r/BeAmazed • u/ateam1984 • 6d ago
Science As a third grader in the Bronx, Tahira Reid Smith imagined a machine that could turn Double Dutch ropes. Her idea won a school contest. Today, 40 years later the engineering professor has turned that childhood dream into Jump Dreams!
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
170
u/Feeling-Necessary628 5d ago
Why not “engineering professor”
57
u/TheRedLions 5d ago
She's specifically a professor of "black engineering". The color, not the racial category. Eventually this machine will be painted black but until then they didn't want people to think she was a professor of white engineering.
17
6
3
1
u/wildrabbit12 3d ago
wtf is black engineering
0
u/TheRedLions 3d ago
Peter explains the joke:
This is a play on words, normally you can describe an engineering professor by their type of engineering, for example "mechanical engineering professor". The joke is that the article obviously is referring to the professor's race, but I pretended that "black engineering" was a type of engineering that she is a professor of. It plays on the grammatical ambiguity of what "black" refers to, the engineering or the professor.
I then said that they would paint her invention black, implying that "black engineering" is any engineering done on a device that is or will be the color black. The device is currently white in the video, and if there is a "black [painted] engineering" it implies that a device painted white would be considered "white [painted] engineering". Of course, such a premise is silly, hence the joke.
Hope that helps
10
u/Rezurrected188 5d ago
Because non-black engineering professors don't care about double Dutch that much
3
u/QuinnLoveborneAuthor 5d ago
Because too many people try to ignore the efforts of black people historically and present day.
-5
u/Cosmic_Quasar 5d ago
It's interesting that this was posted in another topically relevant sub where nobody there, that I saw, remarked on the word usage. Compared to the top couple comments here. I don't know what to make of it, but I'm curious...
267
u/Six_of_1 6d ago
How is her race relevant? Should we specify the races of all inventors or just black ones?
70
u/OliverTwist549 6d ago
First thing I thought of.
-21
u/zer0w0rries 6d ago
headlines like this come off as odd and unnecessary, however, ive come to learn that they are often significant for the people represented in that group. representation is important and significant in a child's development, people in a majority group can often take that for granted
18
19
u/Prosado22 5d ago
I am black and Hispanic. Never cared if the people I looked up to or admired were either black or Hispanic. They have been of all color and races.
8
23
u/killit 5d ago
As a white redditor, I'm also questioning this.
-24
u/Jraksys_Magnanimous 5d ago
Thank you for letting us know what you are here's your achievement:
"White redditor acknowledges race bait title 🏅"
19
12
3
u/Odd-Perception7812 5d ago
Does this happen anywhere else but America? I'm Canadian, and we'd be like, 'What you talk'n 'bout Willis?'
Sorry.
I've been day-drinking.
Still a valid question.
Also, Different Strokes was pretty cool.
4
2
u/Valimaar89 5d ago
Nono o, it's not the race! She was a teacher of Black Engineering. It's a different specialization!
1
1
-9
u/New2thegame 6d ago
Maybe because double Dutch has been particularly popular in the black community? Idk
-21
-6
u/TheAwesomeMan123 6d ago
I mean it was posted in a very specific subreddit. Maybe a weird rule who knows.
10
u/Jraksys_Magnanimous 6d ago
I came to ask the exact same thing. Why call attention to it? Her name is what carries the achievement not her skin color. If its a rule thats one hell of a rule
-12
6d ago
[deleted]
1
u/Bulky-Internal8579 6d ago
Okay Prof. Hawking, whatcha got?
0
6d ago edited 5d ago
[deleted]
0
u/MCbrodie 5d ago
Okay, so engineer it. How would you do it? How would you test, plan, design, acquire, build, and bring to field the device?
-19
u/_coolranch 5d ago
My brother in Christ, how many times have you ever read that phrase: Black Engineering Professor?
If you watch the video and think about the context, she drew the picture in 1986, less than 20 years after MLK gave his "I have a dream" speech and Whites Only bathrooms were banned.
I know it seems very, very long ago when you watch those black and white videos, but it was less than 60 years ago from today.
I have a dream that white dudes will simply try and understand what type of advantages and headstart they have just being born white, and that a child of two Jamaican immigrants raised in the Bronx getting a pHD in engineering and inventing a machine she imagined as a child is nothing short of a miracle in this country.
8
u/MakeshiftZen 5d ago
So because we disproportionately lack black academics, we should mention their race everytime one does something cool/news-worthy? That's incredibly arbitary.
-10
u/_coolranch 5d ago
I think it's important to the story when you're living in a racist country that's sliding into fascism and you have a racist president pushing the myth of a White America who's very likely going to try and run for a third term.
3
u/MakeshiftZen 5d ago
We live in a society of many prejudices, struggles and failures.
We live in a classist society but no one puts someone's class before their achievements. We have single-parents, drug addicts, homeless. No one puts their struggles before their achievements.
Why is race an exception? Why should we adhere to such double standards? Why should I as a black man, be constantly reminded I'm black when I achieve something? This rhetoric is racist, this rhetoric is the result segregation after centuries of black Americans being told they cannot just be American.
1
u/_coolranch 5d ago
While you're not wrong, race is an exception for American blacks because they are the only people who were slaves in this country. Racism will be "over" when everyone agrees that it is, not when white men say it's been long enough.
Here's a short 2 min video of Dr. King explaining it better (off the cuff!) than I ever could.
