4 ms·

“According to the 1950 Census, the population of the United States was 150,697,361. Of this total, 15,042,286, or 10 percent, identified as Black or African Ame

“According to the 1950 Census, the population of the United States was 150,697,361. Of this total, 15,042,286, or 10 percent, identified as Black or African American alone.” I guess Reason would see it as a period of maximum freedom.

refurb 3y ago
Intellectually lazy comment and cheap smear that doesn't really contribute much to the conversation. Reason certainly doesn’t support racism or not giving full civil rights to blacks. And if you RTFA, you’d see 25% of liberals agree they have to self-censor so clearly it’s not just the right who thinks this is a problem.
- TheCoelacanth 3y ago
  They don't support overt racism, but they do have an ideological blindspot for any racism that might require government action to resolve. They are biased towards an individualist, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" interpretation of racism. As long as there isn't overt discrimination, any racial discrepancy is assumed to be the result of choices or inate capabilities differing between individuals of different races. They are heavily biased against admitting to the existence of any systematic racism.
  - refurb 3y ago
    It’s sounds like their bias is “they don’t agree with me”. That’s not a bias, that’s approaching a problem differently. Like is said, actually critique their ideas, don’t just say “oh, they’re just stupid”. That’s just intellectually lazy.
cratermoon 3y ago
I'm immediately curious about how bad the undercount[1] was in 1950. At the height of Jim Crow, how many people avoided self-identifying Black or African American for obvious reasons?[2] 1. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2023/10/understanding-undercounted-populations.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2023/... 2. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/jim-crow-era-discrimination-violence-black-men-passed-white https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/jim-crow-er...
- SenAnder 3y ago
  Dismantling Jim Crow does not seem to have affected their numbers much - the census found Blacks to be 10% of all Americans in 1950, and 12.4% in 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d...
  - cratermoon 3y ago
    You'd almost think that identifying as Black in the US still entails significant risks and disadvantages.
    - SenAnder 3y ago
      So it is your claim that Blacks still lie about their race on the census, in significant numbers, because they are afraid of... what, exactly? Except in rare cases, race is obvious on sight, so I don't see what they would gain by giving a different answer on the census. Of course you presumably have a good source backing up your claim that Blacks are afraid to identify their race on the census, and trustworthy alternate statistics counting the racial makeup of the US?

refurb 3y ago

Intellectually lazy comment and cheap smear that doesn't really contribute much to the conversation. Reason certainly doesn’t support racism or not giving full civil rights to blacks. And if you RTFA, you’d see 25% of liberals agree they have to self-censor so clearly it’s not just the right who thinks this is a problem.

TheCoelacanth 3y ago
They don't support overt racism, but they do have an ideological blindspot for any racism that might require government action to resolve. They are biased towards an individualist, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" interpretation of racism. As long as there isn't overt discrimination, any racial discrepancy is assumed to be the result of choices or inate capabilities differing between individuals of different races. They are heavily biased against admitting to the existence of any systematic racism.
- refurb 3y ago
  It’s sounds like their bias is “they don’t agree with me”. That’s not a bias, that’s approaching a problem differently. Like is said, actually critique their ideas, don’t just say “oh, they’re just stupid”. That’s just intellectually lazy.

cratermoon 3y ago

I'm immediately curious about how bad the undercount[1] was in 1950. At the height of Jim Crow, how many people avoided self-identifying Black or African American for obvious reasons?[2] 1. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2023/10/understanding-undercounted-populations.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2023/... 2. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/jim-crow-era-discrimination-violence-black-men-passed-white https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/jim-crow-er...

SenAnder 3y ago
Dismantling Jim Crow does not seem to have affected their numbers much - the census found Blacks to be 10% of all Americans in 1950, and 12.4% in 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d...
- cratermoon 3y ago
  You'd almost think that identifying as Black in the US still entails significant risks and disadvantages.
  - SenAnder 3y ago
    So it is your claim that Blacks still lie about their race on the census, in significant numbers, because they are afraid of... what, exactly? Except in rare cases, race is obvious on sight, so I don't see what they would gain by giving a different answer on the census. Of course you presumably have a good source backing up your claim that Blacks are afraid to identify their race on the census, and trustworthy alternate statistics counting the racial makeup of the US?