from Hacker News

White America is quietly self-segregating (2017)

by rbecker on 11/7/20, 7:11 AM with 1 comments

  • by onecommentman on 11/7/20, 9:55 AM

    Some great supporting analysis and data, but ultimately an advocacy piece.

    On the spectrum of diversity-justified intervention, which in the 20th Century has spanned “redlining” to forced busing of students in Boston, I am guessing in 2020 reasonable people agree to equal opportunity and agree to disagree about more forcing measures.

    Jim Crow/separate but equal/apartheid...burn it with fire.

    Meat-axing this level of segregation? Side effects may include...well, I think we’ve seen where it can lead.

    Housing issues are family issues are children issues. Only in the most egregious situations, e.g. discrimination against blacks in the South in the pre-Civil Rights days, is it worth lighting the match around that box of fireworks. Don’t even bring a strong magnifying glass...

    Maybe waiting on increasing entropy to work its magic is the wisest, with a little nudging here and there in those cases where diversity is generally seen by all to be an actual social good.

    Somehow diversity has been put at the level of an Absolute Good for a certain subgroup. Diversity is not an Absolute Good IMHO. It can be very very good, and a lot of fun in many cases. But there are two sides to it. Equity v. Efficiency, for example. And there are others...

    I’ve never had the opportunity to ask the question of that subgroup “So what problems can’t diversity solve?” It’s a trick question for any overly strong advocates of any grand idea. A fanatic will actually struggle to come up with an answer...