On October 31 2024 07:09 Elroi wrote:
It's funny that you would mention the NBA, which seems to me to be a strikingly homogenous group of people in terms of race and social background. Contrary to what you are saying, I'd say that in meritocratic environments you tend to get homogeneous types of people on the top. In the NBA, most players are African Americans. In the math olympiad, the US team is mostly male asian Americans.
This probably has to do with deeply rooted cultural preferences and differences between groups more than anything else. Groups are very different. Maybe there aren't many black women who are top legal scholars? Just like there aren't many black women in the math olympiad or among the chess grand masters. None of these things are necessarily because of racism.
It's funny that you would mention the NBA, which seems to me to be a strikingly homogenous group of people in terms of race and social background. Contrary to what you are saying, I'd say that in meritocratic environments you tend to get homogeneous types of people on the top. In the NBA, most players are African Americans. In the math olympiad, the US team is mostly male asian Americans.
This probably has to do with deeply rooted cultural preferences and differences between groups more than anything else. Groups are very different. Maybe there aren't many black women who are top legal scholars? Just like there aren't many black women in the math olympiad or among the chess grand masters. None of these things are necessarily because of racism.
There are various hypothesis as to why there are much fewer white players in the NBA. Cultural differences are not among the probable reasons. More likely it's access. White people have access to a broad range of sports, which disperses them across various sports. Black people, due to economic disadvantages, are less exposed to a wide range of sports. Basketball is a simple, widely accessible game that can be financed easily in neighborhoods of all backgrounds. So for black people who are behind on the economic curve, basketball is the obvious game of choice.
So, in fact, one of the more likely reasons is racism. Whether present racism is still the reason or it's just the consequence of past racism, that'd be a different question.