Nobels stay unwoke
Wokeness is definitely on the way down since its maniacal peak in 2020-21, but it continues to grind on slowly through sheer institutional momentum. For example, the Democratic nominee for President is a black (and Asian) woman who was nominated for VP solely in Summer of George for reasons of Intersectionality and the Democrats are still stuck with her. Similarly, the MacArthur Foundation’s 2024 “Genius Grants” were still as silly as back as in the heyday of winners like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi.
On the other hand, the most prestigious cultural brand of all, the Nobel hard-science prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine), remain largely untainted by DEI: I may be jumping the gun, but after two of the 3 real Nobels have been announced, the 2024 winners have all been white men. Let this be an object lesson in how elites don’t have to let themselves be blown about by Hurricanes Ta-Nehisi, Ibram, and Robyn.
I agree that the demographics of recent Nobel winners are strong evidence that the Nobel committee is just doing its usual job, undisturbed by crazy fads, but obviously you can’t assume that women and non-white scientists who win a Nobel are DEI, that would be very irrational. The 2023 Nobel Prizes winners included two white women and one Tunisian man, and there is no good reason to think that they didn’t deserve their prizes. Also, in the future, you would expect to see more women and non-white winners, especially given how many elite Indian and East Asian scientists work at top universities in the US, plus you have the fact that countries like South Korea, China and India haven’t won many Nobels yet.
The reason the Nobel Prize probably won’t go woke is fear of the competition becoming more prestigious. I remember reading an interview with someone on the Nobel committee, where they were asked about diversity, and the answer was basically that they can’t award the Nobel Prize to someone who hasn’t done distinctive and important work, because otherwise the prize loses its cultural value. It turns out that if you put important cultural institutions in the hands of people whose priority is to maintain the prestige of those cultural institutions, you gain some protection. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, art museums and many other institutions in the West ended up in the hands of people who cared more about looking woke.
Young white men need to prepare for careers where there are still objective standards and bullshit walks.