Ethnicity is way too coarse-grained to answer questions about culture and family wealth/connections. That’s lumping together a kid from an old-money family in New Haven with a kid from a trailer park in Virginia.

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ethbr1 4 days ago | parent [-]

I'd say it's an incomplete measure, but it's far from useless given the US' continued statistically-significant disparities between ethnicity outcomes. The first step of solving a problem, etc. etc.

I do agree with the general sentiment though and think that too much research/news over the last couple decades has been exclusively ethnically segmented, given the economic segmentation that should always also be involved.

They're perpendicular questions and best triangulate the American experience in tandem.

E.g. what are outcomes for wealthy members of disadvantaged ethnicities? What are outcomes for poor members of advantaged ethnicities?

Those are interesting socioeconomic questions!

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rayiner 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Test scores improve with income among all groups, but the gaps between groups remain relatively similar at each income level.

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magicalist 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> They're perpendicular questions and best triangulate the American experience in tandem.

They are not perpendicular, which is why it's difficult to separate them. You even seem to know this intuitively, that's why they're "interesting socioeconomic questions".

	▲	ethbr1 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		They are perpendicular, in that one does not determine the other. They may influence each other, but it's obviously physically possible to be a wealthy minority in the US.

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zdragnar 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It shows correlation, not causation. In the vein of this thread, it's not more or less useful than other anecdotes.

I posited a causation based on how the anecdotes countered the general trends in the data. I welcome counter arguments better than "I'm ignoring you because you don't have numbers".

Were I being paid to research this more deeply, I would. I'm not, and if someone doesn't like my argument, they're free to find one of their own.