"A Grand Canyon looms between the way African Americans and white people view the world, despite the fact that both groups are privy to the same information and images."
An interesting take that mirrors some of the debates viewed on Reformed Leftist...
2006-01-15
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4 comments:
The author's claims are the usual leftist race-obsessed nonsense, except for his observation that blacks and whites answer many survey questions quite differently. When asked about white racism, blacks continue to believe it is a massive phenomenon, whereas whites are much less likely to agree. The author ignores survey questions that really explore the topic. For example:
1. Ask whites such questions as, Would you consider marrying a black person? Approve your child marrying a black person? Mind if a black family moved next dorr? Vote for a black candidate for office? Mind having a black boss? Eat dinner at a black person's home? Have a black person eat in your home? Permit your child to attend school with black students?
2. Ask blacks what they think whites will answer to those questions.
3. Compare the answers today with answers from 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, etc.
Studies like this are very infrequently conducted, according to Thomas Sowell. But when they are, they show that white answers have changed remarkably over the years. In the 1950s a strong majority provided negative answers, but today a strong majority provide positive answers. Meanwhile, black perceptions about these measures of white racism remain pretty unchanged. Larry Elders in his book, "Then Things You Can't Say in America" shows these kinds of studies.
The article also doesn't address major real difference between black and white conduct, such as propensity of black vs. white students at the same high schools choosing to take advanced placement classes, liklihood to select collge majors with high salary averages, black vs. white liklihood to achieve positive credit scores, liklihood to commit "street" crime, etc.
Paul, you completely missed the point of the article. And as you do when an article is over your head, you change the subject and discuss other topics.
The article specifically addresses political issues and the gulf that exists between most blacks and most whites on the issue. It also points out that black opinions are generally deemed "the usual leftist race-obsessed nonsense" because those opinions differ from white opinion.
Paul just proved the author's point.
Nadir: I do not dismiss "black" opinions as "nonsense" due to them differing from "white" opinion. But black people are not special supreme beings who are infallable and perfect. If 90% of white folks in a survey claim that they don't care if their children marry black people, and if 90% black respondants in the survey believe that white people object to inter-marrying, we have a case of black people having a pervassive misunderstanding.
Nadir: Do you conclude that this article is "over my head" because you really believe that I fail to comprehend it, or merely because I view it differently than you?
If a survey shows, as this article claims, that black and white people view the world differently despite the same facts, do you exclude the possibility that it is the blacks who have the less accurate view?
And please justify your cliam that what I wrote about other survey results is non-germain to this discussion.
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