5 ms·

Or - get this - he genuinely believes that and isn't playing some three-dimensional career chess contrivance.

Thorentis 6y ago
That's very likely. Nobody is immune from this trend. Despite his great accomplishments in a field in which you usually need a degree, he is now feeling guilty about how maybe he only achieved success because he was white. This is the 2020 version of imposter syndrome. Everybody feels imposter syndrome when they have unexpected success. This is the woke Twitter version of it.
- soared 6y ago
  Or he recognizes that part of his success came down to skin color alone. That a black person who took the exact same actions as him would’ve come out less successful.
  - Thorentis 6y ago
    The only data people use to back this up is "how many black economists are there?". It's as if people's knowledge of statistics completely goes out the window when it comes to this issue. Show me a black person without a degree, with an equal or greater knowledge of economics than Nathan, and with a website and newsletter following, who was denied entry to conferences because of their skin color. You can't just pluck out one variable and compare them head to head. There are so many other variables that account for success: family support, educational background, financial position, work experience, etc. Boiling everything down to race is unhelpful and doesn't solve any problem.
    - Miner49er 6y ago
      > family support, educational background, financial position, All of which are harder to come by or worse on average for black Americans, because of the US's history of race-based slavery and racial discrimination.
      - Thorentis 6y ago
        Not denying the history of slavery and discrimination, but [citation needed] for causal link to the modern day, and if there is a statistically significant difference in ascending the "social ladder" between poor, uneducated whites and poor, uneducated blacks.
        Miner49er 6y ago
        https://www.epi.org/blog/housing-discrimination-underpins-the-staggering-wealth-gap-between-blacks-and-whites/ https://www.epi.org/blog/housing-discrimination-underpins-th... https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining... There's a couple articles there's plenty more out there, just Google "racial wealth gap". IMO it is also just common sense, wealth is passed down from generation to generation and black Americans have never been given the opportunity to build much wealth until very recently (but are still held back by the judicial system). There's been very little/no wealth to pass down. This is compunded by the fact that the education system in the US is tied to property value. > statistically significant difference in ascending the "social ladder" between poor, uneducated whites and poor, uneducated blacks. I honestly haven't done much reading on that. Here's a study I found quicky though: https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/135/2/711/5687353 https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/135/2/711/5687353 I believe the best way to end racism is to address wealth inequality. This could help both poor black kids and poor white kids.
      - zarathustreal 6y ago
        Slavery is to blame for lack of family support? That’s a new take. I’m also curious how far this thing is meant to go, at what point do black Americans become fully independent and responsible for themselves again?
        whymauri 6y ago
        Black Americans have never been fully independent from racially-based socioeconomic discrimination in the United States. You've also conveniently ignored GP's additional condition: racial discrimination. The Prison Industrial Complex and the War on Drugs systematically dismantled the nuclear black family across the United States - this is not a new take. Take it from Lee Atwater, Reagan strategist and co-architect of the Southern Strategy: >Atwater: Y'all don't quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, "N-----, n-----, n-----". By 1968 you can't say "n-----*"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "N-----, n-----". So, any way you look at it, race is coming on the back-burner. A black man around Nathan's age would have been born in the middle of the Clinton-era when the government was going "tough on crime." They would have been born in the wake of the Central Park Five case, for perspective, and grown up in the shadow of Superpredator Theory. This before even unpacking the financial and social disenfranchisement of the Jim Crow era and the systematic and brutal dissolution of black wealth ala the Tulsa Race Massacre.
  - arkis22 6y ago
    It's an internet newsletter. Did you assume his race? Did you assume he's white because you're racist? Why are you bringing his skin color into this?

That's very likely. Nobody is immune from this trend. Despite his great accomplishments in a field in which you usually need a degree, he is now feeling guilty about how maybe he only achieved success because he was white. This is the 2020 version of imposter syndrome. Everybody feels imposter syndrome when they have unexpected success. This is the woke Twitter version of it.

soared 6y ago
Or he recognizes that part of his success came down to skin color alone. That a black person who took the exact same actions as him would’ve come out less successful.
- Thorentis 6y ago
  The only data people use to back this up is "how many black economists are there?". It's as if people's knowledge of statistics completely goes out the window when it comes to this issue. Show me a black person without a degree, with an equal or greater knowledge of economics than Nathan, and with a website and newsletter following, who was denied entry to conferences because of their skin color. You can't just pluck out one variable and compare them head to head. There are so many other variables that account for success: family support, educational background, financial position, work experience, etc. Boiling everything down to race is unhelpful and doesn't solve any problem.
  - Miner49er 6y ago
    > family support, educational background, financial position, All of which are harder to come by or worse on average for black Americans, because of the US's history of race-based slavery and racial discrimination.
    - Thorentis 6y ago
      Not denying the history of slavery and discrimination, but [citation needed] for causal link to the modern day, and if there is a statistically significant difference in ascending the "social ladder" between poor, uneducated whites and poor, uneducated blacks.
      - Miner49er 6y ago
        https://www.epi.org/blog/housing-discrimination-underpins-the-staggering-wealth-gap-between-blacks-and-whites/ https://www.epi.org/blog/housing-discrimination-underpins-th... https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining... There's a couple articles there's plenty more out there, just Google "racial wealth gap". IMO it is also just common sense, wealth is passed down from generation to generation and black Americans have never been given the opportunity to build much wealth until very recently (but are still held back by the judicial system). There's been very little/no wealth to pass down. This is compunded by the fact that the education system in the US is tied to property value. > statistically significant difference in ascending the "social ladder" between poor, uneducated whites and poor, uneducated blacks. I honestly haven't done much reading on that. Here's a study I found quicky though: https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/135/2/711/5687353 https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/135/2/711/5687353 I believe the best way to end racism is to address wealth inequality. This could help both poor black kids and poor white kids.
    - zarathustreal 6y ago
      Slavery is to blame for lack of family support? That’s a new take. I’m also curious how far this thing is meant to go, at what point do black Americans become fully independent and responsible for themselves again?
      - whymauri 6y ago
        Black Americans have never been fully independent from racially-based socioeconomic discrimination in the United States. You've also conveniently ignored GP's additional condition: racial discrimination. The Prison Industrial Complex and the War on Drugs systematically dismantled the nuclear black family across the United States - this is not a new take. Take it from Lee Atwater, Reagan strategist and co-architect of the Southern Strategy: >Atwater: Y'all don't quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, "N-----, n-----, n-----". By 1968 you can't say "n-----*"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "N-----, n-----". So, any way you look at it, race is coming on the back-burner. A black man around Nathan's age would have been born in the middle of the Clinton-era when the government was going "tough on crime." They would have been born in the wake of the Central Park Five case, for perspective, and grown up in the shadow of Superpredator Theory. This before even unpacking the financial and social disenfranchisement of the Jim Crow era and the systematic and brutal dissolution of black wealth ala the Tulsa Race Massacre.
- arkis22 6y ago
  It's an internet newsletter. Did you assume his race? Did you assume he's white because you're racist? Why are you bringing his skin color into this?