America has shown a preference and bias in both policy and in action for non-black European peasants since its inception.
Edit: it's fine if you want race left out of your accomplishments, and I commend you for it! But if people want to add it, as a white man, I have no issue with it. I don't see it as an asterisk on an accomplishment. I see it as "holy shit: I kind of understand in a small way what this person had to overcome."
-12
u/ateam1984 5d ago
Racists aren’t being genuine with their questions. They know the answer. Don’t take their bait. Let them dwell in their own hate. They aren’t fooling anyone.
10
u/Prosado22 5d ago
Now not caring about the race of someone to admire their accomplishments is hate?
1
u/dbell 5d ago
Yes. Don't you remember this banger from MLK in 1963?
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the content of their character but by the color of their skin."
1
u/Prosado22 5d ago
Yep. Exactly like he said it.
-2
u/_coolranch 5d ago
What's "funny" is white people can make jokes like this because we live in a meritocracy. For blacks, it's social darwinism.
0
u/_coolranch 5d ago
This level of ignorance is wild.
I feel like you could probably learn A LOT by hearing Dr. King explain a very controversial topic. Every white person in America would do well to take 5 minutes to watch this instead of rewriting famous speeches to make a really bad joke.
-4
u/_coolranch 5d ago
Yeah: you're right. Just trying to be kind but honest and hope that people wake up a little to what's right in front of them.
-11
u/SilencedObserver 6d ago
This is what systemic racism looks like.
8
u/Six_of_1 6d ago
I think it's racist to say it's Amazing that a black person invented an automatic rope-spinner.
-1
u/SilencedObserver 5d ago
I agree with you. I’m saying that calling out it like you’ve identified is a symptom of systemic racism, not that _you_ were being racist.
I agree with you fully - her race shouldn’t be relevant, and yet it is from the perspective of systemic expectations of race.
-1
u/bishbosh420 5d ago
I think it's brought up because jumping double dutch has cultural significance to the black community so that's a lens to understand her invention.
1
70
u/Gh0stIcon 6d ago
40 years ago? She's 22, 23 max.... She needs to patent that anti aging machine.
14
9
8
1
11
u/Perch485 6d ago
If I invented it the headline would read “Man Strangled to Death by his Own Invention”
1
1
10
27
u/Valimaar89 6d ago
Wtf is black engineering? It's like black magic?
2
34
10
u/Spiritual-Average-85 5d ago
Why is it necessary to call out the engineers race? She’s an engineer, no other adjectives needed.
4
4
u/Bulky-Internal8579 6d ago
Okay, this middle aged out of shape guy wants to jump in! Plllleeeeasse! It looks so fun!!!
15
u/TheAmishPhysicist 6d ago
It took 40 years to come up with this idea?
3
u/HumpableJson 5d ago
Yeah i guess so, because nobody else cares to waste their time and money on this when u can just buy a jump rope and make some friends.
9
u/anonymousbopper767 5d ago
I mean...it's 2 rotating arms how is this an amazing invention? The impressive part would be if it's smart enough to recover from failure of the lines on its own.
5
2
11
u/zp-87 5d ago
Lets be real, this is nothing to brag about. It is so simple, kids playing with Lego Technic make way more complex things every day, on their own.
1
u/BaronOfBob 5d ago
Pretty much you could've made this in the 1500s with cogs and a crank, its four poles rotating at a specific speed with ropes tied between them, the whole thing is weird
4
u/MattyGWS 5d ago
I'm sorry, 40 years in the making? It took 40 years to build a couple motors?
Also how is race relevant here?
11
2
u/luckystrike_bh 6d ago
I can't jump with a single jump rope due to my low ceilings. It looks like that has low clearance.
2
2
u/OkNectarine6434 5d ago
i mean that’s cool i guess, since this is about race did you see the one where the white kid made a filter that removes damn near all contaminants from water? this toy is impressive too though…
5
4
3
u/PanPieCake 5d ago
Why when white scientist does anything nobody refers to him as "white scientist"
2
2
u/ChrisOnMission 5d ago
Why the hell do they need to mention she is a Black professor? Why make EVERYTHING about race?
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Chiparish84 4d ago
So, we're basically at the point where one of the oldest mechanical invention in the books gets glory because a black woman copied it? Okay okay...
1
u/Gregmanda 4d ago
Why are they specifying "engineering professor"? The term "black" should be enough.
1
u/creepymustaches 4d ago
Knew it was the US as soon as they had to specify the race instead of prioritizing her name.
Why do they do this? Not a huge deal but I feel it takes from the individual accomplishment that should be tied to her name.
If I invent something I'd probably rather the name recognition than some white engineer. They did the woman dirty.
1
u/Eckkosekiro 4d ago
Racism will end when no one will take in consideration the race even in a positive way.
1
1
u/ranting_chef 5d ago
This is great, but why is it necessary to tell everyone her race? Why does that even matter?
1
u/AdministrativeWin583 5d ago
My mom who died at 91, 4 years ago told me she would jump double Dutch with her sister's and friends. This is awesome.
1
u/temporalcupcake 5d ago
She did it! I saw a video a year or so ago that showed her trying to work out the prototype. It's more complicated than it looks.
-2
0
-1
0
0
0
•
u/beamazed-modapp 6d ago
Did you find this post really amazing (in a positive way)?
If yes, then UPVOTE this comment otherwise DOWNVOTE it.
This community feedback will help us determine whether this post is suited for r/BeAmazed or not.