Coleman Hughes: evaluation

Transcript context

…As you probably know, a disproportionate share of American CEOs are quite tall. How do you feel about “lookism”? Lookism is another one where I would feel — it’s not that I don’t think it’s an injustice of some kind. It’s that I would feel silly spending very much time trying to budge that particular variable, because I don’t think it’s that budgeable. I’m not saying it’s not movable at all. I would argue that, for instance, in my view, attitudes towards racism have changed pretty dramatically in the past 50 years — in the past 100, certainly. I don’t know that attitudes towards lookism have, and that leads me to believe that lookism might be something more like closer to a constant. Whereas attitudes towards race are fairly influenceable by, let’s say, those of us who are in the marketplace of ideas. I don’t want to exaggerate our influence as a whole profession, but I would feel somewhat silly trying to budge variables that might not be very budgeable. We worry sometimes that blacks in America face more lookism, even from people who would not typically be considered racist, but when they meet a black person, they really pay more attention to the looks. Obama once said when he was president, “When I’m on TV, the one thing I can’t do too much is to get angry.” You look very friendly. You are very friendly; I know you. How would things have gone for you if you looked more savage? Do you think blacks in America face more lookism?…

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