4 ms·

Why do you have to bring race into an unrelated discussion?

lr4444lr 3y ago
A good faith reading might imply that ethnic, linguistic, and cultural homogeneity makes it easier and more cost effective to predict problems and incentive responses.
- slashdev 3y ago
  White is hardly homogeneous. Race is a poor proxy for culture and language. I’m not going to assume good faith when it’s not the likely explanation.
  - davidktr 3y ago
    In Finland, ethnicity is fairly homogenous, and so is culture and language. The only exceptions are the Sami people (10,000 in Finland) and Finns of historically Swedish ethnicity. So in that sense, the white people of Finland are very homogenous. I strongly believe that US-based categories of ethnicity do not work well in European contexts. We also try to avoide the term "race", that has a bit of historical baggage over here.
    - stevekemp 3y ago
      I had a quick look, because I know that immigration has definitely increased over recent years - both in terms of the acceptance of refugees, and those that chose to migrate here. Wikipedia says: As a result of recent immigration there are now also large groups of ethnic Russians, Estonians, Iraqis and Somalis in the country. 7.9% of the population is born abroad and 5.2% are foreign citizens. I'll round up 7.9% to 10%, which basically says one in ten people in the country were born abroad. That's not a particularly homogeneous population - less than London, or other larger cities for sure, but given the small population of the country (5 million, ish) it's pretty impressive. But yes, the whole American idea of "race" is weird as a European. Americans tend to mean "White" or "Black", but there's a lot of difference between a white Irish man, a white Scottish man, a white Italian man, and a white Bosnian man. Perhaps best not to really try to discuss that here, lest things get heated.
      - slashdev 3y ago
        > But yes, the whole American idea of "race" is weird as a European. Americans tend to mean "White" or "Black", but there's a lot of difference between a white Irish man, a white Scottish man, a white Italian man, and a white Bosnian man. Precisely my point.
HDThoreaun 3y ago
For better or worse the US's heterogenous culture leads to a lot of resentment along racial lines. This makes it difficult to enact welfare as politicians can use pre built racial resentment to distract from solving the problem. The whole "welfare queen" thing doesn't work without the racial othering aspect.

A good faith reading might imply that ethnic, linguistic, and cultural homogeneity makes it easier and more cost effective to predict problems and incentive responses.

slashdev 3y ago
White is hardly homogeneous. Race is a poor proxy for culture and language. I’m not going to assume good faith when it’s not the likely explanation.
- davidktr 3y ago
  In Finland, ethnicity is fairly homogenous, and so is culture and language. The only exceptions are the Sami people (10,000 in Finland) and Finns of historically Swedish ethnicity. So in that sense, the white people of Finland are very homogenous. I strongly believe that US-based categories of ethnicity do not work well in European contexts. We also try to avoide the term "race", that has a bit of historical baggage over here.
  - stevekemp 3y ago
    I had a quick look, because I know that immigration has definitely increased over recent years - both in terms of the acceptance of refugees, and those that chose to migrate here. Wikipedia says: As a result of recent immigration there are now also large groups of ethnic Russians, Estonians, Iraqis and Somalis in the country. 7.9% of the population is born abroad and 5.2% are foreign citizens. I'll round up 7.9% to 10%, which basically says one in ten people in the country were born abroad. That's not a particularly homogeneous population - less than London, or other larger cities for sure, but given the small population of the country (5 million, ish) it's pretty impressive. But yes, the whole American idea of "race" is weird as a European. Americans tend to mean "White" or "Black", but there's a lot of difference between a white Irish man, a white Scottish man, a white Italian man, and a white Bosnian man. Perhaps best not to really try to discuss that here, lest things get heated.
    - slashdev 3y ago
      > But yes, the whole American idea of "race" is weird as a European. Americans tend to mean "White" or "Black", but there's a lot of difference between a white Irish man, a white Scottish man, a white Italian man, and a white Bosnian man. Precisely my point.

HDThoreaun 3y ago

For better or worse the US's heterogenous culture leads to a lot of resentment along racial lines. This makes it difficult to enact welfare as politicians can use pre built racial resentment to distract from solving the problem. The whole "welfare queen" thing doesn't work without the racial othering aspect.