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The 'Human Computer' Behind the Moon Landing Was a Black Woman (thedailybeast.com)
Reader bricko writes: The 'Human Computer' Behind the Moon Landing Was a black woman (video). She calculated the trajectory of man's first trip to the moon by hand, and was such an accurate mathematician that John Glenn asked her to double-check NASA's computers. To top it off, she did it all as a black woman in the 1950s and 60s, when women at NASA were not even invited to meetings. And you've probably never heard of her. Meet Katherine Johnson, the African American woman who earned the nickname 'the human computer' at NASA during its space race golden age.
I'm curious, was there supposed to be a link in the summary?
A link to an interesting and relevant story about Katherine Johnson...
Or were we supposed to just Google or Wiki her?
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
and what good did that do to her and women or minorities in general?
Was the discrimination of that time suddenly removed?
Dont get me wrong, it is not that I mind women or blacks in STEM, but it seems that many believe that if only there were more of those in STEM, suddenly all their problems would go away.
I think this story is proof that employment in science or technologies and equal rights do not automatically go hand in hand.
And if that is true, then the opposite must also be true: just because most engineers and scientists today are white males does not mean that it is because women are oppressed in these fields.
It's interesting how quickly what was a job title for someone, became so quickly a term used solely the device. Where in the 1940's a "computer" was someone who did math, then by the 1960's, someone who did the same job as her peers 20 years prior was given that as a nickname. http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/hist...
I be fair, I couldn't name anyone else on the Apollo engineering team, either.
I have no doubt they have good intentions writing this, though. But still.
Good for who did during .
That way we can get all the outrage and praise in all at once.
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
There was a pool of women (and men) at NASA who were ALL referred to as "computers". NASA didn't start using electronic computers for flight dynamics calculations until 1962, and continued to rely on the pool to crosscheck the electronic calculations until 1984.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Margaret Hamilton wrote the on-board flight software.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
To me, all of them are great scientists, regardless of race.
Is it really necessary to bring the racial component into this?
She is a brilliant woman who was instrumental in our space program. Isn't that enough?
All I can think is if she's going to be remembered because of her work at NASA /or/ that she just because she was a black woman. In other words, would this video, this article, her popularity, etc etc, exist if she were not a black woman? Hmm.
Except when someone non-white does something, in which case we need to have the race or skin colour shoved in our face.
Not true. A black female student won a prestigious prize in New York City. Fox News ran the story without showing her picture. Everyone else showed her picture. Go figure.
All that headline leave out is the exclamation mark at the end. Why is it that we have to express such astonishment over the fact that a *black woman" (OMG!) calculated trajectories.
Or is this less about this competent mathemetician's imopressive accomplishments, or it is to, yet again, wring our little hands over the injustice of modern society and how terrible we should all feel about how bad we are?
The latter, I think
Yes, but if you call it "Melanin-Opulence-Impairment Subjects Television", then you'll just make everyone uncomfortable.
Long way to go to make that joke, I know.
Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.
Isn't it racism? As in, Fox News didn't want people to know that a black female student won a prestigious prize in New York City?
If she had been a man, we wouldn't have heard of him a lot either.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
We have B.E.T. (Black Entertainment Television) on cable tv, but if someone made W.E.T. you can bet it'll be called racist.
We already do. It's called Spike. :p
While you're at it, how about 'Lifetime: Television for Women'? For that matter, in a world ostensibly full of equality, and race/gender/sexual orientation blindness, do we need special programming for {insert special interest group here}? Because we live in a world full of racism, bigotry, sexism, and inequality-in-general, that's why. If we actually lived in a world without those horrible qualities, we wouldn't have the vast majority of the problems of the world in general that we're seeing right now, either.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
If she could get so good at math back then, why anyone should be able to do it now, right? We don't need to worry about the so-called education gap or take a bunch of extra steps to help black people overcome so-called obstacles because obviously if she was able to do it then, it should be much easier for even less skilled people to do it now.
OK, googled around a bit more. There's no "hello world" because it's a CASE tool--design abstractly in the GUI, dump out in the language of your choice.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Isn't it racism?
Fox News doesn't want to disturb their audience with the idea that black people are smart. Or even capable of being the President of the United States.
