5 ms·

It's worth noting that 7% of the US population commits 53% of the murders. Can you guess which demographic group that is? I'll give you a hint, it's not descend

It's worth noting that 7% of the US population commits 53% of the murders. Can you guess which demographic group that is? I'll give you a hint, it's not descended from Europeans. So even if you eliminated all the crime committed by European-descended Americans, America would still have a higher crime rate than European countries. Europeans who criticize America often imagine it to be a country of European colonists. That's increasingly not true. European multiculturalists also expect that a person's cultural background will have zero influence on them. That is also not true.

leephillips 13y ago
There is no demographic group in the US as large as 7% that is not "descended from Europeans". If that is incorrect, then I need more hints, or perhaps you could be courageous enough to name it. We almost all have significant European ancestry, and every human is descended from Africans.
- newnewnew 13y ago
  http://takimag.com/article/guns_and_race_steve_sailer/print http://takimag.com/article/guns_and_race_steve_sailer/print
  - leephillips 13y ago
    There is nothing there about a demographic group not descended from Europeans, so if that link is an attempt to reply, it fails.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - newnewnew 13y ago
      If you're being pedantic, it is true that African Americans have on average about 30% European genetic admixture. The facts presented are still quite striking, no?
      - leephillips 13y ago
        So the lightbulb has appeared and you've acknowledged that "African Americans", like most Americans, are descended from both Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans, and that there is no demographic group satisfying your initial description. I think that data about crime rates related to different demographic groups is quite important. My purpose is not to be pedantic, although I do enjoy that, but to help clarify the thinking of those who might confuse this demographic data with outmoded and superstitious ideas about "race". I'm sure you're much too knowledgeable to fall into this trap, but there could be others, not as sophisticated as you, who might suffer from common misconceptions about genetics, race, and related issues.
        newnewnew 13y ago
        87% of Americans are not descended from a recent Sub-Saharan African population (where recent is defined as within the last 80,000 years). African Americans form a genetically distinct American subpopulation with about 70-80% of genes from Africa. If you sent in spit samples to 23andMe from a white American and an African American, 23andMe would have no problem telling them apart. If race did not exist, this would not be possible. It is interesting that crime rates and other social pathologies are so segregated by race in America. Different experts have different explanations for this. The point is, comparing America against Europe is hard to do when the racial makeup of the two countries is so different. The legacy of slavery in America cannot be avoided. 14-24 year old African American males make up 1% of the USA population and commit 27% of the murders. Europe had no large scale agricultural African slavery in the 19th century, and its current society has evolved differently as a result. I agree that government-defined racial categories are too broad and inexact. The true amount of human genetic diversity is far larger and far messier than five racial categories would suggest. Andrew Sullivan addressed the myth that "race is a social construct" on his blog[1]. [1] http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/05/16/is-race-only-a-social-construct/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/05/16/is-race-only-a-soc...
        mapt 13y ago
        Europe also didn't allow racism to prevent it from building a functional social safety net for the majority ethnicities. Or allow racism to propel a targetted drug war that has ghettoized inner city minority neighborhoods. Or allow racism to migrate most of the accumulated wealth of the country into newly constructed suburban jurisdictions with higher-quality subsidized public services, while employing public sector institutional finance mechanisms to deny investments to minorities. Or allow the tax and budget mechanisms to actively redistribute large quantities of wealth from cities where minorities are concentrated, to rural regions with almost no minorities. So there's that.

leephillips 13y ago

There is no demographic group in the US as large as 7% that is not "descended from Europeans". If that is incorrect, then I need more hints, or perhaps you could be courageous enough to name it. We almost all have significant European ancestry, and every human is descended from Africans.

newnewnew 13y ago
http://takimag.com/article/guns_and_race_steve_sailer/print http://takimag.com/article/guns_and_race_steve_sailer/print
- leephillips 13y ago
  There is nothing there about a demographic group not descended from Europeans, so if that link is an attempt to reply, it fails.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - newnewnew 13y ago
    If you're being pedantic, it is true that African Americans have on average about 30% European genetic admixture. The facts presented are still quite striking, no?
    - leephillips 13y ago
      So the lightbulb has appeared and you've acknowledged that "African Americans", like most Americans, are descended from both Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans, and that there is no demographic group satisfying your initial description. I think that data about crime rates related to different demographic groups is quite important. My purpose is not to be pedantic, although I do enjoy that, but to help clarify the thinking of those who might confuse this demographic data with outmoded and superstitious ideas about "race". I'm sure you're much too knowledgeable to fall into this trap, but there could be others, not as sophisticated as you, who might suffer from common misconceptions about genetics, race, and related issues.
      - newnewnew 13y ago
        87% of Americans are not descended from a recent Sub-Saharan African population (where recent is defined as within the last 80,000 years). African Americans form a genetically distinct American subpopulation with about 70-80% of genes from Africa. If you sent in spit samples to 23andMe from a white American and an African American, 23andMe would have no problem telling them apart. If race did not exist, this would not be possible. It is interesting that crime rates and other social pathologies are so segregated by race in America. Different experts have different explanations for this. The point is, comparing America against Europe is hard to do when the racial makeup of the two countries is so different. The legacy of slavery in America cannot be avoided. 14-24 year old African American males make up 1% of the USA population and commit 27% of the murders. Europe had no large scale agricultural African slavery in the 19th century, and its current society has evolved differently as a result. I agree that government-defined racial categories are too broad and inexact. The true amount of human genetic diversity is far larger and far messier than five racial categories would suggest. Andrew Sullivan addressed the myth that "race is a social construct" on his blog[1]. [1] http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/05/16/is-race-only-a-social-construct/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/05/16/is-race-only-a-soc...
        mapt 13y ago
        Europe also didn't allow racism to prevent it from building a functional social safety net for the majority ethnicities. Or allow racism to propel a targetted drug war that has ghettoized inner city minority neighborhoods. Or allow racism to migrate most of the accumulated wealth of the country into newly constructed suburban jurisdictions with higher-quality subsidized public services, while employing public sector institutional finance mechanisms to deny investments to minorities. Or allow the tax and budget mechanisms to actively redistribute large quantities of wealth from cities where minorities are concentrated, to rural regions with almost no minorities. So there's that.