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MemoryHoleHQ 18 hours ago

> prohibiting, for instance, grants that include language referencing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)—was unheard of until now.

This is great news. It was "unheard of until now" because everyone before this madness started ~ 2010, was sane enough to not put DEI criteria in grant allotments.

I'm glad something is finally being done about these appalling discriminatory practices. The grants should go the best proposals, not to those with the proper genitalia, melanin content of the skin, and correct religion of those applying.

Let's take this moment to welcome real science back.

frickinLasers 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm not going to bother to write an essay like the other person.

Here is a scientific outcome that directly impacts the quality of medicine a majority of American citizens receive: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

Research in progress to address these issues was cancelled by DOGE because "melanin content of the skin." "Do your own research" if you care to, or fuck off.

MemoryHoleHQ 14 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

brorfred 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Just to show how DEI works at NASA, I share a DEI plan we wrote for a proposal just before the change of administration. This plan was rated highly by the agency. Which parts are "appealing discriminatory practices"?

Inclusion Plan Both PIs and collaborators recognize the negative effect that systemic barriers have on academia and the importance of facilitating the full participation, belonging, and contribution of different groups and individuals within our work environment in general and the proposed project in particular. The proposed project is small in scope with few paid contributors and a well-defined group of collaborators, but it is always important to have a strategy in place to develop a positive and inclusive work environment. The PIs identify three areas where systemic barriers may affect our working environment or where questions around inclusion are critical:

1 Hiring strategies. The most obvious barrier against inclusivity in academia and STEM is bias (whether explicit or implicit) in recruiting staff and students. They will work closely with the recruitment and Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices at their respective institution to create recruitment strategies which are as unbiased as possible. One of their affiliations is a minority (Hispanic) serving institution – a transformative engine of social mobility – that offers a remarkable opportunity to (i) ensure student recruitment plans include underrepresented individuals and (ii) increase participation of a diverse and inclusive talent pool in climate change science. Both PIs will also participate in hiring workshops and training offered by their respective universities. Finally, they will leverage each PI’s background and earlier experiences by providing feedback in recruitment strategies and hiring decisions to each other, along with collaborative feedback from the associated offices at their institutions.

2. Work relationships with Post Docs and between collaborators It is also critical to create an inclusive working environment between PIs and Post Docs, enabling a positive collaboration between all members of the team. The two PIs will work with the hired Post Docs to write a career development plan during the first three months of their employment. They will also actively promote external mentorship for the Post Docs, either informally or via established mentorship programs, including AGU-endorsed programs Mentoring365 (a free and global mentoring platform for the Earth and space sciences community) and Mentoring365-circles (a peer-to-peer group mentoring program that allows early-career scientists to build skills and grow their network around common interests and objectives). Finally, they will ensure that the Post Docs are informed about how to report discrimination and how the University can support them during onboarding.

Both PIs have participated in management leadership training and have experience in organizing the kind of collaborative work that the proposed project requires. They will continue their learning process by participating in leadership workshops with a focus on DEI provided by their institutions.

3. Interactions with stakeholders. Inclusivity in stakeholder interactions is critical for a successful result. PI 2 will be the main lead for working with stakeholders, and as such leverage their experience and expertise from earlier projects where stakeholder inclusivity has been a critical component.

SiempreViernes 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Bless you for trying, but that's clearly just a troll you are responding to.

tinyplanets 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Don't feed the trolls... MemoryHoleHQ is not arguing in good faith.

mold_aid 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'd like to add that "DEI" is, in this administrative environment, often reduced to a collection of terms searched for and flagged without regard for context. Such that "diversity" might be flagged in a grant application that has nothing to do with racial or ethnic diversity.

USDA is doing the same thing with ag funding, though I don't think the same level of chaos is appearing because there are still at the moment competent people below the true-believer management. But not for long, as soon as they complete their return to Kansas City, inevitably losing DERP holdouts (exactly as happened during the last Trump admin).

MemoryHoleHQ 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Oh, if that's really your complaint about this all businesses, then yeah, let's all work together to clearly separate the DEI terms that apply to people and those that are actually scientific (like the diversity on crops someone mentions below).

Then we can more easily get rid of these discriminatory measures in practice (the real DEI ones) and keep the false flags.

Is that fine for you? Or that was just some red herring you were trying there?

defrost 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, but, like, what's the worst that could actually happen by eliminating crop diversity?

Potato monocultures fed literal millions for a good while, Shirley it can't hurt to see grain cropping go that way.

sorry_outta_gas 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

MemoryHoleHQ 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

SiempreViernes 17 hours ago | parent [-]

> Yet again, who is paying for this? This is a modern witch hunt.

Since this can only mean the DOGE witch hunt we all clearly remember, I think Elon Musk was paying for it? But now it's just taxpayer money (if there is anything left after "contributing" to all of Trumps many funds).

wredcoll 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Mate, if you had to make a new account just to try posting this nonsense, it might be time for some self-reflection.

ModernMech 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> The grants should go the best proposals, not to those with the proper genitalia, melanin content of the skin, and correct religion of those applying.

I'm confused. At least at the NSF, about 60-70% of their awards go to white men. Are those the appalling discriminatory practices, or what do you mean?

MemoryHoleHQ 17 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

jyounker 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) enough, blind tests did exacerbate > this issue, so, far left ideologues started calling to an end to > blind auditions since they ended up making orchestras "less diverse" > instead of more

You should really shouldn't subtly misrepresent the argument. The article states that blind auditions made orchestras much more diverse in some categories, but did not make much of an impact in others.

As far as I can tell nobody except Anthony Tommasini is calling for blind auditions to go away. His position position is just weird and using it to represent the opinions of most of the left is more than a bit disingenuous.

estearum 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You know you can't just put one topic into the grievance bucket (science funding), shake it around, then pull out a different topic (orchestral hiring practices) and expect to have a conversation, right?

MemoryHoleHQ 14 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

wredcoll 10 hours ago | parent [-]

So when are you going to talk about the scientific grants?

jyounker 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]