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I'll be very happy when everyone can just stop worrying about what race everyone else is. I understand the issue, but at what point does it sound ridiculous to

I'll be very happy when everyone can just stop worrying about what race everyone else is. I understand the issue, but at what point does it sound ridiculous to even use the term minority when there are 1B+ Chinese and not much less Indian descendants around the world? In the tech world it is certainly ridiculous. Trying to micro-categorize who is a minority in what context has to qualify as some sort of vanity.

AndrewKemendo 11y ago
>I'll be very happy when everyone can just stop worrying about what race everyone else is. Technical discrimination and preference heuristics (Racism) is the default function of the mind. That this crosses over from thought to action in the form of policy is a function of our social systems, like everything else. It can't be solved with the wetware we have, it's a feature not a bug. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies-t.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies-t.html?_...
vilda 11y ago
Minority/minor is political term. Women are declared minority even though they outnumbers men. It's related to something recently called victimhood culture[1]. Declaring yourself as minor brings you advantage. [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-victimhood-culture/404794/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise...
- gozo 11y ago
  People are minorities in different settings. Women are a minority in tech, men are a minority in day care. I'm not sure I follow you last two sentances. You think victimhood culture makes you the victim of other peoples advantages?
jasode 11y ago
>, but at what point does it sound ridiculous to even use the term minority when there are 1B+ Chinese The 1 billion global number is not relevant because both the titles of the article and the post submission are about "U.S. minority" and not "global minority". The asian population at 4.8% of the USA is mathematically a minority. >Trying to micro-categorize who is a minority in what context has to qualify as some sort of vanity. The minority classification isn't about vanity in this case. The article isn't about Asians not represented as masculine leading actors in Western films or paraded as a prized husband-to-be for girls in The Bachelor. It's about admissions to Ivy League schools which has economic consequences. Minorities are complaining about unfairness (real and/or perceived).
- bsdpython 11y ago
  Everyone is a minority in some context was part of my point. In this particular case, by vanity I meant the admission officers, politicians and other people pushing an agenda to help "underrepresented" groups ABC at the expense of XYZ.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- happyscrappy 11y ago
  But the success of Asians/Indians kind of disproves the narrative that it is all about class. They come with nothing, live in the same poor neighborhoods and are so successful that they are discriminated against to promote diversity on campus.
  - mazerackham 11y ago
    There's no immensely cruel and systematic oppression of Asians/Indians over centuries. While things are fair for Asians yet, I'm talking specifically about SLAVERY. Then after that Jim Crowe law and other terrible forms of oppression. And then even now, there's incidents like Ferguson, being made readily apparent by our new age of record-anything technology. So yea, while I started up growing up in the poorest neighborhoods, black neighborhoods, my situation was not the same as my neighbors. My parents had a college education. They had no debt or drug problems, and did not end up incarcerated. I didn't grow up with people thinking I'm dangerous or about to steal something. Interesting thing is that as our situation improved slowly to upper middle class by the time I graduated high school, my surroundings got less and less black, and more and more white. It's too simplistic for us to judge the poor, when we do not truly understand their situation.
crimsonalucard 11y ago
The title may refer asians as a minority. However, while asians definitely aren't a minority in the context of the world, they still are a minority in the context of the united states and Europe. All of that, however, is completely irrelevant of the issue. What is the issue? Vanity? No. The issue is racism. When a race delivers quantitative metrics that beats other races out of the water, what does it mean? When black people dominate in basketball and athletics does it mean their race is genetically and physically superior to others? When asians dominate academically does it mean asians are genetically more intelligent? I don't know the answer to these questions. It may be that asians just work harder... but I do know one thing: All races are NOT equal. Political correctness states that although races look different, all races are otherwise equal. Although this idea permeates the cultural reality of the United States, there is no logical universe where this makes sense. If races look different, then the possibility of other metrics being different is a logical induction. What does this mean? The implications are scary. Historical mistreatment of black people have made this concept a very touchy issue in the united states. While it is of my personal opinion that asians are academically successful mainly due to hard work, I do believe that the heart of the issue that articles like this discuss is this: We live in a culture where we are taught that all races are equal, this is not the logical reality and subconsciously we all know it. It's what causes the discrimination in the first place and it's what causes defensive comments like this to be posted.
- fennecfoxen 11y ago
  > All races are NOT equal. Political correctness states that although races look different all races are equal. If we want to be all philosophical about it we'd say that people of all races must be equal under the law or that they are all endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights or something like that.
  - dudul 11y ago
    > all races must be equal under the law So... the opposite of affirmative actions, right?
- ryanmonroe 11y ago

