The Accidentally Discovered Open Thread

Posted June 15th, 2007 by Prometheus 6

Open thread

I clicked on the wrong message in Thunderbird and saw this old message a friend sent to a mailing list we were on.

Here is a question for you: Can you imagine a society of any size, in any place, in which you are not playing by rules that favor (conservative) white people? If yes, you can and should name your own games. If no, here is an alternate question: Can you imagine living in a world of white people's rules, yet playing by those rules only on your own terms and at your convenience?

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the hidden cost of being african american....,

On June 17th, 2007 cnulan says:

this book is hardly new news in general, but it's new news to me (having just now seen its author interviewed on Tony Brown's Journal)

Wealth is critical to a family's class standing, social status, whether they own or rent housing, the kind of community they live in, and the quality of their children's schools. Based upon a thorough familiarity with the textured lives of the families we interviewed, I suggest that it is possible to distinguish whether a family's current position and life trajectory is based upon earnings and achievements, or wealth and family legacies, or some combination. The notion of transformative assets is most trenchant for our purposes when the financial resources that make current status possible are inherited in some fashion. In the families we have heard about already, Kathryn MacDonald provides the clearest example of the power of inherited assets to transform her current position far beyond what she earns.

I really liked the concept of transformative assets and the author's prescription for levelling the playing field.

Interesting how the obvious

On June 17th, 2007 Prometheus 6 says:

Interesting how the obvious truth can be surprising.

Prometheus 6