評論
打印
Racial discrimination in science
科學界也有種族歧視
A black and white answer
黑人，白人
In American science, race affects the chance of getting a grant
在美國科學界，種族影響得到撥款的幾率
YOU might expect that science, particularly American science, would be colour-blind.
也許你以為科學界、特別是美國的科學界是無種族歧視的。
Though fewer people from some of the country's ethnic minorities are scientists than the proportions of those minorities in the population suggest should be the case, once someone has got bench space in a laboratory, he might reasonably expect to be treated on merit and nothing else.
這個國家一些少數族裔的人當科學家的比例比那些少數族裔在人口中所占比例要小，盡管這個事實就暗示是又種族歧視的，但是一旦誰在實驗室獲得一席之地，他可能就期望憑借才能而非其他收到對待，這是合理的。
Unfortunately, a study just published in Science by Donna Ginther of the University of Kansas suggests that is not true.
不幸的是，堪薩斯大學的唐娜?金賽爾（Donna Ginther）剛剛在《科學》雜志發表了一篇研究論文，指出事實并非如此。
Dr Ginther, who was working on behalf of America's National Institutes of Health (NIH), looked at the pattern of research grants awarded by the NIH and found that race matters a lot.
曾代表美國國家衛生研究院（NIH）工作的金賽爾博士觀察了國家衛生研究院研究撥款的模式并發現種族的影響很大。
Moreover, it is not just a question of white supremacy. Asian and Hispanic scientists do just as well as white ones.
亞裔和西班牙裔科學家的情況和白種人科學家的一樣。
Black scientists, however, do badly.
但是黑皮膚科學家的情況很糟。
Dr Ginther and her colleagues analysed grants awarded by the NIH between 2000 and 2006, and correlated this information with the self-reported race of more than 40,000 applicants.
金賽爾博士及其同事分析了由國家衛生研究院在2000年到2006年間撥出的款項，并把這個信息同40000多申請者自報的種族做關聯對比。
Their results show that the chance of a black scientist receiving a grant was 17%.
結果顯示一名黑人科學家得到一筆撥款的概率為17%。
For Asians, Hispanics and whites the number was between 26% and 29%.
而亞裔、西班牙裔和白人科學家的概率則介于26%到29%之間。
Even when these figures were adjusted to take into account applicants' prior education, awards, employment history and publications, a gap of ten percentage points remained.
即使這些數字被調整以考慮申請人之前的教育水平、獲獎情況、工作歷史和發表出版情況，仍然有10個百分點的差距存在。
This bias appears to arise in the NIH's peer-review mechanism.
這種偏見似乎在國家衛生研究院的同行評審機制中出現。
Each application is reviewed by a panel of experts.
每一名申請人都要接受一組專家的審查。
These panels assign scores to about half the applications they receive (the others are rejected outright). Scored applications are then considered for grants by the various institutes that make up the NIH.
這些小組給他們收到的申請的一半打分（另一半直接被拒絕了）。再由組成國家衛生研究院的各所研究院考慮是否給被打分的申請撥款。
The race of the applicant is not divulged to the panel.
專家小組并不知道申請者的種族。
However, Dr Ginther found that applications from black scientists were less likely to be awarded a score than those from similarly qualified scientists of other races, and when they were awarded a score, that score was lower than the scores given to applicants of other races.
但是金賽爾博士發現黑人科學家的申請被打分的可能性比來自其他種族、條件相似的科學家的要小，而且如果他們獲得打分，分數也比其他種族的申請人的分數低。
One possible explanation is that review panels are inferring applicants' ethnic origins from their names, or the institutions they attended as students.
一個可能的解釋是審查小組通過申請者的名字、或是他們曾就讀的學校推測他們的種族。
Consciously or not, the reviewers may then be awarding less merit to those from people with "black-sounding" names, or who were educated at universities whose students are predominantly black.
無論是無意抑或有意，審查者也許給那些名字"聽上去的黑人"的人或是曾就讀于大多數學生都是黑人的大學的人更少的優待。
Indeed, a similar bias has been found in those recruiting for jobs in the commercial world.
商業世界的招聘也存在類似的偏見。
One well-known study, published in 2003 by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, found that fictitious CVs with stereotypically white names elicited 50% more offers of interviews than did CVs with black names, even when the applicants' stated qualifications were identical.
2003年，麻省理工大學和芝加哥大學的研究者發表了一份著名報告，發現如果他們編造的簡歷的名字是白人名字，那么收到的面試通知書會比名字是黑人的多50%，即使申請者陳述的資歷是一模一樣的。
Another possible explanation is social networking.
另一個可能的解釋是社交網絡。
It is in the nature of groups of experts (which is precisely what peer-review panels are) to know both each other and each other's most promising acolytes.
對于同在一組的專家們來說了解彼此和彼此最有前途的助手，這是人之常情（這也是同儕審查小組的實質）。
Applicants outside this charmed circle might have less chance of favourable consideration.
沒進入這個排外圈子的申請者也許得到優先考慮的概率要少一些。
If the charmed circle itself were racially unrepresentative (if professors unconsciously preferred graduate students of their own race, for example), those excluded from the network because their racial group was under-represented in the first place would find it harder to break in.
如果這個排外的小圈子本身在人種上是不具備代表性的（比如，如果教授無意識地偏愛他們自己種族的研究生），那些首先因為自己種族族群的代表人數不足而被排斥在這一網絡之外的人就會更難突破進去。
Though Dr Ginther's results are troubling, it is to the NIH's credit that it has published her findings.
盡管金賽爾博士的實驗結果令人擔憂，但是她的發現得以發表，應該歸功于國家衛生研究院。
The agency is also starting a programme intended to alter the composition of the review panels, and—appropriately for a scientific body—will conduct experiments to see whether excising potential racial cues from applications changes outcomes.
該機構還開始一項旨在改變審查小組構成成分的項目，而且——對于一個科學機構是合適的——將開展實驗以便證明是否透露申請者可能的種族身份會改變結果。
Other agencies, and not just in America, should pay strict attention to all this, and ask themselves if they, too, are failing people of particular races.
其他機構、不僅僅是美國的機構，應對此所有這一切予以嚴肅關注，同時捫心自問他們自己是否也不公正地對待某些來自特定種族的人。
Such discrimination is not only disgraceful, but also a stupid waste of talent.
這種歧視不僅是可恥的，也是對才能的愚蠢的浪費。
