Recent comments in /f/dataisbeautiful

unoriginal_design t1_j5sinf8 wrote

Reply to comment by Norvig-Generis in Racial diversity in top tech & biotech companies [OC] by teamongered

You realize how confounded that issue is, particularly in the United States though? So the economic level of your parents is highly dependent on intergenerational wealth. We didn’t stop enslaving black people until literally what 5 or 6 generations ago? And even when we did, we have implemented so many policies in this country over the past century alone that have severely hampered black and brown communities ability to rise up to the socioeconomic levels of white Americans. You can’t amass intergenerational wealth if just a few generations ago your family were literal slaves and then second class citizens.

Tulsa massacre is a perfect example, but just one of so many modern atrocities. When black people started to actually rise up economically their entire “black Wall Street,” a thriving economic center of Tulsa was razed to the ground and they were murdered because white people were jealous of their success.

My mother was born one year after interracial marriage was legalized. To me that really hits home as exactly 1 generation ago I wouldn’t be able to marry my fiancée in this country. These racist laws and policies are not some distant past, they’re still on going.

Today you basically can’t be black in this country without fearing the police can end your life for literally any reason whatsoever. Your parents being murdered or incarcerated at much higher rates is not great for their socioeconomic status :|. I’m literally afraid daily for the life of my fiancée (and mine at times, cause I’m Latino so I’m fair game too…)

Seriously, we focus on this shit because it’s fucking real and affects peoples lives. Socioeconomic class and race are confounding variables :| like not even just in the US, India’s whole fucking socioeconomic caste system has colorism ingrained, just to name one example.

1