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There's a single counter-example that I think demolishes this entire line of thinking, and it is the rise of "Asian privilege". If Western power structures are

by cal5k 8y ago

There's a single counter-example that I think demolishes this entire line of thinking, and it is the rise of "Asian privilege". If Western power structures are inherently racist, they sure dropped the ball on immigrants from the Asian continent (who, by the way, were in recent history pressed into indentured servitude to build railways). There are no longer any laws on the books that discriminate against people based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation. So certainly there are no legal barriers. So if your narrative is that there is still systematic racism it's really incumbent on you to provide a factual basis for that claim - and, quite frankly, the evidence is sorely lacking. If you were to remove race from the equation and simply group people by socioeconomic factors like wealth, family composition and attitudes about education, you're likely to find that a middle-class white, black, or Hispanic child has similar chances of success at birth (assuming they belong to a complete family unit with positive views on the value of education). Remove a father from the equation and, regardless of race, their prospects dim considerably. Race is highly visible, but for the same reason that academic research on the link between IQ and race is shunned I think it's a terrible proxy for comparison of groups.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> There's a single counter-example that I think demolishes this entire line of thinking, and it is the rise of "Asian privilege". No, it doesn't. > If Western power structures are inherently racist They are. > they sure dropped the ball on immigrants from the Asian continent They didn't. > who, by the way, were in recent history pressed into indentured servitude to build railways. Recent Asian immigrants were not; Asians several generations ago were (many of whom were later expelled.) Yes, recent Asian immigrants are above average in many respects. So are recent sub-Saharan African immigrants. Of course, current immigrants and those whose family immigrated in the last couple generations are a lot more of the Asian population in the US than of the population of sub-Saharan African descent. > There are no longer any laws on the books that discriminate against people based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation. Yes, there are, and moreover sexual orientation and gender identity are not included in many laws against private discrimination in public accommodations.) And on top of that, there are many laws which discriminate in ways (particularly geographic) that are tightly associated with race.)
- cal5k 8y ago
  >> There's a single counter-example that I think demolishes this entire line of thinking, and it is the rise of "Asian privilege". > No, it doesn't. >> If Western power structures are inherently racist > They are. I'm sorry, but the null hypothesis is more likely unless you can provide compelling evidence to the contrary. Repeating the same thing over and over again doesn't make it true. And the standard is this: show how specific "power structures" discriminate against people based on race in ways that are not attributable to other factors. For example, if the effect is largely explainable by poverty, then your hypothesis has not been proven (even though it may point to another issue).
deleted 8y ago
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by cal5k 8y ago

dragonwriter 8y ago

> There's a single counter-example that I think demolishes this entire line of thinking, and it is the rise of "Asian privilege". No, it doesn't. > If Western power structures are inherently racist They are. > they sure dropped the ball on immigrants from the Asian continent They didn't. > who, by the way, were in recent history pressed into indentured servitude to build railways. Recent Asian immigrants were not; Asians several generations ago were (many of whom were later expelled.) Yes, recent Asian immigrants are above average in many respects. So are recent sub-Saharan African immigrants. Of course, current immigrants and those whose family immigrated in the last couple generations are a lot more of the Asian population in the US than of the population of sub-Saharan African descent. > There are no longer any laws on the books that discriminate against people based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation. Yes, there are, and moreover sexual orientation and gender identity are not included in many laws against private discrimination in public accommodations.) And on top of that, there are many laws which discriminate in ways (particularly geographic) that are tightly associated with race.)

cal5k 8y ago
>> There's a single counter-example that I think demolishes this entire line of thinking, and it is the rise of "Asian privilege". > No, it doesn't. >> If Western power structures are inherently racist > They are. I'm sorry, but the null hypothesis is more likely unless you can provide compelling evidence to the contrary. Repeating the same thing over and over again doesn't make it true. And the standard is this: show how specific "power structures" discriminate against people based on race in ways that are not attributable to other factors. For example, if the effect is largely explainable by poverty, then your hypothesis has not been proven (even though it may point to another issue).

deleted 8y ago

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