Dmitri wrote:Steve James wrote:no one can help me as a Black person, only as a human being. And I can only promise that I feel that way about other humans. One can help individuals, not "races."
^^ this.
Okay, sure, but can you work to eliminate structural inequality that affects you as a black person disproportionately?
https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2017 ... -educationThis argument is specious at best. It ignores the easily proven reality that minorities in (at least) the United States have far less favorable outcomes across the board controlling for every other factor. Education, medical, economic, when you look past your own emotions and your absolute certainty that life is fair and they are all getting what they deserve, and actually see the data, it's clear. But you do have to look at it and you have to have an open mind.
origami_itto wrote:do you think this is a statistical model?
That meme doesn't deserve the word "model", because that might presume there's some science behind it. There isn't; there's only emotion and misplaced sense of social (in)justice.
So do you believe racism is no longer an issue that requires any attention or effort? We've just got that handled?
It's not science and isn't meant to be, so attacking that is a straw man. It's a social model for understanding our perspectives and how they tie into these racist structures. You can deny it all you like but that is quite simply just the internalized racism that is running through your brain that is driving that opinion.
My sense of injustice here is how my wife gets treated at the doctor's office. Or at a restaurant, even.
Sure, why not, casual racism story.
Went to a BBQ joint in San Antonio with a couple of my co-workers. One white overweight and sloppy with long hair and a beard, one black, clean cut, fit, and squared away. The black guy and I actually served in the same Air Force unit in Germany four years apart. He came in as I was going out. Small world.
So we're at this BBQ joint, and we're all in line, the fat guy goes first and the guy at the counter asks "Are you a veteran?" he says no. I'm next, he asks "Are you a veteran?" I say "Yes" and I get a 10% discount. My black co-worker came up after we were gone and when he sat down I asked him if he got the veterans discount. He said "No, they asked me if I was active duty and said too bad."
So, minor interaction, doesn't mean much, does it? But just one tiny example of one tiny way someone is economically disenfranchised due to their race. You can look into housing sales, job offers, the accumulation of generational wealth... I mean, it's all over the place if you actually look.
So you've got citizens in this country that receive far different outcomes given the same set of starting conditions, consistently and provably due to their race.
So you can take that data and say, geez, it looks like these black folks sure don't know how to handle their business, must be something wrong with them, or you can maybe look into whether there are racist policies, institutions, and power structures that are causing those outcomes.
More often than not, if you look, you can find it pretty easily.
Another model/analysis
https://www.health.state.mn.us/communit ... gories.pdfRace-associated differences in health outcomes are routinely documented in this country, yet for the most part they remain poorly
explained. Indeed, rather than vigorously exploring the basis of the differences, many scientists either adjust for race or restrict their
studies to one racial group.1 Ignoring the etiologic clues embedded in group differences
impedes the advance of scientific knowledge,
limits efforts at primary prevention, and perpetuates ideas of biologically determined differences between the races.
The variable race is only a rough proxy
for socioeconomic status, culture, and genes,
but it precisely captures the social classification
of people in a race-conscious society such as
the United States. The race noted on a health
form is the same race noted by a sales clerk, a
police officer, or a judge, and this racial classification has a profound impact on daily life
experience in this country. That is, the variable
“race” is not a biological construct that reflects
innate differences, but a social construct that
precisely captures the impacts of racism.
For this reason, some investigators now
hypothesize that race-associated differences in
health outcomes are in fact due to the effects of
racism. In light of the Department of Health
and Human Services’ Initiative to Eliminate
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health by the
Year 2010, it is important to be able to examine the potential effects of racism in causing
race-associated differences in health outcomes