I guess this would be a lot more impressive if we had actually gone to the moon in the 60's. But it's a nice feel good story and helps perpetuate Nixon's myth.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I mean, if you are bold enough to spout racially regressive ideology, maybe attach your mostly anonymizing screen name to it. Many of the Anonymous Coward comments in this thread are part of the reason why the accomplishments of minorities and women continue to be seen as remarkable. Racism and sexism are endemic within tech industries, they are part of what drive the high turnover rate for minorities. I for one, choose not to work in private industry as I don't find the casual racism that exists there conducive to my quality of life. You ACs want to tell us one more thing about the negro?
>"the African American woman who earned the nickname 'the human computer' at NASA during its space race golden age."
There are probably a number black women as well as European American women, and all kinds of people people of all races, creeds, religions, sexual orientations, etc behind all the workings of NASA that we have never heard of before.
These days it is patronizing but back then I imagine it was fairly remarkable but, maybe not. Looking into this, many of the "computers" back then were women. What I do find slightly offensive is the notion that she was "black". The woman appears more caucasian than african but our society treats anyone with even a smattering of african blood as "black". This strikes me as deeply racist.
Someone did make W.E.T.
It's called "television". It took about half a century before a black face showed up on television who wasn't playing a sport. And the only reason they were allowed in sports is because they were so much better than white players it was starting to get a little embarrassing to keep them out.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Fox News is a lot of things but racist isn't one of them.
i think i need to get my eyes checked :P
that women would pass as white anywhere
"life is a joke, and someone is laughing at me"
Actually it IS amazing that a person who is BLACK and a WOMAN could get into such an important position back in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Today we recognize it as foolish and stupid to prejudge someone’s abilit to DO MATH (for instance) on the basis of gender or skin color. But back then?
What this tells us is that she’s fucking awesome, more awesome than you and me. She’s so awesome that people at NASA in an era that only valued white men simply were unable to deny the level of her skill. To break through the prejudice required that she have skill way beyond what a white male would have needed to get into the same job.
So yeah. Kudos to this woman for her intelligence, skill, and persistence in an era that would have otherwise begrudged her a job as a toilet cleaner.
It is supposed to be inspirational.
Of course, it reads like a morality play about the evils of segregation, so instead of inspiration, we keep having to be reminded of how some smart woman who clearly did a lot of important work, got constantly screwed over because she was black and a woman but somehow managed to do work anyway.
If this is the inspiration that women and blacks of today are reading, it's no wonder they're mad and disenchanted. Would I have gotten into IT if everyone told me that I would have to be a brave pioneer to do so? Fuck, no. I got into IT because I liked it, and no one discouraged me through horror stories of what it was like.
Would you have gone into whatever field you were in if someone kept telling you that they had to be super brave just to deal with trying to get a job like you're looking at?
Sometimes I think these "role-model" stories are written more like cautionary stories that play up the drama of being segregated. Perhaps you don't need the black face of someone who had to struggle through their field to actually do it. Maybe if you told a story of someone who simply enjoyed their work, white or black, you would have a role model and an example that would be encouraging, rather than discouraging.
You know, when I read an article like this, I am more emotionally moved to become a Freedom Rider than I am be to become a physicist.
White Entertainment TV (W.E.T.) is all of the channels that are not B.E.T.
First television broadcast in the US started in 1928.
African Americans were quite common on TV from the beginning, and by 1939 the Ethel Waters Show featured Ethel Waters, a black entertainer, headlining and starring in her own TV variety show. So 11 years from the first broadcast to the first regular show starring blacks. That's a bit shorter than 50 years...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I remember those days. Used to crash into the suface all the time playing lem.bas on a teletype. Glad she was better than me.
Said some bored high school student on the internet. So jeezuz christ! It muse be trues!
Now this was written by a bored high school student.
However, the incident was true. Unfortunately, I can't provide a link. A Google search returns too many recent results for Fox News and racism.
"Amos and Andy"
kek
You are welcome on my lawn.
Common, my ass. It was a minstrel show. Black people to entertain white people. You find many people in dramatic series? Comedy shows besides Amos & Andy (played by two white guys on radio, by the way). How 'bout a Playhouse 90?
If it comforts you to think of yourself as not racist, I don't care. But just be aware that your counter-examples just draw a big underscore under your bigotry.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Maybe you should read the article:
She had to play a fucking servant and Waters herself was ashamed of the role, but needed the work.
Your example exemplifies why there is a B.E.T. And it exemplifies your bigotry.
You are welcome on my lawn.
These days it is patronizing but back then I imagine it was fairly remarkable but, maybe not. Looking into this, many of the "computers" back then were women. What I do find slightly offensive is the notion that she was "black". The woman appears more caucasian than african but our society treats anyone with even a smattering of african blood as "black". This strikes me as deeply racist.
