to get better? Those predictions are dead wrong, with an unfortunate emphasis on “dead.”
Scientists Stuck Inside
Posted in For Your ConsiderationThoughts
Imagine three gregarious scientists, each with the gift of the gab, all coping with stay-at-home orders. Of course we started a livestream/podcast talk show! What else would we do? Welcome to the kickoff episode of Scientists Stuck Inside.
After COVID’s First Wave
Posted in Success & FailureThoughts
Even after COVID-19 kills hundreds of thousands in the U.S. over the coming weeks, we will still be almost as vulnerable to the pandemic as we are today. We’d all love to “get back to normal” after that, but the price could be a second wave, worse than the first. Some see us facing either economic Depression or allowing vast numbers of preventable deaths, but that is a fool’s choice. There are better options if we have the will to find them.
COVID-19
Posted in Success & FailureThoughts
There is a lot of information about COVID-19 out there, much of it misleading. When looking at the future, start with what the science really says.
Great Deceiverism 101
Posted in For Your ConsiderationUnreasonable Faith
If someone can’t tell you how they would know that they are wrong, they don’t have a clue whether they are right.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
One Step at a Time
Posted in For Your ConsiderationUnreasonable Faith
Once seemingly incomprehensible, the origin of life no longer seems such a mystery. Most of what once appeared as roadblocks are turning out to be superhighways.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
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Shaking the hand of someone you disagree with isn’t as much fun as shouting them down, but it is far more effective.
When you live in small groups on the savanna, as our ancestors did for most of our evolutionary history, it pays to be suspicious of strangers. Other groups were competition. Strangers didn’t drop by for a cup of tea and a friendly chat about our emotional well being. We couldn’t afford to see a stranger as a real person at all. It was an “us versus them” world. Fear and aggression were the only rational responses. People who did well in that world (AKA our ancestors, the people from whom we get our DNA), knew that the only safe thing was to beat strangers with a club first and ask questions later.
Fear of “The Other” is hardwired, and talking about it doesn’t help.
We may not live in small groups on the savanna any more, but our brains don’t know that. For better or worse we are stuck with our evolutionary baggage. Nothing is going to change that. When you encounter someone who your brain perceives as “other”– and by this I mean you personally, dear reader, as well as myself and every other human on the planet — all of that machinery jumps to life in milliseconds. Long before we are consciously aware of anything, our brains are screaming “Danger Will Robinson! Danger!”
Call this tribalism. Call it racism. Call it in-group/out-group dynamics. Call it identity politics. Call it polarization. Call it whatever you like. It all comes down to the same thing. When we perceive someone as other our reactions are hard wired, preconscious, and impossible to turn off.
Good intentions don’t matter. Get high and sing Kumbaya all night. Talk about it until the cows come home. Hold workshops. Post platitudes or scream about it on the internet. If you want to judge the effectiveness of those strategies all you have to do is pick up the paper. The louder the mob screams, the more ground they lose. We’ve tried those approaches. They make things worse, not better.
Quoting Einstein’s famous parable, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
There is only one solution: Humanize yourself by embracing the humanity of others.
If you perceive someone as other you will respond to them as a threat. There’s nothing we can do about that. Or is there? Take a step back and the answer is obvious. We can’t change how we react to other, but we can change who we perceive as other.
There is going on 70 years of really fascinating sociological, psychological, political and even neurological research that all supports the same conclusion: If you know and respect someone, it’s hard not to care about them. Break bread together, laugh together, talk deeply, listen, show respect (even when it’s difficult), build bridges, find common purpose and work arm in arm.
I could dig into that research, but mercifully for you I won’t. Instead I am going to share an uplifting and illustrative story of what effective anti-racism really looks like.
How did a Black musician change the hearts of hundreds of Klansmen?
Daryl Davis is a Black blues and jazz musician with a very strange hobby. He goes to events like KKK rallies not to shout or protest, but to listen, shake hands, talk, and befriend. Literally hundreds of the Klan members who Daryl Davis has become friends with have renounced the Klan. He has a large collection of their robes, including the robe of a man who, when they met, was the Grand Wizard himself.
Read that last sentence again. Then if you honestly care about fighting racism you owe it to yourself to invest 18 minutes and listen to Daryl Davis’s story in his own words.
This is not your Woke friend’s Anti-Racism.
It feels good to gang up and shout at people. The difference between the shouters and the shoutees makes it really easy to tell who is “us” and who is “them.” Our brains love that. The dopamine flows like a river.
