Comments on: Is Racism Statistically Predictable?

By: dawn

dawn — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Nate Silver was very clear in that the questions focused on ALL races other than “white”. He didn’t just talk about black/brown/african-american. This would, presumably, include Asians, Middle Eastern people, and Hispanics.

As for the election, well, this is a new one, isn’t it? We’ve never been able to ask the question before “did you NOT vote because the guy was white?”, because they’ve all been white.

By: Tom in GA

Tom in GA — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:49:00 +0000

I see your point Paul but I think it is shoddy to say “here is one race that when self-segregating by residence shows a tendency toward racism” and think that appropriately extrapolates to “all races have a tendency toward racism when self-segregating by residence to an equal degree”.

Maybe there are factors underlying racist tendencies that aren’t visible when only focusing on whites (such as racial makeup of workplace, whether children attend schools where bussing is employed to diversify the school, etc.?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:07:00 +0000

If one were to look at this presentation not as just about white people as the issue, but as point of reference to a problem. It come to a point of social interaction, the use of voting statistics to prove a point just pointed out that people in those states are intolerant, which is untrue, to a point. The problem is that the lack of social interaction with people of a different races produces a stereotype that influences the outcome of the interaction. This can be seen in any neighborhood that is mono-racial, wether it is white, black, yellow, red, or purple.

By: Found

Found — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:47:00 +0000

General Social Survey

norc.org/GSS+Website

Have at it, everyone!

By: Ask and ye might receive

Ask and ye might receive — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Email the dude and ask if the “other side” has been studied. If not, the survey results could be publicly available, ready for your own perusal.

By: Jennfier

Jennfier — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:20:00 +0000

I have to agree that this was a one sided overview of the situation. This was singling out one race as being racist against one other race. It may be just me, but this “study” really does not sit well with me and I do not find myself being able to relate or fully understand how this relates to issues today because of the one-sidedness of it.

By: Tom in GA

Tom in GA — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:58:00 +0000

Poor grammar nails me again… insert “can” before “be racist” in sentence three and pluralize “neighborhood” in sentence four.

By: Tom in GA

Tom in GA — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:55:00 +0000

Chris, I think there is some valid concern about the talk. I wouldn’t question Silver’s methodology but his precepts framing the talk are suspect. Does Silver not believe that African-Americans be racist or does he simply lack statistical information to imply anything? Considering his conclusions, wouldn’t it be relevant to study all monoracial neighborhood regardless of which race it is?

By: Chris Higgins

Chris Higgins — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:09:00 +0000

Whoa folks, let’s not have a racial flame war here. Okay?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Of course, that’s not racism, which is the topic.