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As I understand it, the scientific consensus among educators is that there are no innate differences in ability between racial groups, which stands to reason si
by User23 5y ago
As I understand it, the scientific consensus among educators is that there are no innate differences in ability between racial groups, which stands to reason since they aren't a meaningful biological category. Thus under-performance by black and non-white hispanic students is caused entirely by white supremacy and racism, either direct or systemic. The question of whether or not white hispanics suffer from racism is cloudy, because the data is rarely broken out. Still, I suppose it tracks pretty well with other whites of similar socioeconomic status. That leaves Asians, who measurably and increasingly outperform all other races both scholastically[1] and economically[2]. This presents something of a challenge to a naive understanding of the consensus theory. After all, why would racist whites be systemically advantaging Asians over themselves? The obvious explanation is something like that Asians are too hard-working to be held back by white racism, but as others have noted it's hard not to take that as implying that blacks and non-white hispanics are inferior to Asians in their work ethic. Lumping whites and Asians together makes all of these difficulties go away. The consensus theory is shored up, and if on the margins some Asians miss out on admissions, they can still be proud that they are helping to rectify an even greater racial injustice while looking forward to the highest average incomes in the country.
[1] https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/10/29/sat-scores-are-gaps-remain-significant-among-racial-and-ethnic-groups https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/10/29...
[2] https://www.epi.org/blog/racial-disparities-in-income-and-poverty-remain-largely-unchanged-amid-strong-income-growth-in-2019/ https://www.epi.org/blog/racial-disparities-in-income-and-po...
- 908B64B197 5y ago> Thus under-performance by black and non-white hispanic students is caused entirely by white supremacy and racism, either direct or systemic. The systemic part is especially interesting. A concept I was exposed to quite late in life by black colleagues and friends was the idea of “Acting White” [0]. Basically, a (black) colleague of mine first introduced me to the term when he recalled how he was ostracized at school for saying out loud he enjoyed trigonometry (something everyone at the table shared seeing as everyone went to CS or engineering). Selective schools like Lowell here in SF must be a heaven for kids stuck with peers that are dragging them down. It’s really sad they want to end it with a lottery and race quota. > The obvious explanation is something like that Asians are too hard-working to be held back by white racism, but as others have noted it's hard not to take that as implying that blacks and non-white hispanics are inferior to Asians in their work ethic. Lumping whites and Asians together makes all of these difficulties go away. That right here is the reasons humanities are considered a joke and politely ignored. > The question of whether or not white hispanics suffer from racism is cloudy, because the data is rarely broken out. This story came from an acquaintance, so I have no way of verifying it’s true. But at their daughter’s school several years ago the college counselor basically told a girl with a Spanish sounding name to claim she was Hispanic. Her parents were white, and her dad was from Europe (came to the bay for a PhD at a certain local university and then worked for an early internet company with a colorful logo). She got into a few pretty good universities despite having worse grades than her (self-declared) white friends who coincidently didn’t make the cut. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white