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Author Topic: Doc Helgoland's Asylum for the Politically American: T+0  (Read 1418683 times)

Rolepgeek

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I'd rather eliminate racism, period. Sometimes getting to a higher maximum means moving away from a local maximum for a time.

Plus I do have the studies that find that having a black name results in fewer callbacks from resume applications. Obviously, this can't say too much about the hiring process, but at the absolute minimum, it's an implication, and more likely it's reflective of actual trends. I don't think these trends are necessarily as massive as some political groups say they are, and I think a lot are more reflective of historical racism than current racism -  and I need to explain what I mean by that but I'll get there in a sec - but I don't think deciding this stuff based on virtue ethics is the right way to go about things, which is what it sorta seems like you're saying we should do. Unless you think that a white person failing to get that job affects them as much as a black person, who tend to have fewer resources available to them to fall back on as a default.

That said, affirmative action is still the wrong way to go about things in my opinion, I think the much more productive thing to focus on is those remnants of historical racism. Now, what I mean by this is basically all the factors about economic conditions and environment left over from the much more explicitly racist period. Helping get past those obstacles and improve conditions in the communities is probably the single best way to help reduce the incidence rate of reduced achievement or what-have you. Plus, it helps more than just one racial group; it helps anyone and everyone in those shitty situations, which are shitty regardless of race. Race can exasperate it but that's not the point.

Unfortunately, that's also really hard to fix and it's much easier to blame your opponents. Whether it's saying 'well they're just less able people, can't blame employers for not wanting them' or saying 'well they're just racists, as soon as they're gone all your problems will be fixed'. Much easier to do that than to acknowledge that yes, there is racism, and yes, there's a lot more there too.

Life is complicated. Science is hard. It is rare that one side has it all right and the other all wrong. People aren't typically stupid, but using your intelligence without it being hijacked by other parts of your brain is really hard, because your conscious mind is basically built to be lied to by the rest of your head, for PR purposes (more convincing to tell a lie you actually believe).\

Although on the topic of affirmative action I did get information for the first time the other day that made me think there might be something to the whole 'math tests are sexist' argument. Not that they are on purpose, just that when you remove the penalty for answering multiple choice questions wrong, the gap between men and women disappears. Most of the time, if you have to guess, then you're more likely to get points than if you left it blank, as long as you can be sure it's not one of the answers beforehand. Women were more likely to leave questions blank then guess if they thought there was a penalty for getting it wrong; they felt like they had to be absolutely sure before they answered, essentially (according to the theory). And if I ever refer to systemic racism/sexism, that's the sort of thing I mean; subtle things that have totally unintentional side effects.
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Sincerely, Role P. Geek

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Reelya

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But why are you singling out maths tests:

http://freakonomics.com/2011/11/18/sat-strategy-by-gender-men-guess-women-leave-it-blank/?c_page=2
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In this paper, we present the results of an experiment that explores whether women skip more questions than men. The experimental test consists of practice questions from the World History and U.S. History SAT II subject tests; we vary the size of the penalty imposed for a wrong answer and the salience of the evaluative nature of the task. We find that when no penalty is assessed for a wrong answer, all test-takers answer every question. But, when there is a small penalty for wrong answers and the task is explicitly framed as an SAT, women answer significantly fewer questions than men.

You see, it's the same for history subjects. And nobody runs around saying "history is a male subject". Anyone telling you that effect is specific to maths tests is actually being misleading or is mislead in the search for a smoking gun that isn't there.

We can ask why women are more adverse to risk in general. Because it's not just on SATs, it's a general thing.
http://wappp.hks.harvard.edu/files/wappp/files/gender_differences_in_willingness_to_guess.pdf

So what they're talking about is a difference in strategy employed broadly by men and women when answering these sort of tests. And the strategy employed by women is suboptimal. So it's the tests fault. Can we be sure of that? I recall a test they did where they had "lost car keys" and got men and women to search for the lost car keys. Women's strategy differed from men and was a little quicker at finding the keys. The article attributed this to the "women's superior brains". So if men's strategy is better in some instances, that's because of unfair conditions but if women's strategy in other instances is better that's because of innate female superiority. Clearly both types of argument are bullshit, whichever way you line them up as pro-man or pro-woman.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 01:38:18 am by Reelya »
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Lord Shonus

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But the study here is very artificial. They don't normally "give penalties for wrong answers" in any test I've even done. You get graded on how many you got correct. So it's a straw man, since such tests that penalize you for guessing don't exist in my experience. As the study shows: under normal test conditions, i.e. marks given for each correct answers, women answers just as many questions as men. So this hypothetical non-existent scenario can't explain existing test gaps.

