Is it anti-semitic to note that Aspergers strikes Jews disproportionately? Is it anti-semitic to note that the kind of overcharged computer brain of the sort Summers has very often goes hand-in-hand with a pathological level of social awkwardness? Is there something to the argument that "character" and social grace -i.e., the qualities that WASPs prided themselves on having when they ran the world (and excluded Jews from their clubs) - is equally, if not more, important as a determinant of success in leadership positions? If we're all different, is it ok to make jokes about the differences? What does it all mean?
 

"Is it anti-semitic to note that Aspergers strikes Jews disproportionately?"

No.

"Is it anti-semitic to note that the kind of overcharged computer brain of the sort Summers has very often goes hand-in-hand with a pathological level of social awkwardness?"*

Yes.

"Is there something to the argument that "character" and social grace is equally, if not more, important as a determinant of success in leadership positions?"

Probably -- unless it's being made by someone who thinks Jews have less access to the qualities of 'character' and social grace. Such people should not speak in public.

"If we're all different, is it ok to make jokes about the differences?"

For you, no. In fact, you should not be speaking in public.


Standing Eagle
 

Ergo I think Jews have less access to character and social grace? If so, how do you account for my kippah?
 

Meh. The point is that dealing in stereotypes is never good for society, especially when there is an invocation of concepts invented in the past to reinforce exclusivities. If you *define* 'character' as "that thing only WASPs used to have," you're trafficking in stereotypes that (in other hands) reinforce anti-Semitism.

Glad you're not actually an anti-Semite, though, cuz I was initially simply appalled.

Standing Eagle
 

Richard, Were you the first to report that the possibility of Summers having Aspergers was being widely discussed at Harvard?
 

If indeed Summers has Aspberger, is this a reason to mock him? should it disqualify him for leadership?

How is this disability different from a muscular distrophy? from a visual impairment? from a speech disorder? Last time I checked laws protect individuals with those disabilities and we have made progress to the point where we can see their strengths of these individuals beyond these obvious differences.
 

There's a very serious indictment in Watson't paper. Where is Harvard's wealth going? not to pay the faculty!

"Harvard salaries must once again be much higher than those of serious competitors. To get stars, you need to offer star salaries. The best of academia no longer will come to Harvard because it is Harvard. No one goes into scientific research to get rich, but nor does one undertake it to evade the comforts of life. Living close enough to Harvard Yard to enjoy its ambiance and diversions is now beyond the means of new Harvard appointees with families unless the faculty salary is matched by another of the same magnitude. Paying top salaries is well within the means of the largest university endowment on earth—provided that the almost Soviet-style fantasy of the Allston expansion, at present envisioned to cover the area of 25 football fields, is abandoned. The creation or restoration of a great scientific institution is not a matter of real estate development. Science that leads over the horizon depends before anything else on gathering the best minds and enabling them to do what the best minds naturally seek to do: pursue the most thrilling questions of the times. Such minds inevitably draw their like, and the rest takes care of itself."
 

Did you read the Boston Globe last Sunday? Which are the next moves? More new deans?

First Moves: Drew Faust, Harvard's new president, appears to be ruffling few feathers with her first major administrative appointments.

Among the changes: Michael Smith, a computer science and electrical engineering professor and former associate dean, became dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, taking over from an acting dean. Historian Robert Darnton replaced Sidney Verba, who retired as university library director. Moshen Mostafavi, Cornell University's architectural dean, leads the design school starting in January, replacing Alan Altshuler. Jeff Flier is the new medical school dean, replacing Joe Martin.

"So far, so good," said professor Judith Ryan, a frequent critic of past president Lawrence H. Summers.
 

Why are you still writing about
Summers, Richard. Do you know there's a new President at Harvard and that her inauguration is next week?
 

"Faust will add an element absent from previous Harvard presidential installations—African drumming and a performance by Sangeet, a Harvard College South Asian music group—O’Neill added."

signify... signify...
 

3:44 PM has already been addressed but I feel compelled to point out again what a moron he/she is. Yes, character and grace are important to success. Assuming that Jews and WASPs are that different, which is generally considered to be nonsense, the Jews may well define a WASP's grace to be not so graceful just as a WASP may do the same to the Jew. Evidently you are of the view that your not-so-Jewish social skills are superior.
And here's what it all means: Maybe a Jew is less likely to be graceful in your book, maybe a woman is less likely to be a physicist, maybe a man is less likely to be a Lit professor, and maybe white men can't jump by and large, but that does not justify prejudice against an individual based on the characteristics of his/her group. You can READ THEIR RESUME or TALK TO THEM and find out who they are, it is almost never necessary to make an important judgment based on less data. The only difficulty I've ran into with this argument is a post on this blog last month by an angry parent of a female science student explaining, in so many words, that since scientific creativity can't really be measured in young people discouraging women from pursuing science under the hypothetical that they are more likely to lack said creativity will be hurtful to some. I personally believe that even if women are somehow shown to be marginally less creative in this way, it will be by an amount sufficiently minuscule that telling female high school students to make career choices based on this information would be totally ridiculous.
 

It's true, though. White men can't jump.
 

Interesting to know.