But that is not what Daryl Davis did. There was no shouting about racism. Terms like “White privilege” and “White fragility” were never used. Daryl Davis never complained about microaggressions or political correctness. DEI workshops were not part of the program. Mr. Davis did not wear his feelings on his sleeve. Quite the contrary, Daryl Davis listened even to open hatred and tried to understand where it was coming from. There was no talk of victims and oppressors. There were no social media attacks or calls for deplatforming. There was no virtue signaling about Wokeness.
Instead, Daryl Davis treated those who were predisposed to hate him with dignity and respect. He listened. He questioned. He befriended. He humanized himself by seeing and acknowledging the humanity of others, including those with whom he deeply disagreed. In the process he did what few have ever accomplished. Daryl Davis changed the hearts of hundreds of the most committed racists in the nation.
This is what real, effective anti-racism looks like. And as Davis mentions at the end of his talk, if he can do it, so can we.
-
What do record fire seasons in the West, record hurricane seasons in the Atlantic, record winter storms in the South and the hottest years in history have to do with each other? Everything.
This article originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. Yes, schools are desperately important to kids. No, COVID-19 doesn’t care, and COVID is making the rules right now. Attempts to open schools this fall will fail of their own accord. The relevant question is how to meet the needs of children, families and the community in the face of that reality.
Currently new cases of COVID-19 in Arizona are doubling every 7 days. ICU beds in the state are already full. The rest of the country isn’t that far behind us. You do the math.
Now is not the time for scientists to be circumspect and silent. We are on the short end of a battle over whether truth even matters. If scientists do not stand up for what is real, who will?
The morning cyclist in my neighborhood may not be standing in the Michigan Statehouse carrying a gun and demanding her right to spread contagion far and wide, but she may as well be.
You know those nice charts and graphs that make it look like we are over the hump of COVID-19 and that things are about to get better? Those predictions are dead wrong, with an unfortunate emphasis on “dead.”
Imagine three gregarious scientists, each with the gift of the gab, all coping with stay-at-home orders. Of course we started a livestream/podcast talk show! What else would we do? Welcome to the kickoff episode of Scientists Stuck Inside.
Even after COVID-19 kills hundreds of thousands in the U.S. over the coming weeks, we will still be almost as vulnerable to the pandemic as we are today. We’d all love to “get back to normal” after that, but the price could be a second wave, worse than the first. Some see us facing either economic Depression or allowing vast numbers of preventable deaths, but that is a fool’s choice. There are better options if we have the will to find them.
There is a lot of information about COVID-19 out there, much of it misleading. When looking at the future, start with what the science really says.
If someone can’t tell you how they would know that they are wrong, they don’t have a clue whether they are right.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Once seemingly incomprehensible, the origin of life no longer seems such a mystery. Most of what once appeared as roadblocks are turning out to be superhighways.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Over his 30 year career as an internationally known astrophysicist, Dr. Jeff Hester was a key member of the team that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. With one foot always on the frontiers of knowledge, he has been mentor, coach, team leader, award-winning teacher, administrator and speaker, to name a few of the hats he has worn. His Hubble image, the Pillars of Creation, was chosen by Time Magazine as among the 100 most influential photographs in history.
The Big Short
A magician’s hat can’t really turn lead into gold
The Great Recession was a product of willful ignorance. There is a lot to be learned from the few who won big by allowing themselves to see what others would not.
When I heard that Michael Lewis’s The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine was being made into a movie, my immediate reaction was puzzlement. How in the world could you turn such a scathingly brilliant piece of nonfiction like that into a movie? Then I saw the list of stars. Steve Carell? Christian Bale? Brad Pitt? Ryan Gosling?
Steve Carell???
Michael Lewis’s The Big Short goes inside the financial crisis of 2007 and tells the story of how a few people realized the obvious, and made a killing as the world crumbled around them.
Snake oil is snake oil, even if you do give it a fancy name like “credit default swap.”
The raison d’être of The Big Short is to smash the carefully cultivated myth that the world of mortgage-backed securities in 2007 was too difficult for mere mortals to comprehend. It’s actually not that hard to understand at all. If you can comprehend greed, insurance, and making side bets with other people’s money, you can understand this stuff.
It’s probably wrong to admit this, but when I read The Big Short, I actually smiled and occasionally chuckled through a lot of it.
In my own defense, I should say that I didn’t smile at the parts where the lives of millions of people were turned upside down by the biggest financial crisis in 80 years. The parts that I smiled at were the parts where an obvious, unavoidable, 800-lbs gorilla had the economy by the throat, ready to play shake the rag doll. Yet somehow a bunch of Wall Street misfits were the only ones to see it.
I had seen this all before, over and over again.
