Hacker News Reader

I like how there's a persistent effort to make excuses on behalf of african americans. They're not being held back by history, they're being held back by chronically low expectations.

Pluck an average, random nobody from the 3rd world and drop them off in the USA. After a decade they'll be driving a Mercedes to inspect one of their several rental properties.

View on HN

That doesn't seem to be the point? The point is (and I, not an American, have seen a few studies of this kind) that race predicts many outcomes, but not after controlling for income.

In other words, poor people in America are screwed, Black Americans tend to be poor (and mostly due to terrible socioeconomic processes in history).

It's not that it is OK if people are screwed "merely" due to income not race, but surely understanding the dynamic is key, no?

I'm talking from an ivory tower of statistics and papers, I barely spent a week in the USA in my whole lifetime.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com