If racists are ignorant, what is it they ignore?

Question

Was William Shockley, a scientific racist and nobel prize winner, an ignorant?

Please dont answer with circular arguments like "racists ignore that racism is bad" or something like that. Argument, prove your point!

Answer 1

Ignorance does not mean ignoring.... They arnt really, the same thing....? Maybe you should read the dictionary first?

Kay

Answer 2

I believe that "remember" nails it ... very well stated and quite factual.

For me, racists or sexists, or other "ists" and "isms" are ignorant of -or unlearned of- basic human nature ... that does not classify them as wholesale ignornats.  In fact, I'd say that if we held each other to the candle of all of life's wonders, wouldn't each of us -regardless of so-called IQ, esteemed prizes, and the like- be ignorant of one thing or another? Absolutely.

It's hard pressed to find racists (on average) among those who research and study fundamental human behavior -from anthropoligists to sociologists (I'm purposefully omitting psychologists and psychiatrists for this reply because some of Shockley's [to me] rather absurd claims regarding eugenics and dysgenic effects were based partyly on the works of psychologists arthur Jensen, Cyril Burt, and H.J. Eysenck).

Not taking anything away from Shockley's esteemed membership in the National Academy of Sciences (at the young age of 41), his professorship at Stanford, his 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics, or, for that matter his intelligence and inventiveness, he still was sufficiently blind to the core components of humanity.  In fact, I would argue that his actual brillence in the physical (hard) sciences severely hampered his ability to internalize the complexities of the social (soft) sciences.  Whether meaningful or not, Shockley was an atheist (That in itself can be a thesis).

He even said that his goal (in later life) was the "application of scientific ingenuity to the solution of human problems" (Shockley, William, and Pearson, 1992, p.48).

Whether Shockley was demonized -by critics, the media, and others- is not applicable in my estimation, and is certainly not an variable in consideration of my direct response to your ancillary question of "Was William Shockley, a scientific racist and nobel prize winner, an ignorant?"  In the absolute, no.

Answer 3

They ignore the fact that both good bad people come from all races, so saying that a persons physical features is what determines their personality and ultimately their inferiority, is racist. At it's core, ignorance is an error in logic. It happens when people assume all people that look the same act the same, when people are a product of their environment more than anything else.

Edit-The different human races are not as different genetically as a golden retriever and a rottweiler. If you want to use dog references it would be like comparing a dalmatian with a spot on its eye to a dalmation that doesn't have a spot on its eye. Or a black lab and a yellow lab. We are not different breeds of people, we have never been separated and selectively mated long enough to become so. Race is a social construction, not a biological one.

Answer 4

It doesn't matter how many Nobel prize you have won,or how low your I.Q is. If you are a racist you are ignorant to the fact that a person possesses more qualities and attributes than just race. Was William Shockley any smarter than the following non-white physicist who also won the Nobel prize?

Just a few names not all.

Luis W. Alvarez

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Tsung-Dao Lee

Chen-Ning Franklin Yang

Hideki Yukawa

as to your responses to the other posters:

"Racists don't say people who look the same act the same...Racists say that each individual is different but whole races, on average, are different both externally (obviously) but also internally"

-I have never seen or heard anybody say  my race is inferior to another race, it's usually the opposite  my race is superior to another race,the latter which would be what a Racists would say.... just because we look different externally doesn't mean we're any smarter or better as a group...And how exactly are we different internally...does a white man have one extra heart, or is  his blood a different color than that of a black man? If  I train a golden retriever and a rottweiler to sit,roll, and play dead how are their mindsets different how can I measure that...I seen chihuahuas stand up to rottweiler,the rott was friendlier than the viscious chihuahua does that mean every rott is going to be friendly..I think not

I would be IGNORANT to think so