Favorite Things: Confirmation (Anti)Bias

Woke commentators and many of my friends (who are all woke, lol) have astutely pointed out that the vast majority of the Les Bleus players have African heritage.  It's so conspicuous that France has been dubbed the Africa's "sixth" World Cup team.  We can thank colonialism, obvi. 

These observations about colonialism as inseparable from France’s talented team are true. Like American Slavery, it was a Big Bang type event. And like slavery, most of us (including me) are more ignorant than knowledgeable of the personal experience, systemic ramifications and historical reverberations. Yet there is more to the story, for even after slavery and colonialism ended, history kept happening. There has there been, of course, some movement towards justice and rectification.  


But a word to the woke: it is also really, really important for us to remember this post-history also includes new forms of unjust or non-benign action (not to mention bald oppression here and there) that we ought to learn about. I think you could say these assertions spring from an almost desirous confirmation bias.   Sometimes in the process of being justified in subverting mainstream accounts we lose some curiosity, over laser finger-pointer loses loses some precision.

On this score, Ezra Klein just made this really good video, "Why France Produces the Most World Cup Players."  It is informative about the post-colonial history of France and the development of soccer talent there. It reminder to stay curious, going beyond ready answers.

Also, this piece in the Washington Post by Karen Attiah who acknowledges the "#RootingForEverybodyBlack sentiment" while tripling down and going way past the mere assertions of colonialism.

Let's stay adopt a bit of confirmation (anti)bias and stay curious, because if you stop looking for new folds in your ball of truth, you might just fall asleep.