Stephen Black stated: > It is both politically correct and accurate that a textbook cover > picture of an athletic event should show a black woman beating a > white. So why does the cover of Gazzaniga's textbook depict the > opposite?
Hmmm. I am not aware of the athletic event that is depicted on the cover of Gazzaniga's text, but if it were a running event, the following would apply. If you consult the world rankings in women's track and field in the Track and Field News, http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/archive/rankings/womenworldranking.html you will find there are 12 running events (I am not counting the 20K walk--my own specialty). Black women dominate 5 of the events (100 meters, 100 meter hurdles, 200 meters, 10,000 meters, and the Marathon). Other ethnic groups (6 Caucasians and 1 Hispanic) lead the way in the other 7 events (400 meters, 400 meter hurdles, 800 meters, 1500 meters, 3000 meters, 5000 meters, and the Steeplechase). If you attended a world-class track and field event, and watched all of the women's running events, what order of finish would you see most often? Let us all hope that students contemplate what is inside the text more than what is on the cover--which may depict something realistic. Chuck *********************************** Charles M. Huffman, Ph.D. Chair, Psychology Department Cumberland College, Box 7990 Williamsburg, KY 40769 (606) 539-4422 ************************************ > -----Original Message----- > From: Stephen Black [mailto:sblack@;ubishops.ca] > Sent: Friday, October 25, 2002 6:25 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences > Subject: (Fwd) Re: Gazzaniga's Intro text > > > Michael Sylvester wrote: > > > > > I have just received in the mail an ad for > > > Michael Gazzaniga's Intro text.Now I dig this > > > dude's past and current writings.But the picture > > > on the cover of the new text depicts an atheletic > > > event with a white chick coming first and the > > > the black chics placing second and third respectively. > > > With the dominant role of blacks in competitions > > > like this,there seems to be something wrong with > > > this text cover. > > And Paul Smith replied: > > > Something's wrong all right, and Nancy hit it on the nose several > days > > ago when she wrote: "Consider yourself challenged. You buy into way too > many > > stereotypes and make far too many unsupportable and offensive statements > > Well, I really don't enjoy my apparent role as an apologist for Michael > Sylvester, > but it does seem to me he has a legitimate beef here. > > Some time ago I witnessed one of the most grievous goofs in posting > I've ever seen. Someone accidentally posted to another list a private > letter from his textbook co-author suggesting how they could improve > sales. The level of cynicism was astounding. One of the least > objectionable was the suggestion that they should add a woman as co- > author on their text, not to do any writing, but only so that it > would boost sales. > > It is both politically correct and accurate that a textbook cover > picture of an athletic event should show a black woman beating a > white. So why does the cover of Gazzaniga's textbook depict the > opposite? Nothing that the people who market textbooks do is by > chance. So someone undoubtedly made a deliberate decision to choose > this particular depiction. Why? Did someone do market research and > decide this would sell more books? > > Don McBurney is a respected textbook author, and I'm sure he wouldn't > do anything shabby just to increase sales. But perhaps he has some > insight into how textbook publishing works that might account for > something like this. If he's still here, of course, and I hope he is. > Or perhaps Michael should ask Michael (Gazzaniga) how this came to > be. I'd like to know too. > > -Stephen > ______________________________________________________________ > Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 > Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 > Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 > Canada > > Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy > TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at > http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips > _________________________________________________________ > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
