Comment by 493579620678 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 493579620678 | Hacker News Reader

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What makes you think talking more about race works any better or should be considered to be "social progress" rather than the opposite? Would that study have better results if done today? I'm not American, but I don't see why you are so sure today's America is not closer to the Jim Crow Era than 2005 was.

I'm a black person who grew up in Sweden in the 00s and early 10s, and I'm very glad race was never relevant or talked about outside of social science class. Almost everyone at my school was white, and I never felt like I was different because of my skin color. The first person who ever told me that my race or skin color was relevant to anything was an American. The worst thing about American culture (and what keeps me from moving to the US even though I could make much more money there) is that so many Americans are insisting on considering race (and other arbitrary categorizations like ethnicity, sex and gender) to be such a large part of what makes a person, overshadowing that person's unique attributes and identity.

You should read about the experiences of African Americans. Many cultural facets and political tensions held over from slavery are alive and well.

Financially, income inequality in Sweden is vastly lower than in the United States as it is, and in the United States much of the inequality falls on racial boundaries. A recent Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study found that local white household’s median net worth was $247,000 while for African American households it was $8. Yes, eight single dollars. The Black population in Boston has been well established for well over a century, and much of its white population came in waves of western European immigration in the early to mid 20th century.

Not talking about this problem hasn't solved it so far because systemic self-perpetuating inequality doesn't just go away if you ignore it.

I'm not objecting to talking about racism. I'm objecting to seeing race as a significant part of what makes a person. It's possible to do one without the other.

I don't see how it's useful to note that something didn't work when there is no evidence to suggest that the alternative works any better. I don't understand how talking more about race as a characteristic could possibly help to reduce racism or racial inequality. It seems to me much more likely to do the opposite.

That the social construct of race shouldn't contribute significantly to a person's identity is irrelevant. Vast troves of empirical evidence show how dramatically being born on one side or another of a racial boundary in the United States changes your life experience. See the study I cited in another comment "Are Greg and Emily more employable than Jamal and Lakisha." researchers sent 5000 job applications to jobs pairing a handful of fake, equally weighted resumes with stereotypically white or black sounding names. White sounding names got FIFTY PERCENT more callbacks... This is the United States where no job among already disadvantaged prime likely means no home, no food, no health care, no nothing. This isn't an affect people adopt as part of some fanciful cultural identity. Disrupting it isn't about pride or hurt feelings. It is a bin that our society forces people into and it will not go away by pretending it doesn't exist. Talking about it or not taking about it is the wrong dichotomy. It's directly addressing it VS not addressing it.

You didn't grow up in America, you grew up in Sweden. I don't think any further explanation is required.

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