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What Morgan Freeman Doesn’t Understand About Race

7 points by rpm4321 12y ago

taeric 12y ago
I feel this is misrepresenting his point. Sounded to me more that he meant there is nothing intrinsic on someone's "race" that indicates where they "should" be in any wealth gap. Not that there is a lack of representation of race in the gap. That is, I am not really surprised that there are more minorities below the poverty line. I would not be too shocked to see that people's views on race contribute to this gap. What I think Freeman was saying, and I agree with, is that there is no reason someone's race should have any influence on where they are. More succinctly put, people's irrational views on race contribute way more than race itself does.
omonra 12y ago
I think the Slate author is wrong and it's very easy to prove that by considering the performance of immigrant blacks in America vs native blacks. Since both groups consist of people of same race, the disparity in outcomes must have something to do with culture of the groups in question. For example http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/what-drives-success.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/what-drives...: "There are some black and Hispanic groups in America that far outperform some white and Asian groups. Immigrants from many West Indian and African countries, such as Jamaica, Ghana, and Haiti, are climbing America’s higher education ladder, but perhaps the most prominent are Nigerians. Nigerians make up less than 1 percent of the black population in the United States, yet in 2013 nearly one-quarter of the black students at Harvard Business School were of Nigerian ancestry; over a fourth of Nigerian-Americans have a graduate or professional degree, as compared with only about 11 percent of whites." Same argument would deal with 'discrimination' - as a black Nigerian is likely to experience same sort of discrimination as black American (probably more so as they're also foreign).
ASneakyFox 12y ago
When an article has that many stats in it you know its all garbage.

7 points by rpm4321 12y ago

I feel this is misrepresenting his point. Sounded to me more that he meant there is nothing intrinsic on someone's "race" that indicates where they "should" be in any wealth gap. Not that there is a lack of representation of race in the gap. That is, I am not really surprised that there are more minorities below the poverty line. I would not be too shocked to see that people's views on race contribute to this gap. What I think Freeman was saying, and I agree with, is that there is no reason someone's race should have any influence on where they are. More succinctly put, people's irrational views on race contribute way more than race itself does.

omonra 12y ago

I think the Slate author is wrong and it's very easy to prove that by considering the performance of immigrant blacks in America vs native blacks. Since both groups consist of people of same race, the disparity in outcomes must have something to do with culture of the groups in question. For example http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/what-drives-success.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/what-drives...: "There are some black and Hispanic groups in America that far outperform some white and Asian groups. Immigrants from many West Indian and African countries, such as Jamaica, Ghana, and Haiti, are climbing America’s higher education ladder, but perhaps the most prominent are Nigerians. Nigerians make up less than 1 percent of the black population in the United States, yet in 2013 nearly one-quarter of the black students at Harvard Business School were of Nigerian ancestry; over a fourth of Nigerian-Americans have a graduate or professional degree, as compared with only about 11 percent of whites." Same argument would deal with 'discrimination' - as a black Nigerian is likely to experience same sort of discrimination as black American (probably more so as they're also foreign).

ASneakyFox 12y ago

When an article has that many stats in it you know its all garbage.