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The obsession with race in the US is really fascinating as foreigner. Are there a lot of other countries where this kind of data is compiled? I feel like I've

The obsession with race in the US is really fascinating as foreigner. Are there a lot of other countries where this kind of data is compiled? I feel like I've never seen anything like it in France, but maybe I wasn't paying attention.

tekacs 13y ago
This sort of data is compiled in quite a few environments in the UK (race surveys go out with all sorts of things) such that entities (especially government ones) can ensure that they are conforming to 'equal opportunities' legislation. I appreciate the sentiment behind it and think that it makes sense, but every time I see one I can't help but be amused that such legislation is directly responsible for dozens of government departments sending out questionnaires about peoples' race [1] where they previously did not. :) [1]: These are, of course, suitably anonymised after the fact. No worries there.
scarmig 13y ago
The United States has a history where over six million people were imported from Africa and enslaved, who continued to be denied basic civil and voting rights for a century after emancipation. And even today one of the strongest predictors of socioeconomic class, voting patterns, health outcomes, urban-vs-suburban-vs-rural residence, likelihood of committing or being victim of a crime, and exposure to quality educational resources is socially- and self-identified race. It's only natural that governments, businesses, and health officials would be interested in statistics on it. France's national pre-occupations are pretty different, I expect. I suspect a closer analogy would be to the relations between French settlers and indigenous Muslims in Algeria.
angersock 13y ago
Well, we actually have a lot of different races represented here.
zem 13y ago
the thing is, there is a very strong awareness of race in us society, and it factors into a host of conscious and unconscious decisions. the net effect is that the "tilt" of the field you play on is sharply affected by your race. also, since society is in many ways fairly segregated along racial lines, your background and environment are often a factor of your race too. officially ignoring that fact does not level the field; it just lets the people favoured by the inequities in the current setup continue to have the luxury of ignorance, while everyone else struggles along with no help from the system. tl;dr: calling it an "obsession with race" does the people actually trying to help by compiling this data a signal disservice

tekacs 13y ago

This sort of data is compiled in quite a few environments in the UK (race surveys go out with all sorts of things) such that entities (especially government ones) can ensure that they are conforming to 'equal opportunities' legislation. I appreciate the sentiment behind it and think that it makes sense, but every time I see one I can't help but be amused that such legislation is directly responsible for dozens of government departments sending out questionnaires about peoples' race [1] where they previously did not. :) [1]: These are, of course, suitably anonymised after the fact. No worries there.

scarmig 13y ago

The United States has a history where over six million people were imported from Africa and enslaved, who continued to be denied basic civil and voting rights for a century after emancipation. And even today one of the strongest predictors of socioeconomic class, voting patterns, health outcomes, urban-vs-suburban-vs-rural residence, likelihood of committing or being victim of a crime, and exposure to quality educational resources is socially- and self-identified race. It's only natural that governments, businesses, and health officials would be interested in statistics on it. France's national pre-occupations are pretty different, I expect. I suspect a closer analogy would be to the relations between French settlers and indigenous Muslims in Algeria.

angersock 13y ago

Well, we actually have a lot of different races represented here.

zem 13y ago

the thing is, there is a very strong awareness of race in us society, and it factors into a host of conscious and unconscious decisions. the net effect is that the "tilt" of the field you play on is sharply affected by your race. also, since society is in many ways fairly segregated along racial lines, your background and environment are often a factor of your race too. officially ignoring that fact does not level the field; it just lets the people favoured by the inequities in the current setup continue to have the luxury of ignorance, while everyone else struggles along with no help from the system. tl;dr: calling it an "obsession with race" does the people actually trying to help by compiling this data a signal disservice