PLEASE READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE BEFORE STARTING JUDGING!!!
Let's start with the purpse of this post. Among 1700 chess grandmasters there are only 40 women and 3 blacks. This is not a result of personal preferences, or biological inferiority, but only, and only of cultural discrimination.
chessdelta.com/how-many-chess-grandmasters-are-there/
amp.theguardian.com/sport/2021/nov/29/womens-chess-sexism-misogyny
There are many places, where such cultural discrimination has lead to race, genred and sexual orientation disproportions, such as certain jobs, universities, etc. The ultimate solution to these disproportions are affirmative actions: actions that lead to equality and recompense cultural discrimination of certain groups. If you have doubts about it, please read an article below, which debunks ten popular myths about affirmative actions:
www.usf.edu/compliance-ethics/equal-opportunity/ten-myths-about-affirmative-action.aspx
This is an article from academic site, which is pretty reliable. Let's go through it:
Myth 1. The only way to create a color-blind society is to adopt color-blind policies.
This is not true. If some groups are being discriminated we need to compensate this discrimination to achieve true equality. I'm also not stating that these minorities need our help because they "are inferior" - they aren't, we need affirmative actions, because they are discriminated.
Myth 2. Affirmative action has not succeeded in increasing female and minority representation.
Affirmative actions are the most successful way to fight racism/sexism/etc. You can't deny it.
Myth 3. Affirmative action may have been necessary 30 years ago, but the playing field is fairly level today.
Cultural discrimination is still a problem - that's the only way to explain race disproportions on top. If you think that black have worse ratings than whites, because they are less intelligent, then you are a racist.
Myth 4. The public doesn't support affirmative action anymore.
Over 80% of Americans support some forms of affirmative actions and almost 63% support "reverse discrimination".
Myth 5. A large percentage of White workers will lose out if affirmative action is continued.
Not true. There are only 2 millions unemployed blacks and over 100 millions emplyed whites - so affirmative actions in worst cases are going to take away job from only 2% of whites, which is a small price for equality.
Myth 6. If Jewish and Asian Americans can rapidly advance economically, African Americans should be able to do the same.
Jews and Asians emigranted to America as doctors,
engineers, proffesors etc. African American race has a lot darker history in US.
Myth 7. You can't cure discrimination with discrimination.
Affirmative actions are not discrimination and (wait for it) they really work. Reverse discrimination - a radical form of affirmative actions also cures discrimination to some degree.
Myth 8. Affirmative action tends to undermine the self-esteem of women and racial minorities.
Not true - these reactions are rare and affirmative action usually increase their self-esteem.
Myth 9. Affirmative action is nothing more than an attempt at social engineering by liberal Democrats.
Affirmative actions are supported both by democrats and republicans.
Myth 10. Support for affirmative action means support for preferential selection procedures that favor unqualified candidates over qualified candidates.
Only most radical affirmative actions do that. Most of affirmative actions favorizes minories, from groups that have equal skill and education (or in thiss case - chess skill).
Now you see that affirmative actions help minorities, they don't discriminate anyone and they don't lower self-esteem of minorities. You also see that chess society discriminates certain groups making for them harder to compete with not discriminated groups, and therforce - they lead to huge disproportions on the top. What you to do now is just add 2 to 2. As you can see - affirmative actions are a necessarity in chess world, and as lichess is a huuuuge part of it, many of these disproportions happen also here. We need to take some effort to fight against them. Here are my propositions, it's called "a 5 for minorities":
1. FROM NOW: lichess should make more posts about minorities in chess, women in chess and discrimination. Indeed, they actually started doings this, they just have to do much more this kind of posts: lichess.org/@/totoroo/blog/the-inherent-homophobia-and-transphobia-in-the-chess-community/xmvEz0iy, lichess.org/blog/Xtz5iBAAACMASQAf/black-lives-matter. These are small things, but we need to do this.
2. FROM SEPTEMBER 2022. Tournament arenas only for titled women (WGM, WIM, WNM, etc) and for only casual women players. FIDE actually already organised some tournament like this, to support women in chess. We also should make similar tournaments for blacks only, because this minority is very underrepresented in chess.
3. FROM 2023. A tiny rating boost for women, blacks and minorities. This may at first sound ridiculous, but the rating doesn't need to be huge - it can "only" be 2% - 3%. You won't even notice it, but for example: in case of a women with 2000 rating it will increase it by about 50 and will make male and female rating equal. This kind of affirmative action for some of you will be barely noticeable, but for collective - it's critical for equality.
4. FROM 2024. Adjusting rating algorithm to make it harder to gain rating after certain level for whites and males (for example 2800): another barely noticeable change, that will lead to more equality on the top. This also may sound ridiculous, but in reality: the top is the place where the most disproportions occurs. There are tens times more GM males than females and such small change can make a huge impact on this disproportion. It really should be considered.
5. FROM 2025. One year after the last chace has been applied, the rating is finally equal for males, females, whites, blacks, etc. Lichess has become the first online chess platform, which treats all genders and races equally. This should be shown in lichess logo: the last chance will be small - the lichess logo should contain some pro-equality text, as "We thread all genders and races equally, we don't discriminate anyone, and we don't allow for cultural discrimination!"
As I already stated - most of you aren't going to see much difference - the rating boost for minorities needs to be only a few percent and gaining rating harder for males should be applied only to top fraction of percent. That's a very small price for equality, the equality that we all need. LICHESS, PLEASE SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THESE CHANGES.
