No prize awarded because the nominees were white men

Woke is too kind a word for this story because Scientific American now approves of discrimination based on race and sex.

A great story fell into the publication's lap. The American Geophysical Union refused to award a prize for excellence in science because all five candidates were white males.

What kind of nonsense is that? Do the members of the prize committee eschew flight because the Wright Brothers were white males? Do they walk rather than drive a car, ride a bicycle, or ride a motorcycle because all of them were invented by white males? Ditto trains. Ditto telegraph. Ditto radio. Ditto TV.

Rather than take this committee to task, Scientific American praised the daffy decision to deny these men an honor they earned simply because of the color of their skin and their maleness.

The story was headlined, "Nominees for a Science Award Were All White Men—Nobody Won. A protest by a group of scientists has ignited spirited discussions about the persistent lack of diversity in such awards."

Five committee members were reviewing the nominees for the American Geophysical Union’s fellows program.

Helen Fricker, a glaciologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and one of the five committee members, noticed the nominees were all white men.

She said, "That was kind of a bit of a showstopper for me."

Fricker may as well hang up a sign: White men need not bother to apply.

She said, "One of the reasons I was put on the committee was because I’d been quite vocal about the year that I’d been a fellow, I was very much in the minority, and we needed to do better and get more women."

So the emphasis no longer is on good science but on race and sex. 19th century discrimination has returned in the 21st century. This time the targets are white males. 

Its advocates do not realize two things. The white men they are punishing now did not discriminate against anyone. They were raised to oppose bigotry. Their reward is to be discriminated against. Lesson learned.

The other thing is that by engaging in discrimination now, women and "people of color" are making the case for past discrimination.

The Scientific American story was bizarre in other ways. It said, "The decision has triggered a spirited dialogue among AGU members and other earth scientists about the persistent lack of diversity in science awards — and how to address it.

"Within the AGU fellows program, it’s a pervasive issue. AGU selected a total of 59 fellows this year, and 45 of them are men. Additionally, 46 of the fellows are from the U.S., while only 13 are from other countries."'

Only 13?

It is the AMERICAN Geophysical Union. It seems to me, 13 foreigners is 13 too many.

These fellowships are important to one's employment and one's reputation.

Buried 25 paragraphs into the story was any reaction to this terrible decision to deny a scientist his due.

Raymond Bradley, director of the climate system research center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, was displeased.

He said, "What the committee should have done is what they were tasked to do, which is to select from the nominations they received the best people and put them forward.

"At the same time they could recognize that there aren’t enough nominations being received from women and underrepresented groups, and they could shake up their members and say, 'Hey, come on, let’s nominate more people.'"

But the publication said, "Simply drumming up more nominations isn’t as simple a solution as it might sound, said Twila Moon, a scientist with the National Snow & Ice Data Center."

Moon said the pandemic hit women and minorities hardest. That's not quite true. Covid killed more men than women. And 52% of those with covid were white, while 59% of the covid deaths were among white people.

What got me to write this piece was this line in the story about why more women and more minority people were not nominated, "Writing nominations requires time and effort."

So the time and effort of white men does not matter to Scientific American.

That's good to know.

Discrimination is discrimination, and discrimination is wrong. This is not a payback because Bull Connor, Strom Thurmond, Bob Byrd, and all the rest are long gone.

The people these virtue signaling bigots are punishing are men who dedicated their lives to science only to be blocked at the fellowship door by a woman screaming, "Diversity today, diversity tomorrow, diversity forever."