Comments on: Black People Less Likely

By: Philip

Philip — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 17:06:07 +0000

Unvisit has no ads, and is operating at a net loss because of this. The net loss also allows me to have a small defence against copyright claims, as they cannot state that I am stealing ad revenue.

I should know, I built the thing 😉

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By: [Miljøet] Rollespil er hvidt | planB - this revolution will not be televised

Wed, 18 Feb 2015 14:33:01 +0000

[…] læste for nylig et interessant blogindlæg af Scott Alexander, “sorte er mindre sandsynlige”. Den korte version er at sorte (sammenhængen er USA) er underrepræsenterede i en lang række […]

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By: Jaskologist

Jaskologist — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 18:48:32 +0000

Seems like this could also be well-explained by the fact that the history being re-enacted is not that of blacks. It doesn’t seem strange that white people would be more interested in European history than non-whites.

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By: keranih

keranih — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 18:12:47 +0000

Hey Will –

I agree that this is a necessary point, although it might require confirming that Caucasian members of a specific group were of a specific (upper) quintile.

Does this help: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/household/

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By: Marshal

Marshal — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 16:07:35 +0000

Likewise, you know who’s got an obsessively large collection of resources on the underrepresentation of minorities in atheism? Conservapedia (Western Atheism And Race, Racial Demographics Of The Richard Dawkins Audience, Richard Dawkins’ Lack Of Appeal To The Asian Woman Audience, etc, etc, not to mention the very classy Richard Dawkins’ Family Fortune And The Slave Trade.)

Here it is easy to see that “you have low minority representation” serves as a stand-in for “you’re racist” serves as a stand-in for “you suck”.

To me the obvious meaning of “you have low minority representation” is “quit calling me racist when your “evidence” consists entirely of circumstances that equally apply to you”. The disappointing thing about your comment is that you exonerate yourself from this very accusation while supporting it against others.

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By: Will Shetterly

Will Shetterly — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 15:26:34 +0000

My googling must be inept, because I cannot find a decent numerical analysis of class and race in the US. For example, if polyamory is primarily practiced by people in the top economic quintiles, knowing how many members of those quintiles are black might help explain whether it’s meaningfully racist.

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By: Furrfu

Furrfu — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 22:51:44 +0000

Oh yeah, the one time I went to a Soka Gakkai meeting, it was a black person who invited me.

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By: Furrfu

Furrfu — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 22:43:29 +0000

Agreed, Setsize. Thank you for the correction (?)

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By: David Friedman

David Friedman — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 18:10:29 +0000

Another example of a group where blacks are underrepresented relative to their share of the population … .

I have been involved for a very long time with the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that does historical recreation from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. As best I can tell, there is no significant discrimination against blacks in the group, at least the parts I have been involved with. During the early years, the seneschals (roughly CEO of a nonprofit) of two of the first three SCA kingdoms were black, and there are a fair number of other examples of blacks in high status roles. But, again by casual observation, blacks are a considerably smaller part of the SCA population than of the national population.

The explanation I have heard is that the parents of blacks are less tolerant of frivolous activities, activities that divert time and money away from serious matters, than the parents of whites. The parents in question would presumably be middle class but, as some here have suggested, less secure in that position and less willing to see their children put staying in the middle class at risk than the parents of whites.

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By: thedufer

thedufer — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 02:11:09 +0000

Parable of the Polygons is such a good explanation of your fifth point that I expected the linked “aggregating small acts of self-segregation” to go there. It’s a fantastic visual walkthrough of Schelling Segregation Model and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t seen it before.

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