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0 pointsjbarciauskas5y ago0 comments

I don't understand the question.

The OP was edited in response to this, but I'm still mystified. I'm not making a particular claim about anything other than the experience of Black people in America, so I don't see how the question is relevant.

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rbecker5y ago

How is it not relevant? When studying any phenomenon, why blind yourself to all data except that from the US? Comparing with other countries is the first thing you'd do when looking at public transport or healthcare, so what makes this case different?

AstralStorm5y ago

The problem being, the countries with major numbers of people of African descent are, you guessed it right, in Africa and completely different economically from United States of America.

What such a comparison would prove? That poor people in a rich country are on average better off than people in a poor country?

Propose a good reference group please. I'd only mildly hazard a guess that perhaps South Africa might be a good comparison, since it's not a particularly poor country and has sizable numbers of blacks. Secondary, France, but it has a very different economical system and has not had obvious racial divides in near past.

One data point for South Africa: https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/129980/

Not particularly great there either.

Data for UK is interesting but it's not a valid reference group due to small presence of blacks: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...

rbecker5y ago

> What such a comparison would prove?

Prove? No, what can be learned. If you want to fix healthcare, you look at countries with working healthcare systems and see what you can copy. Same here.

And there's plenty of countries with black populations even outside Africa - the France and South Africa you mentioned, then there's also the UK, Sweden, half a million in Germany, a million in Spain, Jamaica, and I'm going to guess a large number of South American. 1.4 million in Mexico, 300 thousand in India (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddi), and I'm sure I missed plenty.

It's the height of US exceptionalist hubris to think nothing can be learned from all these countries.

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rbecker5y ago

AstralStorm5y ago

The problem being, the countries with major numbers of people of African descent are, you guessed it right, in Africa and completely different economically from United States of America.

What such a comparison would prove? That poor people in a rich country are on average better off than people in a poor country?

One data point for South Africa: https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/129980/

Not particularly great there either.

Data for UK is interesting but it's not a valid reference group due to small presence of blacks: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...

rbecker5y ago

> What such a comparison would prove?

Prove? No, what can be learned. If you want to fix healthcare, you look at countries with working healthcare systems and see what you can copy. Same here.

It's the height of US exceptionalist hubris to think nothing can be learned from all these countries.

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