I almost preempted this argument in my comment! You are raising what I believe will be the spin for a lot of people. Ultimately I'll just say that intl. students enrich the intellectual experience and breadth within Harvard, for all students. But somehow I think that argument will fall flat for the people who are already trying to find justifications for this move.
Well if it was a decision made by Harvard after serious deliberation and years of prep one could try to argue in good faith about the possible positive effects. Since this seems to be retaliation by the current admin due to Harvard's resistance to turning over vast amounts of records on intl. students... I think people are being less optimistic. I am curious, what do you think is beneficial about this? Please feel free to offer your perspective as well.
It's setting your phone/screen to stop displaying color, instead just showing everything in greyscale. I believe that on Android you can currently set something like a bedtime for your phone that will stop displaying colors at a certain time, and if you have any time limits for apps then during the last minute before you run out of time it will turn grey too.
That's what seems odd? It's no more odd than aliens speaking English in the first place.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the language here is not only used to transmit the ideas in the story, but convey feeling. With the use of "meat" as a pejorative, you're supposed to understand the feeling of contempt and almost repulsion that these beings have towards us.
Or maybe life satisfaction has been going down for every gender because we live in a horrible system that asks too much of the individual? With women in the workplace now they also get to suffer under the stress of capitalism on top of also being expected to shoulder the majority of domestic and childrearing tasks in the household.
I don't see this as a "biology is destiny" issue, I see this as a women are still facing pressures from the past and facing pressures of the present.
Hmm, I would hope that you want to read books that challenge your way of thinking to strengthen your beliefs and help you examine them through a lens you haven't considered before.
I wish I could agree in good conscience that we are currently in a perfectly meritocratic system, but alas (sorry to drop another reference on you, I guess I just enjoy having evidence to point to for justifying my beliefs), there's many cases where minorities are being unfairly passed up on [0].
Regarding pulse oximeters... maybe, maybe not. Seems like it would be an interesting field of study, the research of the different levels of light absorption between skin with different melanin pigments, and whether tanning or genetics plays a bigger role. If only there was more funding for something like that, huh? :)
I would insist that you try to open up your worldview slightly and accept that sometimes having a team with more than just white men can be desirable and lead to better outcomes for the end product. Maybe bandaids are not the best example, but consider pulse oximeters[0].
There are many examples like this if you care to look for them. I would recommend the books Weapons of Math Destruction and Invisible Women for some very well done research on the way that you can codify human biases in processes that should neutral.
I would also personally recommend that you give an earnest try to understanding why so many people argue for diversity. A genuine attempt. Even if you don't fully change your mind on it I think you will find it easier to approach the world with a little more compassion for people who don't look like you.