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Map of America's Racial Segregation

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Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#51
post #28

I watched once a lecture on Coursera about Schelling's model of segregation, which I found extremely insightful. If you see maps like that with strong segregation, one of the first attempts to explain it is "racism". However, if you divide your neighborhood in 9 blocks such that you are in the center, you have 8 neighbors. Schelling's model now shows that even in cities where most people say:"I'd like to live next to…

I saw that lecture also. Wish I'd had more time to go further with the Modeling class, it was really cool.

Anyway, the equally interesting alternative to what you explained is what happens when everybody actually is super racist. If every person's requirement is that they refuse to live near anyone that is different, then you actually get a weird pattern where things are as mixed as they could be. The neighborhoods never stabilize, because there's always going to be border areas where each group can't help living next to a different group.

Actually, it just occurred to me that the model might not be accurate at that point, though, because people can't always move away like the model implies. Instead of people moving around chaotically, I wonder if the real result is violence intended to force the others to move.

EDIT: changed 'counterpoint' to 'alternative'

Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#52
post #41

I ran a check with Google using "define: segregation" and the definition included, "the act of setting". The title uses the term segregation perhaps innocently but incorrectly. People live where they choose. If the government said they had to live somewhere then it would be segregation. So it's really a map of where people tend to settle. HN should not have allowed the title to stand as is. Perhaps HN feels it's nece…

Words rarely have a single definition. Those definitions often have substantial history behind them.

Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#53
post #43
post #28

I watched once a lecture on Coursera about Schelling's model of segregation, which I found extremely insightful. If you see maps like that with strong segregation, one of the first attempts to explain it is "racism". However, if you divide your neighborhood in 9 blocks such that you are in the center, you have 8 neighbors. Schelling's model now shows that even in cities where most people say:"I'd like to live next to…

Any chance you have a direct link to the lecture without having to register for a course?

This is it: https://class.coursera.org/modelthinking-003/lecture/16

Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#54
Before this comment forum devolves into the usual level of strife trying to grapple with what race "is," I'd like to offer two articles.

What We Mean When We Say 'Race Is a Social Construct' - http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/what-we-...

The Point Is Not To Interpret Whiteness But To To Abolish It by Noel Ignatiev - http://racetraitor.org/abolishthepoint.html (the stuff about "White Studies" (obviously contextual) and Marxist tie-ins are totally optional to understanding the central points, I believe)

Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#55
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you and I have a different idea on what "Political Correctness" actually is. My view is that many mistake Scientifically Correct from Politically Correct. It is Scientifically Correct to say that there is very little difference, genetically, between Europeans, Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, etc. It also happens to be Politically Correct. However, it is also Scientifically Correct to say that there are hug…

* This is elementary statistics based on data collected by the FBI. If this problem [..] can't be discussed in an honest fashion due to political organizations which will threaten politicians with boycotts/villification/etc due to their refusal to acknowledge inconvenient truths, then the problem will simply continue.* These statistics are discussed in an honest fashion, from Saturday mornings in the barber shop to a…

"This sentence would be equally true without the word "black." Political correctness indeed."

Sorry, but the phenomenon of being accused of betraying your cultural identity by peers if you succeed in school and get a job is mainly a phenomenon found in a sub-culture of black America. Anyone who has been immersed in an African-American community for any length of time can tell you this. The typical insult among school-children is "acting white" or "Oreo" and it is widespread enough to warrant heavy discussion within the mainstream black community. My best friend growing up was harassed and bullied constantly in this way. It was a particularly vicious kind of bullying that I've never seen Asian, Hispanic or white children ever have to deal with.

Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#57
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop projecting.

[deleted]

Nobody's trying to make anybody do anything, they're making a map of racial distributions. If you see that is a threat, it's because you think that some of the beliefs that you have would be seen as racist - and you're projecting onto the makers of a map.

I use white friends to make apartment inquiries for me in neighborhoods known for housing discrimination, do I exist?

150 years ago, white people were far more likely to know and live near black people. Did nature somehow change in the interim?

Separate but equal was a set of laws imposing a behavior from above. The equal part wasn't true, and it wasn't 100 years ago. It was the environment that my parents grew up in, and I went to a segregated school myself. It wasn't anything that black people had or have any choice over, or preferred.

Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#59
post #25

Is segregation really the appropriate word here? Separation of the races is coded into our genes and happens naturally without any malicious intent too. It's not much different from the fact that all of us prefer to surround ourselves with people who are similar to ourselves, usually in terms of thinking, hobbies, and interests. Physical attributes influence us as well, whether it's bikers and leather jackets or punk…

Can you point to sources that answer any of these questions: * What mechanism does this racial separation take? * What sort of evidence shows that skin color or other ethnic identifiers in genetics are the thing that causes tribal separation vs them just serving as a simple proxy to more complicated factors? * What explanations of exigent factors are there... for example why are there black and hispanic republicans,…

Why bother with research when everything can be explained by the natural tendencies of the blood? Research just perpetuates racism by allowing for the possibility that it may exist.

Re: Map of America's Racial Segregation

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point to sources that answer any of these questions: * What mechanism does this racial separation take? * What sort of evidence shows that skin color or other ethnic identifiers in genetics are the thing that causes tribal separation vs them just serving as a simple proxy to more complicated factors? * What explanations of exigent factors are there... for example why are there black and hispanic republicans,…

Why bother with research when everything can be explained by the natural tendencies of the blood? Research just perpetuates racism by allowing for the possibility that it may exist.

I don't understand your comment, can you expand?
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