>If Alice trains 30 hours a week for a year for a marathon and Candice trains 2 hours a week for a year who do you think has the better chance of winning?
If Caleb and Makayla study 30 hours a week for a year for SATs suffering parental apathy, lack of means, working an evening job, a bad school district, and Emma and John study 20 hours a week for a year, being primed from birth for college, with understanding parents, a nice weekly allowance, and a good school district, which would you bet is going to have the higher SAT average?
I'm not sure how a web comic from New Zealand is supposed to form an effective refutation in response to quantative data on academics in the United States. In case it wasn't clear I'm most talking about America. The posted article opens with statementd from Barack Obama and Trump so I think this narrowed scope is on topic. I don't have much experience or knowledge of other countries meritocratic systems.
Oppressed minorities have gotten themselves out of poverty by emphasizing hard work and education. I've already listed Jewish Americans and Asian Americans. The Irish also underwent a similar process. Back during the 19th and early 20th century Irish were widely discriminated against and many didn't consider them White. Irish community leaders started emphasizing education in the early to mid 20th century. And by 2018 Irish have succeeded to the point that Irish surnames are considered signs of privilege. Cuban American households by now make about $20k more than the average American households [1]. Latin Americans as a whole are following suit.
Minorities have overcome oppression through meritocratic systems. It certainly hasn't worked for every demographic. But I don't think you're giving minorities enough credit in their ability to succeed through their own effort.
>I'm not sure how a web comic from New Zealand is supposed to form an effective refutation in response to quantative data on academics in the United States. In case it wasn't clear I'm most talking about America.
Let me clarify this part, then: the post is about nothing particular New Zealandish that's not also the case in the US. It has been reposted and recommended in American media so many times precisely because it is relevant in the US too.
Furthermore, this is more than clear in the comic itself, which is told in a universal manner, and doesn't refer to any particular trait/habit/circumstance/factor of New Zealand life.
If anything, it is more USA than New Zealand (which has much less inequality of the sort the comic criticizes).
>Oppressed minorities have gotten themselves out of poverty by emphasizing hard work and education. I've already listed Jewish Americans and Asian Americans.
Jewish and Asian Americans didn't have 400 years of being abducted from their countries and working to death as slaves in the USA. After the initial racism against them as newcomers subsided they were quickly tolerated.
Blacks on the other had, had the contempt and the prejudice of their ex-owners and their children and grandchildren. They had started from less than 0, as they had their culture stolen from them in 400 years of slavery (as opposed to newer Jewish and Asian immigrants arriving with their old world cultures -- from "bar mitzvahs" and "delis", to "tiger moms").
Asians and Jews had their persecution up around the 40s or so, but they didn't have segregated schools, hotels, restaurants up to the late 60s. They didn't have to put up with redlining when looking for places to live (up to now). They don't have discrimination against them in white collar jobs still. They're not routinely killed without questions asked by cops in percentages unheard of for any western country police force (even accounting those countries total population, not just the black population).
Again, I mentioned that meritocracy hasn't been successful for every single demographic. My whole point is that meritocracy does uplift poor minorities when effort is put in. Don't get me wrong it almost certainly takes more effort for a poor minority to succeed than a rich person - I've been reiterating this since my original comment. But meritocracy does provide a ladder to lift groups out of poverty in a manner that society as a whole seems fair. I think you recognize this when you reference "tiger moms" as part of the reasons why Asians have succeeded.
The fact that it hasn't worked for Blacks in America doesn't alter the fact that is has worked for Irish, Germans, Asians, Jews, and Latinos. One can make a decent claim that more minorities have benefitted from meritocracy than have been left behind.
If Caleb and Makayla study 30 hours a week for a year for SATs suffering parental apathy, lack of means, working an evening job, a bad school district, and Emma and John study 20 hours a week for a year, being primed from birth for college, with understanding parents, a nice weekly allowance, and a good school district, which would you bet is going to have the higher SAT average?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373065/the-penci...