As to whether she's black I'd ask if she self-identifies as black.
As for the focus on female humans computers and her race you can be certain in a Hollywood movie based on the moon landing the mathematicians calculating the orbits would either be absent from the script or a bunch of white guys. It's exactly what people mean when they talk about "whitewashing" in Hollywood, these stories are important to point out that even in the past there were prominent women and minorities.
I stole this Sig
YMBNH. This site is an all-you-can-eat buffet for trolls. It's like the frickin' Golden Corral around here.
I can see the fnords!
Are you aware how racist and ignorant this comment makes you? If you actually believe this nonsense, I feel sorry for you.
Unfortunately none of the "offended by the obvious racism" will understand what you pointed out.
Worse yet, the article is obviously false because everyone at NASA was racist and sexist so it is impossible that any woman or other "minority" was ever hired.
Now days we know there were no black teachers, lawyers, scientists, inventors, or doctors when the Americans fought the war of independence from England.
It wasn't until Linden Johnson became president, right?
No brain, no pain.
a black woman in the 50s had the proverbial snowballs chance in hell of doing what she did. It's speaks volumes to her genius that she wasn't shut out.
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As to whether she's black I'd ask if she self-identifies as black.
I think the more significant question is whether the bus drivers in Virginia identified her as black.
http://www.visionaryproject.or...
When I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, I had a fair number of black teachers.
My favorite biology teacher was a young black woman who had worked as a lab technician. She taught me how to breed fruit flies and grow bacteria. That kind of favor, you don't forget.
I've also known a fair number of blacks who were successful in science and engineering.
I had a housemate in college who was studying chemical engineering. Never got to know him. He was always studying.
I remember a black guy who was working as a computer operator, stuff like changing tapes and printer paper. He heard about a job for a programmer. He got the programming manual, read it all night, lied about his qualifications, and started programming. He pulled it off. Brass balls. I really have to admire that.
In some ways, there was less racism back then. Blacks, Jews. Italians, Irish, Polish, men, women, they all worked together. If you knew calculus and electronics, you got respect. Unfortunately, identity politics tore everybody apart. The Southern backlash didn't do any good either.
Although at the time, computing was not necessarily a prestigious career choice. Ie, the job of doing computation by hand. It was often repetitive and rote. Those people with prestige figured out the algorithms or problems to be solved and then used the answers for their own work. The viewpoint at the time was probably like comparing an accountant to a mathematician. This is not to diminish what this person did of course.
In the 50's "Computer" was a job title.
Yes, large organisations had "computer pools" and "typist pools", both were almost exclusively filled with women. Even during the 70's when I went to HS, boys were not offered typing lessons because "boys don't grow up to be typists". Computers (of the human variety) were in very high demand during WW2 to compile artillery tables, the same job that first electronic computers were put to work on.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I knew that they had faked the moon landing and that Stanley Kubrick had been enlisted by Nixon to help win the space race against Russia but now you're telling me that rather than have a real computer plot the course they just used a black woman?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
We're not allowed to talk about race or skin colour because that's racism.
Says who?
It's just a historic fact that white people tend to have not had to overcome racism. Some have of course, and there are stories about them, from historical figures travelling the world to modern day rappers. But it's just a fact of history that in our societies, in the history that matters most to us, non-whites were treated pretty badly. When this woman was born signs saying "whites only" were perfectly legal and not uncommon.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
when I went to HS, boys were not offered typing lessons because "boys don't grow up to be typists".
Funny story TC, I asked and asked because I spent so much time on a keyboard. I got my way, they thought I was crazy going to a class room to learn to type. I was surrounded by lots of very hot young ladies, mum was proud, my mates were jealous, I got better typing on computers and yes I went there - it was fucking awesome.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
The problem with this kind of reactionary response is that it completely misses context. We already know that their is an unconscious bias towards white males in western society, it's been demonstrated time and again, and it even applies to the views of people who aren't white males themselves (black Americans do worse in tests when they've been asked to state their ethnicity in advance for example). We don't know exactly why this is, but it is widely believed amongst people who study this that it comes down to people expecting what they've experienced in the past. So in this case we've heard comparatively little about important black and important female mathematicians but plenty about important white male mathematicians so we unconsciously expect that to be true in future. A story like this, taken positively rather than defensively as a threat, can help adjust those unconscious biases.
