On the basis of a study about bias in evaluating job applications, Yglesias pronounces:
My casual-ish impression is that in 2010 racism is generally a bigger problem in Western Europe than in the United States.Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son, as the bard once wrote. Now in the first place, I want you to name me a Western European nation that has incarcerated a million fucking black men and then tell me that "racism is generally a bigger problem in Western Europe." Racism is different in Western Europe, in that it is not predominantly focused on the modern descendents of African slaves, but it is hardly "a bigger problem." Anyway, do the same goddamn job application experiment in America using the names Suzanne vs. Shabonquanetta and get the same fucking result.
25 comments:
Who's got a fucking black fucking president parked in the trunk of our
car out here?
There is no facepalm.jpeg big enough
I can't wait for the race-essentialists to weigh in on this thread... should be a classic!
So long as money can be made by race hustling, racism will always be a 'problem'. It's institutional, yo.
So... is "casual-ish" MORE casual than "casual," or is it LESS casual than "casual?"
The sycophants in his comments section are worse. That's saying much.
Well, at least we don't have to regularly cancel football games due to the racist taunting of black players by large sections of the crowd. So there's that. My casual-ish impression is that Americans are more reluctant to exhibit openly racist behavior in public than our Western Europe counterparts.
I find it hard to imagine that a group of American supporters would openly suggest that a member of the national soccer team was not a real American because he was black.
Well, I don't find it that hard to imagine. I find it hard to imagine that such a thing wouldn't start a riot.
I find it hard to imagine a group of American supporters of a national soccer team. What are we talking, like, fifty people? Eighty?
ESPN gave Rush Limbaugh a job...
Funny, Chomsky said the same thing
Nah, bullshit, the fat kid in DC is right. It's much worse in Europe. I know, cuz I've lived in Europe for almost ten years. 'Course, Europe's big, so you can't really generalize, but yo yo yo.
Isn't it time for the IOZster to scandalize his bourgeois readers a little more with tales of his profoundly transgressive Oberlin coke-snortings and reamings. I'm feeling a little bourgie right now, and could use being prodded out of my complacency.
To be fair, euroland don't have a massive superflous population so their need of racism is less. But they do undertake persecution of 'guest workers' and their descendants usually on the pretext of preventing Islamic fundementalism. Pactically the US is more racist but spiritually we may not be. And what of the plight of third world former colonial subjects? Do they not factor into calculations of euro racism?
Funny, the mere mention of Yglesias seems to have scared off Gucci, Tiffany, and Coach. That ineffable whiff of concentrated testosterone!
You're back to shooting fat kids in a barrel. Can't get mad, though. It's so damn fun.
Butbutbut Obama is the bestest evar post-racial president in the history of forevar!
The essentialists never disappoint.
What annoys me is that my employer makes me pay $5 to be a racist on Fridays.
Every border home in Mexico gets a free fucking backyard fence courtesy of MY tax dollars and you're daring to say Americans are racist?
I thought Josephine Baker changed all that.
IOZ has been ratcheting up the cusses lately. I guess it probably has something to do with all the politics going on these days.
Razib Khan, A Person of Brown, has the same impression of Europe. As for incarceration, Europe doesn't have as many black people (though immigration is changing it). And I earlier linked a paper showing the U.S, England & Australia all have similar racial issues when it comes to incarceration.
I think if you did the exact same experiment, with the same names (i.e. 'Muslim' sounding name vs. 'American' one) you would get the same result in the US, apart from maybe the largest cities, engineering, and a few large employers worried about lawsuits. But 99% of banks and realty offices in the suburbs would decide that John Smith is a better fit than Muhammad Abdullah without meeting either one.
I'm a little late to the party, but I couldn't let this stand:
I find it hard to imagine a group of American supporters of a national soccer team. What are we talking, like, fifty people? Eighty?
Funny. But the biggest U.S. supporters group, Sam's Army, has more than 15,000 paid members. American Outlaws has 3,500-something. And those are just the formal groups. Most U.S. soccer fans belong to neither.
Many travel the world throughout the year to catch U.S. games. Indeed, Americans bought more tickets for this summer's World Cup than any country but the host itself.
Ageeing with Anon @1:35.
Live in both, did managerial crap in both, and can say in my anecdotal best that the racism is alive and well in EC.
Only it's different. In the public scope, the socialist-ish govts of the EC try and eradicate systemic racism. But on a personal level and in business, being in most of Europe is like talking to my cracker uncles in the South.
Took me by surprise, but it was pervasive.
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