The ACT exam deducts points for wrong answers - it is called a "guessing penalty", and you are better off leaving a question blank than you are getting it wrong.
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ChairmanPoo

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So does the MIR exam... in which the same effect was observed
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Reelya

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But if your strategy is suboptimal that's not proof that the task is unfair. Look at all those articles about female superiority because they have different multitasking strategies to men.

If women are only equal to men at test-taking when there's no possibility of a penalty for being wrong, how does that translate to actual real world conditions? In the real world there are no magical wonderlands where mistakes never have a cost.

Merely removing the condition that might show a difference between the genders might be just whitewashing whatever is the underlying cause away: "oh that test where there's a 0.1% penalty for wrong answers gives lower scores for women, therefore it's an invalid test which must never be spoken of again: use the PC test which has been designed to give equal scores". In other words, we avoid the problem by just not asking the question.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 01:48:58 am by Reelya »
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TheBiggerFish

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Tests... Really don't measure how you'll perform in the real world, though, do they?

(also, this is Ameripol?  I thought it was gender thread for a secong.
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Reelya

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Yeah, but my point was that restricting any condition of a test which might show a difference between two groups merely makes them less realistic again, because you had an observable difference in some scientific data, but instead of explaining it, since this is sociology, we merely adjust the measurements until the data fits our ideology. Data discrepancy "solved".

Women do just use a worse strategy at those sorts of multiple-choice quizzes then. It's sub-optimal. In the reverse situation, where women can be shown to be using a better strategy than men to do something (which you read about sometimes), I've yet to see a single line of sympathy for the men. Sure, you can say that having a small penalty for being wrong is "sexist", but it's such a common occurrence in every day life (there's always some cost in being wrong) that just rejigging the tests so that that weakness is never tested or exposed is not the answer.

Basically if someone is risk-neutral, then for any "wrong answer" penalty less that 0.25 with 4 possible answers, you're better off guessing, but for anything over 0.25 you're better off leaving it blank. Someone who is risk-adverse is someone who over-reacts to risk, thus making their response sub-optimal. In this case, women are leaving questions blank where they had a 1 in 4 chance of guessing right, but less than a 0.25 penalty per wrong answer. That's not sexist: that's just people not having a good strategy. The fact that men's strategy more correctly matched the risk/reward offered is not proof that the task is sexist. Virtually every task in the whole world would have to be deemed sexist by that reasoning, since they often involve risk/reward reasoning.

Here's an interesting article:
https://hbr.org/2013/02/do-women-take-as-many-risks-as
Quote
Men are more inclined to take risks than women. This finding has been replicated in a variety of studies over the years with researchers pointing to economic and evolutionary reasons. A recent study by Mara Mather and Nichole R. Lighthall found that gender differences are amplified even further under stress. Male risk-taking tends to increase under stress, while female risk taking tends to decrease under stress.
So i guess we could say that stress is sexist, and we should moderate all stress levels at all times to maintain gender-neutrality.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 02:24:08 am by Reelya »
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Phmcw

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Racism has nothing to do with some minorities being excluded in the current world.

The opposite idea is pushed by those who don't want to actually do what's needed : social disfranchisement is something that build up in generations.
We can take Italian from Belgium as a textbook case of how it happen and how it can be treated.

And affirmative action is a ridiculous way to fight the issue, a purposely inefficient and divisive measure that won't even alleviate it a little bit.
A good public education that provide tutors to children (to palliate the fact that their parent are out of the system), a nice environment, physical activities and a window in the cultures of the world is quite obviously the way to go. Before that, aid to poor families with children is also an obvious measure, and special care should be taken to ensure proper nutrition of the little childs.

