Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
I'm still not ready to talk about Black history. I still want to talk about white US history.
Q: Why do Black people see racism in everything?
A: A few years ago, European tech entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky asked some very good questions in good faith. He asked why San Francisco and Madrid were different in so many confusing and awful ways. I answered each of his questions. Please verify each and every answer with a skeptic's keen eye.
Here we go...
1/N
@mekkaokereke just shut up for 5 minutes and read this thread, white people
@mekkaokereke The general hypothesis, that Congress opposes expansion of social programs because the beneficiaries would disproportionately be Black, I'm not convinced.
I feel like the US is allergic to social programs in general, that they're seen in conservative circles as being antithetical to the American psyche ("the business of America is business").
@mekkaokereke Putting it another way: the hypothesis is that since social programs benefit poor people, and Black people are disproportionately more likely to be living in poverty, racism.
What if the issue was really that America doesn't want to help poor people?
1. Your replies are consistently annoying.
2. My hypothesis said nothing about Congress.
3. What I specifically said, included a link to peer reviewed research. If you want to argue with that, go email the authors. Or find their social media feeds and be in their mentions. But leave me alone.
@mekkaokereke I am sorry you find me annoying. I find yours thought provoking and educational - but sometimes I don't agree with your premises and want more justification. I don't intend to annoy you, however - I will avoid responding in the future.
Responding is not annoying. Disagreeing is not annoying. Asking for more justification is not annoying. People do those things all the time, on here and in other places, and it's fine.
That's not my issue with what you did here, or in other places.
I made a very clear statement, backed up by peer reviewed research. You replaced what I said, with your interpretation of what I said, and then disagreed with that.
That's annoying.
I specifically addressed the "Maybe it's just general dislike of poor people?" point.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109801673715975152
If you had said, "I disagree with the conclusions of the paper you cited. I think all three of their experiment designs were flawed, and all prior art was flawed." that would make more sense and be less annoying.