Peace.
Let's start with the purpse of this post. Among 1700 chess grandmasters there are only 40 women and 3 blacks. This is not a result of personal preferences, or biological inferiority, but only, and only of cultural discrimination.
chessdelta.com/how-many-chess-grandmasters-are-there/
amp.theguardian.com/sport/2021/nov/29/womens-chess-sexism-misogyny
There are many places, where such cultural discrimination has lead to race, genred and sexual orientation disproportions, such as certain jobs, universities, etc. The ultimate solution to these disproportions are affirmative actions: actions that lead to equality and recompense cultural discrimination of certain groups. If you have doubts about it, please read an article below, which debunks ten popular myths about affirmative actions:
www.usf.edu/compliance-ethics/equal-opportunity/ten-myths-about-affirmative-action.aspx
This is an article from academic site, which is pretty reliable. Let's go through it:
Myth 1. The only way to create a color-blind society is to adopt color-blind policies.
This is not true. If some groups are being discriminated we need to compensate this discrimination to achieve true equality. I'm also not stating that these minorities need our help because they "are inferior" - they aren't, we need affirmative actions, because they are discriminated.
Myth 2. Affirmative action has not succeeded in increasing female and minority representation.
Affirmative actions are the most successful way to fight racism/sexism/etc. You can't deny it.
Myth 3. Affirmative action may have been necessary 30 years ago, but the playing field is fairly level today.
Cultural discrimination is still a problem - that's the only way to explain race disproportions on top. If you think that black have worse ratings than whites, because they are less intelligent, then you are a racist.
Myth 4. The public doesn't support affirmative action anymore.
Over 80% of Americans support some forms of affirmative actions and almost 63% support "reverse discrimination".
Myth 5. A large percentage of White workers will lose out if affirmative action is continued.
Not true. There are only 2 millions unemployed blacks and over 100 millions emplyed whites - so affirmative actions in worst cases are going to take away job from only 2% of whites, which is a small price for equality.
Myth 6. If Jewish and Asian Americans can rapidly advance economically, African Americans should be able to do the same.
Jews and Asians emigranted to America as doctors,
engineers, proffesors etc. African American race has a lot darker history in US.
Myth 7. You can't cure discrimination with discrimination.
Affirmative actions are not discrimination and (wait for it) they really work. Reverse discrimination - a radical form of affirmative actions also cures discrimination to some degree.
Myth 8. Affirmative action tends to undermine the self-esteem of women and racial minorities.
Not true - these reactions are rare and affirmative action usually increase their self-esteem.
Myth 9. Affirmative action is nothing more than an attempt at social engineering by liberal Democrats.
Affirmative actions are supported both by democrats and republicans.
Myth 10. Support for affirmative action means support for preferential selection procedures that favor unqualified candidates over qualified candidates.
Only most radical affirmative actions do that. Most of affirmative actions favorizes minories, from groups that have equal skill and education (or in thiss case - chess skill).
Now you see that affirmative actions help minorities, they don't discriminate anyone and they don't lower self-esteem of minorities. You also see that chess society discriminates certain groups making for them harder to compete with not discriminated groups, and therforce - they lead to huge disproportions on the top. What you to do now is just add 2 to 2. As you can see - affirmative actions are a necessarity in chess world, and as lichess is a huuuuge part of it, many of these disproportions happen also here. We need to take some effort to fight against them. Here are my propositions, it's called "a 5 for minorities":
1. FROM NOW: lichess should make more posts about minorities in chess, women in chess and discrimination. Indeed, they actually started doings this, they just have to do much more this kind of posts: lichess.org/@/totoroo/blog/the-inherent-homophobia-and-transphobia-in-the-chess-community/xmvEz0iy, lichess.org/blog/Xtz5iBAAACMASQAf/black-lives-matter. These are small things, but we need to do this.
2. FROM SEPTEMBER 2022. Tournament arenas only for titled women (WGM, WIM, WNM, etc) and for only casual women players. FIDE actually already organised some tournament like this, to support women in chess. We also should make similar tournaments for blacks only, because this minority is very underrepresented in chess.
3. FROM 2023. A tiny rating boost for women, blacks and minorities. This may at first sound ridiculous, but the rating doesn't need to be huge - it can "only" be 2% - 3%. You won't even notice it, but for example: in case of a women with 2000 rating it will increase it by about 50 and will make male and female rating equal. This kind of affirmative action for some of you will be barely noticeable, but for collective - it's critical for equality.
4. FROM 2024. Adjusting rating algorithm to make it harder to gain rating after certain level for whites and males (for example 2800): another barely noticeable change, that will lead to more equality on the top. This also may sound ridiculous, but in reality: the top is the place where the most disproportions occurs. There are tens times more GM males than females and such small change can make a huge impact on this disproportion. It really should be considered.
5. FROM 2025. One year after the last chace has been applied, the rating is finally equal for males, females, whites, blacks, etc. Lichess has become the first online chess platform, which treats all genders and races equally. This should be shown in lichess logo: the last chance will be small - the lichess logo should contain some pro-equality text, as "We thread all genders and races equally, we don't discriminate anyone, and we don't allow for cultural discrimination!"
As I already stated - most of you aren't going to see much difference - the rating boost for minorities needs to be only a few percent and gaining rating harder for males should be applied only to top fraction of percent. That's a very small price for equality, the equality that we all need. LICHESS, PLEASE SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THESE CHANGES.
Peace.
