Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero-c!nadel From: gannon@MDI.COM (Alden Gannon) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: the *isms Message-ID: <1991May6.170315.17534@MDI.COM> Date: 6 May 91 17:03:15 GMT References: <14622@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> Sender: news@MDI.COM Organization: Motorola, Mobile Data Division - Seattle, WA Lines: 35 Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org Originator: nadel@aerospace.aero.org [This is starting to drift away from soc.feminism relevance. I'm not sure, though, where followups ought to go. - MHN] In article <14622@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> farmerl@handel.cs.colostate.edu (lisa ann farmer) writes: >For example, I have walked around campus at night quite a bit and if I see >a male I get a little nervous- hold my keys tighter, etc. But if I see a black >male I am more nervous. So I admit that I am racist because the power structure >has taught me to think that this black man is more dangerous than a white man. This is not necessarily racist. While in college, I did some demographic research in political science, and came up with some reasonable evidence to support your fear. Of the *reported* violent crimes, a disproportionate number of the suspects were described as black by victims. Admittedly, this statistic is not conclusive, but I couldn't find any other statistic that was better. If the data indicates that blacks might be more dangerous than whites, it is not racist to think so (indeed, it would be irrational not to). If you go further and assert that the *reason* blacks may be more violent than whites is a function of skin color, then you are a racist, because no evidence supports that. What my demographic study seemed to indicate is that violent crime is a function of economic class. Since lower socio-economic classes are disproportionately composed of minorities, they may commit a disproportionate number of violent crimes. An *ist is not someone who makes generalizations about a target group, but rather someone who makes generalizations about a target group that are not supportable with statistics. For instance, it is not sexist to fear male drivers on the highway more than female drivers. Actuarial statistics indicated that women, as a group, are safer drivers. We must all make some kinds of generalizations about our world (Ornstein and Erlich make a good argument that it is instinctive in their book "New World New Mind") in order to survive. The rational person acts on the best statistics available for any given generalization until better ones develop. The irrational person (among them, the *ists) creates generalizations without the support of empirical study. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alden B. Gannon, a.k.a. Zarathustra. INTERNET: gannon%mdi.com@uunet.uu.net "Gotta find a woman be good to me, USENET: ..uunet!mdi.com!gannon Won't hide my liquor, try to serve me tea." --Grateful Dead.