AndrewKemendo 11y ago

>I'll be very happy when everyone can just stop worrying about what race everyone else is. Technical discrimination and preference heuristics (Racism) is the default function of the mind. That this crosses over from thought to action in the form of policy is a function of our social systems, like everything else. It can't be solved with the wetware we have, it's a feature not a bug. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies-t.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies-t.html?_...

vilda 11y ago

Minority/minor is political term. Women are declared minority even though they outnumbers men. It's related to something recently called victimhood culture[1]. Declaring yourself as minor brings you advantage. [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-victimhood-culture/404794/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise...

gozo 11y ago
People are minorities in different settings. Women are a minority in tech, men are a minority in day care. I'm not sure I follow you last two sentances. You think victimhood culture makes you the victim of other peoples advantages?

jasode 11y ago

>, but at what point does it sound ridiculous to even use the term minority when there are 1B+ Chinese The 1 billion global number is not relevant because both the titles of the article and the post submission are about "U.S. minority" and not "global minority". The asian population at 4.8% of the USA is mathematically a minority. >Trying to micro-categorize who is a minority in what context has to qualify as some sort of vanity. The minority classification isn't about vanity in this case. The article isn't about Asians not represented as masculine leading actors in Western films or paraded as a prized husband-to-be for girls in The Bachelor. It's about admissions to Ivy League schools which has economic consequences. Minorities are complaining about unfairness (real and/or perceived).

bsdpython 11y ago
Everyone is a minority in some context was part of my point. In this particular case, by vanity I meant the admission officers, politicians and other people pushing an agenda to help "underrepresented" groups ABC at the expense of XYZ.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

happyscrappy 11y ago
But the success of Asians/Indians kind of disproves the narrative that it is all about class. They come with nothing, live in the same poor neighborhoods and are so successful that they are discriminated against to promote diversity on campus.
- mazerackham 11y ago
  There's no immensely cruel and systematic oppression of Asians/Indians over centuries. While things are fair for Asians yet, I'm talking specifically about SLAVERY. Then after that Jim Crowe law and other terrible forms of oppression. And then even now, there's incidents like Ferguson, being made readily apparent by our new age of record-anything technology. So yea, while I started up growing up in the poorest neighborhoods, black neighborhoods, my situation was not the same as my neighbors. My parents had a college education. They had no debt or drug problems, and did not end up incarcerated. I didn't grow up with people thinking I'm dangerous or about to steal something. Interesting thing is that as our situation improved slowly to upper middle class by the time I graduated high school, my surroundings got less and less black, and more and more white. It's too simplistic for us to judge the poor, when we do not truly understand their situation.

crimsonalucard 11y ago

The title may refer asians as a minority. However, while asians definitely aren't a minority in the context of the world, they still are a minority in the context of the united states and Europe. All of that, however, is completely irrelevant of the issue. What is the issue? Vanity? No. The issue is racism. When a race delivers quantitative metrics that beats other races out of the water, what does it mean? When black people dominate in basketball and athletics does it mean their race is genetically and physically superior to others? When asians dominate academically does it mean asians are genetically more intelligent? I don't know the answer to these questions. It may be that asians just work harder... but I do know one thing: All races are NOT equal. Political correctness states that although races look different, all races are otherwise equal. Although this idea permeates the cultural reality of the United States, there is no logical universe where this makes sense. If races look different, then the possibility of other metrics being different is a logical induction. What does this mean? The implications are scary. Historical mistreatment of black people have made this concept a very touchy issue in the united states. While it is of my personal opinion that asians are academically successful mainly due to hard work, I do believe that the heart of the issue that articles like this discuss is this: We live in a culture where we are taught that all races are equal, this is not the logical reality and subconsciously we all know it. It's what causes the discrimination in the first place and it's what causes defensive comments like this to be posted.

fennecfoxen 11y ago
> All races are NOT equal. Political correctness states that although races look different all races are equal. If we want to be all philosophical about it we'd say that people of all races must be equal under the law or that they are all endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights or something like that.
- dudul 11y ago
  > all races must be equal under the law So... the opposite of affirmative actions, right?
ryanmonroe 11y ago