When a magician shows you an empty hat, the rabbit hasn’t really disappeared.
During the run-up to the Great Recession the reality on the ground in housing markets was ugly. Delinquent mortgage payments and foreclosures were spiking. Even so realtors were selling homes like hotcakes to people who could not afford them, while financial institutions were handing out adjustable rate mortgages with low teaser rates to anyone who could pick up a pen. The risk was obvious.
But somehow as those loans were repackaged and repackaged again all of that risk just disappeared. Poof! Risk went into a magician’s black hat. Then with a wave of a magic wand, Presto! Change-o! Risk be gone! Investment banks pulled AAA bonds out of the hat that were sold to investors as if they were solid gold.
That’s not the way things work in the real world. Risk doesn’t just vanish, but that is what appeared to be happening. When a magician shows you an empty hat, the rabbit he just shoved through the false bottom is still somewhere, even if you can’t see it anymore. And the audience should know it.
How could it be that all of Wall Street failed to recognize something that in retrospect was so obvious? Easy. Everybody just knew that the mortgage bond market was healthy. The people who were making money hand over fist wanted it to be healthy. They paid other people to tell them that the market was healthy. They held conventions where they got together and shouted to the world that mortgage-backed bonds were the greatest things since sliced bread. And since everybody was saying it, they decided that it had to be true! Even as it became more and more clear that there were serious problems, everyone still stood up and arrogantly insisted that all was well.
For those who were looking the signs of the impending financial crises were easy to see. You just had to be willing to question what “everybody knew” about the housing market.
How is it that all of that supposedly brilliant high-paid talent on Wall Street convinced themselves that the magic was real? How did they fail to know there must have been some sleight of hand going on? They missed it the same way that everybody always misses the 800-lbs gorilla: arrogance, unquestioned belief, group think, wishful thinking, and on down the list.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
Everybody knew that mortgage-backs bonds were gold… right up until the instant that they turned out to be garbage. Like almost every other avoidable crisis – and most crises are avoidable – the crash of ’07 was a consequence of a failure of knowledge.
What I was laughing about as I read The Big Short was just how familiar it all sounded. Whether working with coaching clients, giving a keynote or sitting around a conference table, my message to clients is always fundamentally the same. Everything that we do depends on knowledge, but knowledge is a slippery thing. I’ve turned it into an elevator speech.
Some of what you think that you know is fine, but some of it isn’t. Here’s the rub. You don’t know which is which! In a rapidly changing world how you deal with that simple fact will determine your fate.
When Adam McKay was looking for a way to express exactly that same idea in the opening moments of the movie version of The Big Short, he went with Mark Twain instead.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Follow the playbook. Believing something doesn’t make it true.
You can’t really call the handful of people who made killing by betting against the financial system “good guys.” But I know how they did it. They followed the advice that I give every time that I am standing in front of a group of businesspeople. The advice is really simple, but it can be hard to hear because it starts with a difficult admission. “Just because I believe something doesn’t make it so.”
The first step takes some thought, but it’s not really that hard to do. Identify the things that you absolutely depend on being true.
The second step is a lot less comfortable. Start doing everything that you can to show that those ideas that you’ve built your world around are wrong. If you fail, rest more comfortably, confident that those ideas aren’t likely to let you down.
But if you do find some rotten timber in the foundation of your business, thank goodness you discovered it now instead of later! Not only do you have time to make changes to avoid catastrophe, but you also might have found an opportunity to profit when everybody else takes the hit.
So, how did Adam McKay turn a brilliant piece of nonfiction like The Big Short into a movie starring actors like Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling? Brilliantly!
Go check out The Big Short. The protagonists followed that playbook to the letter.
Caveat Emptor – The Big Short should be required viewing.
Yes, Steve Carell.
I was more than a little dubious as I walked into the theater and took my seat, bag of popcorn in hand. Then the movie started. Director Adam McKay and screenwriter Charles Randolph hit it out of the park! The story telling was excellent, the performances wonderful, and the characters from the real-life saga were captured beautifully. And I don’t think that I’ve ever seen the device of breaking the fourth wall used in such masterful fashion.
The Big Short should be required viewing for anyone who was affected by what transpired in 2007. In other words, it should be required viewing for everyone.
If you’ve not seen it, go. And as you leave the theater ask yourself a question. “What does everybody in my business or industry think that they know, and how might I discover that they are wrong?”
The Big Short ^ A magician’s hat can’t really turn lead into gold ©
Dr. Jeff Hester
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Andrew B Brown
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It’s not magic. It’s accounting fraud.
Maybe someone can make the movie “The Shell Game”.