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This is: EA and tackling racism , published by Sanjay on the AI Alignment Forum.
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As I write, the world is gripped in shockwaves of hurt and anger about the recent death of George Floyd and the issue of racism.
And many are asking what effective altruism (or EA) has to say about this (see here, or here, or here)
I have engaged with the EA community for many years, but I don't consider myself an authoritative voice on effective altruism.
I am a non-white person living in a predominantly white country, but I don't consider myself an authoritative voice on racism.
But I wanted to share some thoughts.
First of all, let's just acknowledge that the EA community has been -- in its own way -- fighting against a particular form of racism right from the earliest days of the EA movement.
What greater racism is there than the horrifically uneven distribution of resources between people all because of an accident of their birth? And how disgusting that some of the worst off should be condemned to death as a result?
Is not the obscene wealth of the developed world in the face of tractable, cost-effective ways of saving lives in the developing world wholly unjustifiable if we were treating people as equals, regardless of where they are, and regardless of the colour of their skin?
I still find this argument compelling. And I would encourage the EA movement to be proud of what it has done, proud of the hundreds of millions of dollars already moved in an expression of global solidarity to people around the world.
But in some ways this argument feels insular.
Is EA really all about taking every question and twisting it back to malaria nets and AI risk?
Those of us who, like me, have spent most of their lives in the UK and are old enough will remember the name of Stephen Lawrence. And for those of us, like me, who have spent a substantial chunk of their lives in charities in South East London, his name will have followed us like a ghost.
For those who have sensed or lived systemic racism, I do think that the EA way of thinking has something to offer. And something more than “donate to the Against Malaria Foundation”.
In this post, I set out some thoughts. I would love to have provided good solutions, like "this is the best place to donate" or "this is the best thing to do" but the range of existing thoughts on this topic is too broad and complex for me to be able to do that now.
I think the most important thing that an EA mindset has to offer is this:
EA is not just about finding the right answers, it's about asking fundamental questions too.
The effective altruism movement is unusual. Not only do EA-minded people answer questions like "what is the best way to improve global health" (finding the right answers). The EA approach also poses questions like "what is the best cause area to tackle, is it global health, or is it existential risk, or is it something else?" (asking more fundamental questions).
At first glance, asking the more fundamental questions about cause prioritisation risks subverting our goal. We may conclude that tackling an intractable thing like systemic racism isn’t really the best bang for your buck, and then we’re back to turning everything into malaria nets again.
On second glance, it's clear that EA does have something to offer.
For example, someone who cares about animals would be encouraged by an effective altruist to consider the different "sub-causes" within the animal cause area, and provided data and arguments about why some are much more effective than others.
So in that vein, here are some thoughts about tackling systemic racism as seen through (my interpretation of) an EA lens.
These thoughts will raise more questions than answers. My hope and intention is that these are good, useful questions.
Before I get started, just an observation: achieving chan...
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