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> When you're born into that type of system The trouble is that the way out is not easy. We can no longer keep talking about "you're at a disadvantage because

> When you're born into that type of system The trouble is that the way out is not easy. We can no longer keep talking about "you're at a disadvantage because you're born into x." Even if it's true, mentally it paints a victimization culture that brings people down. If you tell someone the major of their problems are due to their class, or the history of their people, or police or some other bogeyman (both real and imagined), how are people going to see a way out? We can't keep blaming. Maybe the narrative needs to be, "Yes, the scales are not as fair as they could be. Maybe they're super unfair. But fuck em. Show them what you can do, and don't stop until you beat them at their game!" I don't know if that's naive or overly simplistic, or if it's just some form or noble lie or noble truth. A lot of it is luck too. My father grew up during a war, his family lost everything and had to start from scratch. He made it through University where his two brothers struggled to learn English. They all grew up in the same situation, and he's told me he didn't know what made him different. Higher IQ? Stronger drive? Who knows.

Bigpet 6y ago
> A lot of it is luck too Yeah it is. But if you model it as a statistical likelihood and you start two populations at different distributions you would see how long it would take for them to "catch-up" as a group. What you're telling people is "keep at it, you'll get there in a couple decades". Meanwhile the disparity continues, leads to more prejudices (because yeah, statistically they're poorer/underrepresented) and counteracts some of the "pure luck" gains.
ssully 6y ago
I hate to break it to you, but it is a noble lie. Black people in America were born into these disadvantages long before people were talking about them. There wasn't a victimization culture, but they were still being brought down, because the culture isn't what is bringing them down, but rather the system that was designed and implemented to keep them poor and disadvantaged.

Bigpet 6y ago

> A lot of it is luck too Yeah it is. But if you model it as a statistical likelihood and you start two populations at different distributions you would see how long it would take for them to "catch-up" as a group. What you're telling people is "keep at it, you'll get there in a couple decades". Meanwhile the disparity continues, leads to more prejudices (because yeah, statistically they're poorer/underrepresented) and counteracts some of the "pure luck" gains.

ssully 6y ago

I hate to break it to you, but it is a noble lie. Black people in America were born into these disadvantages long before people were talking about them. There wasn't a victimization culture, but they were still being brought down, because the culture isn't what is bringing them down, but rather the system that was designed and implemented to keep them poor and disadvantaged.