Safe public parks should be made to ensure children can exercise as they grow, public pools and health centers have to be available, and "private" tutoring must also be provided when a children get behind in his lesson. That way you could get a level playing field in a few generations.


It's so sad that the US, that used to trash Europe in these areas before WW2, is now so much behind. It used to really be the land of the free (except for racism) but it turned very sour during the cold war and worst after the fall of USSR.
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smjjames

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Wish we could just get past this nonsense

Well we could just check what Trump has been doing... Let me see news...

Ohh Trump is threatening businesses (Toyota) with large tariffs.

Trump's decisions on who to surround himself with seems to be causing problems...

And more chaff about people suing, challenging, or basically trying to circumvent Trump legally and democratically that we all know won't go anywhere.

But Toyota isn't even an American company. Theres nothing inherently wrong with that in the normal world, but it makes no sense in Trumps world. Obviously he wants everything sold in the US to be made or at least manufactured in the US.

The Lt. Gov. of Texas is trying to push his version of the NC bathroom bill.

You'd think the economic backlash would be enough of a deterrent, but nope.

EDOOOOT!: Six other states too!. Washington state is the odd one out though, the rest are all deep red Republican states.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 06:58:03 am by smjjames »
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LoSboccacc

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Eh there's protection of equality then theres fueling delusions to the detriment of the normies. There's a reason ppl with dicks should use a separate bathroom, beyond gender fluidity and all that crap
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wierd

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We have a unisex bathroom at work. Toilet works just fine for both genders.

The major issue is when the bathroom has provisions for more than one person at a time, and people feel threatened by the presence of the other gender when going.

Really, who WANTS to watch somebody piss or shit anyway?
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smjjames

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Eh there's protection of equality then theres fueling delusions to the detriment of the normies. There's a reason ppl with dicks should use a separate bathroom, beyond gender fluidity and all that crap

The trouble comes when that dick, is, um, how to put it..... added? I don't know how to say it without sounding stupid, but what I'm trying to say is that, it's not that simple. Honestly, I'm not the best person to explain it because I don't have the same experience.

I mean.... the societal problem to some people is when the gender identity of a person doesn't match their biological genetic gender and they're in the bathroom for the 'wrong' (to the person having a problem with it) sex.

Yes, everybody has the right to privacy in the bathroom, but.... you know.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 07:41:05 am by smjjames »
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penguinofhonor

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Kentucky's bathroom bill is among a large number of bills that have been introduced here in the first couple days of the first legislative session, now that the Republicans have taken . There are laws to restrict abortion, weaken unions, expand the governor's power over state colleges (right after he put one university's accreditation in jeopardy),and protect discrimination that is justified with religious beliefs.

snip

What's this "reason"? Because trans women have been using the women's restroom where I work for months and there has been absolutely no harm done.
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martinuzz

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In Chicago, the four black people who kidnapped and tortured a 18 year old mentally retarded boy, while screaming 'fuck Trump, fuck white people' have been officially accused of hatecrime with racist motives, kidnapping, unlawful detention and assault with a deadly weapon.

#WhiteLivesMatter

http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/verdachten-mishandeling-chicago-beschuldigd-van-haatmisdrijf~a4444789/
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 08:26:17 am by martinuzz »
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Friendly and polite reminder for optimists: Hope is a finite resource

We can ­disagree and still love each other, ­unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist - James Baldwin

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=73719.msg1830479#msg1830479

smjjames

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In Chicago, the four black people who kidnapped and tortured a 18 year old mentally retarded boy, while screaming 'fuck Trump, fuck white people' have been officially accused of hatecrime with racist motives, kidnapping, unlawful detention and assault with a deadly weapon.

#WhiteLivesMatter

http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/verdachten-mishandeling-chicago-beschuldigd-van-haatmisdrijf~a4444789/

You're about 8 pages late (assuming you use 25 ppp) http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=159257.msg7316046#msg7316046 and the PC term is mentally disabled. Not offended or anything, just letting you know.
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