5 ms·

Are you asking if statistics are racist or sexist?

by 1_2__4 9y ago

dogruck 9y ago
Are you implying that some sexes or races have superior (aka super) capabilities that others don’t have?
- kbart 9y ago
  Statistical fact: there's higher rate of naturally blonde people in Scandinavia than Africa. Do you find it racist/offensive too?
  - dogruck 9y ago
    No, it doesn’t offend me. I simply asked a couple questions (which are being downvoted). Maybe James Damore shouldn’t have been fired by Google?
    - Jill_the_Pill 9y ago
      You are (willfully) conflating biological characteristics with social ones. Statistically, more women are physically abused than men. Do we shrug and say, oh well, tain't nothin' you can do about it -- it's biology, like being blonde or a super-taster? Nevermind. Don't answer that. :(
    - sctb 9y ago
      Would you please stop posting such off-topic, blatant flamebait? We ban users who just come here to trash the discussions. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
kbart 9y ago
Off-topic, but sometimes statistics can certainly be deemed as "racist". For example, in many European countries it would not be tolerated to report crime rates by nationality. Not sure if it's illegal or falls under media self-censorship duty though.
- adjkant 9y ago
  The statistic is not the "racist" part. It's the context, which is usually reflective of other conditions that certain races are exposed to, often through racism, that leads to lower income levels, worse housing and neighborhoods from a sociology standpoint, and eventually increased crime rates. I suspect that the countries refrain from reporting crime rates by race because most people will not look at those deeper causes but take them to imply that race X is more delinquent than race Y. You see that type of logic all the time in the US. I would say the solution is to add that context to the statistics when reporting them instead of not reporting at all, but I don't think even whoever is choosing to not report the crime rates by race believes the statistics themselves are racist.
  - kbart 9y ago
    You are right, of course, statistics without context cannot possibly be racist (how could it be? it's just a bunch of numbers after all). That's why I said "deemed as" not "can be".

Are you asking if statistics are racist or sexist?

by 1_2__4 9y ago

Are you asking if statistics are racist or sexist?

dogruck 9y ago

Are you implying that some sexes or races have superior (aka super) capabilities that others don’t have?

kbart 9y ago
Statistical fact: there's higher rate of naturally blonde people in Scandinavia than Africa. Do you find it racist/offensive too?
- dogruck 9y ago
  No, it doesn’t offend me. I simply asked a couple questions (which are being downvoted). Maybe James Damore shouldn’t have been fired by Google?
  - Jill_the_Pill 9y ago
    You are (willfully) conflating biological characteristics with social ones. Statistically, more women are physically abused than men. Do we shrug and say, oh well, tain't nothin' you can do about it -- it's biology, like being blonde or a super-taster? Nevermind. Don't answer that. :(
  - sctb 9y ago
    Would you please stop posting such off-topic, blatant flamebait? We ban users who just come here to trash the discussions. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

kbart 9y ago

Off-topic, but sometimes statistics can certainly be deemed as "racist". For example, in many European countries it would not be tolerated to report crime rates by nationality. Not sure if it's illegal or falls under media self-censorship duty though.

adjkant 9y ago
The statistic is not the "racist" part. It's the context, which is usually reflective of other conditions that certain races are exposed to, often through racism, that leads to lower income levels, worse housing and neighborhoods from a sociology standpoint, and eventually increased crime rates. I suspect that the countries refrain from reporting crime rates by race because most people will not look at those deeper causes but take them to imply that race X is more delinquent than race Y. You see that type of logic all the time in the US. I would say the solution is to add that context to the statistics when reporting them instead of not reporting at all, but I don't think even whoever is choosing to not report the crime rates by race believes the statistics themselves are racist.
- kbart 9y ago
  You are right, of course, statistics without context cannot possibly be racist (how could it be? it's just a bunch of numbers after all). That's why I said "deemed as" not "can be".