

R.I.P. David Blackwell - yarapavan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/education/17blackwell.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=david%2520blackwell&st=cse

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jmount
Incredibly great quote from the article: “Basically, I’m not interested in
doing research and I never have been,” Professor David Blackwell said. “I’m
interested in understanding, which is quite a different thing. And often to
understand something you have to work it out yourself because no one else has
done it.”

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rman666
That is an amazing story. It should remind us all of how ridiculous society
can be, especially when it comes to denying advancement to a truly talented
person simply because of their race. Thank you for submitting this to HN.

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jeb
Thank goodness we live in the now. Imagine all you want to do is study
mathematics, and people are constantly pushing you here and there because of
the color of your skin.

Equality really is a great thing.

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jacquesm
Racism is still _very_ much alive today, yes, thank goodness we live in the
'now', but there is lots of work to be done in this respect, and skin colour
is unfortunately not the only factor that people will use to discriminate.

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mturmon
The following is probably the best-known result bearing his name:

<http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Rao-Blackwell_theorem>

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wheels
Tangentially related, _The Souls of Black Folk_ , by W.E.B. Du Bois, the first
black American to have gotten a PhD. from Harvard, is not only a great window
into the struggles of black Americans in the generation after the Civil War,
but also some of the finest writing in the English language:

 _I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm
in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in
gilded halls. From out the caves of evening that swing between the strong-
limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and
what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor
condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is this the life
you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into
the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this
high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?_

<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Souls_of_Black_Folk>

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amichail
Why is it acceptable to mention his race at all in an article like this?

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tshtf
Dr. Blackwell was born in 1919. If you are unaware, at this point in US
history there was both de facto and de jure segregation in the United States.
As the article states, he was initially denied an invitation to become a
faculty member at both Princeton and Berkeley due to his race.

Although society is more colorblind today, the United States was a racially
biased society for most of its history, and most of Dr. Blackwell's life.

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amichail
But maybe he would want to be remembered for his academic accomplishments
only.

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tshtf
Sure.

But the historical context of his achievements is an important part of his
life story.

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c1sc0
Especially working for RAND with his background.

