Who Made You An Expert?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Jean-Claude Chauvin, and Syukuro Manabe. All of these people are considered pundits or experts in their careers/respective industries. They have PhD, wrote books, have done seminars, been on tv, and have done all types of shit. But the question is: How does one become an expert on something? Who determines the standard for how one becomes an expert? And, is an expert determined by social stratification (i.e racism, classism, sexism, etc). Let’s delve into and find out.
What is an expert?
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, an expert is a “a person having a high level of knowledge or skill in a particular subject.” As stated in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a person who is considered an expert “[has], [involves] or [displays] special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.” The key words here are “training” and “experience.” With that being said, based on that definition, as long as one has training or experience in something, technically they can be considered an expert. So since when did somebody need to have 4 PhDs, written 8 books, and a podcast to be an expert? Because last time I checked, there’s people who have plenty of influence and a large following who have significantly less than that. I mean, look at our last president. He had no political experience whatsoever and he has a following like a cult. But, I digress.
With all this information in mind, is it possible that the process society uses to deem one as an expert could potentially be biased? If I told you that you were going to a seminar that was led by an expert in astrophysics, what do you think the expert would look like? Would they be a man or a woman? What race would they be? Would they be an American? Would they have been educated at Stanford or University of Phoenix? Would they wear glasses and a white lab coat? Or would they just be wearing jeans and a t-shirt? Got an idea, yet? Good. So whatever image came into your head, think about how your mind created that image? What does this image mean and what does it tell you? More importantly, what potential biases might it tell you?
Does an expert have to be a man? Could it be a black man or a Native American woman? Could it be someone who speaks with a Non-European accent? Could it be someone without a university degree? Think about it and I’ll let you decide. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.