So in short we should have these kinds of things shoved in our face. We already have white male success shoved in our face constantly: 96/100 Senators are white, 95% of S&P company CEOs are men, and so on and so forth. Highlighting the odd capable black woman doesn't concern me as a white male, the worst thing it might do is remove some unfair advantage I'm getting due conscious/unconscious bias and I don't want or need that to compete thanks.
And so do I. Now, for the sake of the thought experimentation, let's imagine we have a second scenario. Same color, however exactly opposite academic and professional achievements. No achievements or accomplishments, to be precise.
All of the sudden, discussing about racism and underprivileged becomes acceptable. To me, that is the real racism.
As if women of color are not capable of making decisions. They are more than capable and there are a lot of inspiring examples, let's start from Madam C.J.Walker ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... )
WET sounds like more a porno channel to be honest.
that said, "white entertainment tv" already exists: it's known as nearly every other channel and show .
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
He's right.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
pay up, twat.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
What do they actually show on BET, and what kind of equivalent would you put on WET that isn't already served by the rest of the channels?
Best I can tell, the other scientific discoveries just change the origin location - e.g. rather than Africa 50,000 years ago, it was Australia 80,000 years ago. etc.
I disagree. If there was an article about how a black woman *now* did something, it would be sort of how you described it, because duh, who cares, it's not news that someone of a gender and skin color did something noteworthy, there's nothing stopping them.
But that is because we've come a huge way since the 50s, when there were absolutely *loads* of things stopping them, which absolutely does make this story interesting, newsworthy, and impressive, because back in those days, women and black people were overtly, majorly disenfranchised in pretty much every possible way. Two totally different things.
The headline implies it is hard to do anything significant as a black woman.
... in other words, misanthropes.
Or else why do they think this is newsworthy?
SJWs aren't just anti-white. They're anti-black, anti-hispanic
The Jeffersons represented 3/7ths of the primary cast on All in the Family in the early 70s, and they put George Jefferson in condescending role of successful small business man with a college-educated son and stay-at-home wife. Then when George 'hit the big time' he moved on 'up to the east side' and 'got himself a piece of the pie' - and his own show. And of course, let's not forget 'Good Times' - another shuck-and-jive blacksoitation tv series. Wasn't Garret Morris one of the Original 'Not Ready For Prime Time Players' on SNL? That show started in the mid 70s also. And of course, Sanford and Son was nothing but black vaudeville actors and the top comedian of his day, Fred Foxx. Gawd, blacks were so under-represented on TV in the 70s.
So, here's the thing. Yes, there are racial institutional barriers in the US. However, they alone don't explain why blacks still have a much higher poverty rate than whites do. Black immigrants from Africa tend to do pretty well for themselves - not as well as white immigrants, generally speaking, but better than black Americans.
Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
These days it is patronizing but back then I imagine it was fairly remarkable but, maybe not. Looking into this, many of the "computers" back then were women. What I do find slightly offensive is the notion that she was "black". The woman appears more caucasian than african but our society treats anyone with even a smattering of african blood as "black". This strikes me as deeply racist.
The only vestiges of racism, eg, Black vs White vs Asian vs native American is with the USA. The rest of the north/south American continent sees some wonderful humans and even family. I look at friends as people who are kind, generous, helpful, and with good humour. My friends and I see no colour.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
People have no idea today. I remember when there used to be a separate bathroom for whites and blacks. Often a separate water fountain. As if black people were animals or had something contagious or something. I remember asking about it. The grown ups would just say shush. They didn't want to even discuss it. I knew something awful was going on.
I can remember communities that were gated off. No blacks or Jews. The gates came down in the 1970s.
Jim Crow, etc. Those were policies of the Democrats in the south. Look it up, Governor Wallace, etc. President Eisenhower (Republican) sent in the Army to allow black kids to go to a white school in the south. Imagine that, they had to send in the army because people were scared of a few black children. When JFK came to power he had a few WTF moments with the Democrats in the south as well. Hitting adults and children with water canons and attack dogs. No kidding, they really did that.
Some people decided to blow up a few black churches in the south, with people in them. I can't imagine how they would think that was a good idea.
So many people aren't aware of this and other things that happened, not that long ago.
For the Men and Women that were black and overcame this stuff, that's really a tribute to them. As with successful people of other races, it should uplift black people. They really can make something of themselves. So many think that being born black is like a terminal disease. They'll never be anything, they'll always get cut down, so why even try. Do drugs, do crimes, go to jail, that's normal. I've heard it many times.