Discrimination and disparities
by Thomas Sowell · first published 2018
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short argument that group differences in income and outcomes often stem from factors other than discrimination, drawing on global and historical data. For readers questioning whether disparities imply racism.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, explotitation or genetics. It offers its own new analysis, based on an entirely different approach--and backed up with empirical evidence from around the world. The point is not to recommend some particular policy "fix", but to clarify why so many policy fixes have turned out to be counterproductive, and to expose some seemingly invincible fallacies behind many of those conterproductive policies"--Jacket flap.
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…across excellent but very, very short non-fiction books. Among those I can remember reading and would recommend, these are published in the past <5 years and are <150 pages (or <5 hour audiobook): - Discrimination and Disparities By: Thomas Sowell - A Colony in a Nation: Chris Hayes - Between the World and Me: Ta-Nehisi Coates (three very different takes on race relations in America) - Astrophysics for People in a Hurry: Neil…
on “Ask HN: Good non-fiction books without filler?” ↗…statement is at best extremely misleading, and at worse, mostly false. It also represents a juvenile, immature, and myopic perspective on reality. I would suggest reading "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics" or "Discrimination and Disparities" by Thomas Sowell. He has been debunking the "inequality of outcome therefore racism" logical fallacy for decades.
on “ProctorU is dystopian spyware” ↗Thomas Sowell has a great book on the subject called Discrimination and Disparities. There are interviews where he goes over the high-level ideas in the book if you don't have time to read it, but the basic punchline is that this: no two populations have ever been equal, and only sometimes…
on “The case for expanding rather than eliminating gifted education programs (2021)” ↗…of complex individuals. > Sure, like my dice example. Except the problem is, for my dice example to be wrong, you need to specify a reason why some dice roll differently than others, You should read "Discrimination and Disparities" By Thomas Sowell, where he quickly crushes the normal distribution hypothesis for economic outcome. He shows through very simple examples, which are still dramatically over-simplifying the world, where…
on “What “diversity and inclusion” means at Microsoft” ↗Thomas Sowell's book Discrimination and Disparities discusses discrimination and has made me reconsider what is actually happening in the type of scenario you describe. I highly recommend it.
on “Up close with New Zealand’s most notorious gang” ↗Thomas Sowell covers this exact topic in detail with data in his recent book Discrimination and Disparities. In summary, you are spot on and he explains why, using global and historical data. And why society is best served this way. In fact he says we shouldn’t be asking why there are differences in outcomes,…
on “Silicon Valley didn’t inherit discrimination, but replicated it anyway” ↗Indeed, a simple reading of almost anything by Thomas Sowell, especially Discrimination and Disparities, would go a long way to educate everyone that discrimination is not a meaningful factor in why we have disparities between groups.
on “Coca-Cola says 'Be Less White' learning plan was about workplace inclusion” ↗…support racism being the causes of the disparate outcomes. That makes it unreasonable to start with the assumption that the "system is racist." If you want to understand why, I'd encourage you to read Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell. Here's one example: > These various facts might be summarized as examples of racism, so that the causal question is whether racism is either the cause, or one of the major causes,…
on “Why People Feel Like Victims” ↗…of racism/discrimination. This is, among other things, evidenced by some minority groups being disproportionally successful in many societies. I strongly recommend Thomas Sowell's book on the topic: "Discrimination and Disparities".
on “Twitter removed their diversity page some time between November 16, 2022 and now” ↗…question. I do not support DEI because it is based on a false assumption: that disparate outcomes between groups must be the result of some sort of discrimination or exploitation. Thomas Sowell's book Discrimination and Disparities is a good concrete overview of the reasons why this assumption is not warranted. This is not to imply that groups or individuals should merely accept their lot in life: far from it! By all means find…
on “Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company” ↗…evidence of discrimination, but this is as religious a belief as ancient Greeks claiming that all lightning comes from Zeus, God of thunder. And likely to be about as wrong in hindsight. In books like "Discrimination and Disparities", "Black Rednecks and White Liberals", and "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics", the author Thomas Sowell gives many examples of minority groups that prospered far above and beyond their relative majorities…
on “Affirmative action at US colleges has been banned” ↗…many, many reasons that explain outcome disparities between groups and it's not safe to assume that disparities are caused by discrimination. Thomas Sowell has a great book on this topic, aptly named "Discrimination and Disparities".
on “A successful example of "adversarial collaboration."” ↗You might like: Discrimination and Disparities (2019) by Thomas Sowell
on “Ask HN: What were the best books you read this year?” ↗…fairness, got corrupted to mean "equality of outcome", which is really the opposite of fairness? I've recently discovered Thomas Sowell and I'm really itching to find time to read his book on the subject: Discrimination and disparities.
on “A blood marker predicts who gets ‘breakthrough’ Covid” ↗I just started reading Thomas Sowell's newest book Discrimination and Disparities and on the first page I encounter this passage: "When there is some endeavor with five prerequisites for success, then by definition the chances of success in that endeavor depend on the chances of having…
on “Anna Karenina Principle” ↗