Personal essays
What we get when we choose from a smaller pool
Power
During the years when I was in grad school, the other PhD students in math were from Russia, China, Japan, Greece, and Iran.
Other Americans came and went - many with masters - but I was the first to finish in, I believe, a decade.
I wasn’t that special - it was more that I was stubborn and didn’t leave when a smarter person would have.
As hard as I worked, I didn’t work as hard as the students from other countries. I also hadn’t had to sacrifice as much as they had to be there and jump through as many hoops.
The summer before school began, the man who would become my advisor ran a weekly session to help get three of us up to speed before the real work began. We worked through an undergrad text in Real Analysis known as “Baby Rudin”.
At the end of the summer, one of the students decided not to come back for the fall.
“But you’ve signed a contract,” the head of the math department told her.
“In my country,” she answered, “a woman’s signature means nothing. We can’t sign contracts.”
Gender
Until two weeks ago, Lisa Franchetti was the USA’s Chief of Naval Operations serving on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
She’d been in the Navy for dozens of years, spent a decade commanding ships and since was promoted to increasingly critical appointments including commander of the US Sixth fleet.
You know those people who say, “I don’t see race” or “I don’t see gender”?
They’re lying. We all see race. We all see gender. It’s what we do when we see it that matters.
Franchetti was not promoted because she was a woman. In fact, I’d bet that there were times in her career when she wasn’t promoted because she was a woman.
Go ahead and see that she’s a woman, but also see the years and years of experience.
You don’t throw all of that away because she’s a woman.
Forty years of experience to make a four star admiral.
And yet, that’s exactly what Pete Hegseth did when he relieved her of her duties. Not because of her qualifications, but because she is a woman.
“She”, “Her” - it turns out pronouns matter.
Restrictions
When I was in graduate school, the Russian student was also Jewish.
He said that when he was applying to undergraduate schools in Russia, the top students applied to multiple universities. Getting in was very competitive and this widened your chances of getting in somewhere and gave you options if you got in to multiple places.
He explained that the rules were different for Jewish students - at least at the time he was applying. They were only allowed to apply to one school each year. This meant that it was very difficult for Jewish students to be admitted to a university.
But, he said, this had an unintended consequence.
It meant that the only Jewish students that got in were very talented and so the top students in math and science at many universities were often Jewish. This was not at all what the government wanted.
When you make it difficult for some subset of people to rise through the ranks, only the best of them do.
Race
Until two weeks ago, Charles Quinton Brown, Jr. was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Before that he’d been the chief of staff of the US Air Force appointed, believe it or not, by Donald Trump in his first term as president.
You can’t look at Brown and not see that he’s black.
“Content of his character,” you quote, “you’re not supposed to see color.”
Content of his character, I agree, and forty years of service. But you can’t look at him and not see that he’s black.
Sure he was a fighter pilot who rose up through the ranks.
In fact, when Trump nominated Brown to be chief of staff of the Air Force, he “became the first African American to lead a branch of the US Armed Forces.”
I mention Trump twice to dispel any rumors that Brown was a so-called DEI hire.
Brown was not promoted because he’s black.
And yet, Pete Hegseth, and underqualified person who was only made Secretary of Defense because he’s both white and a man, has dismissed Brown because he’s black.
How do I know?
Because the person that’s been named to replace Brown is so underqualified - not in theory but in actual requirements for the job - that he’s going to need a congressional waiver to be appointed.
It reminded me of my Russian friend and how the system had made it so difficult for some people to rise through the ranks, only the best of them do.
Nothing becomes great if we remove the best and replace them with folks whose qualifications are loyalty, gender, and race,
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 258. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe