Gene Expression

I look forward to Diane's posts on why Jews are so underrepresented in Engineering

Jews are underrepresented in many areas, I don't know why this should be so surprising.

and more posts on why South Asians have such bad body odor.

I haven't a clue, and have never ventured into this territory.

Nor do I have any idea why you should think I'd be interested in this subject.

Diana,
Diana, Sorry I was unlcear, I don't expect you to be interested in South Asian body odour -- that was a more general shout-out to other members of the collective.

Not that I think only South Asians can talk about their own stinkiness. That sort of identity politics ought to be off-limits here and anywhere else. As for Jews, well, I think my parable probably states my point better than any more direct statement could.

Janine is a lesbian. This is a parable about homophobia.

i keep trying to invite janine to he meetings ikram :) she doesn't seem to want to-yet.

I look forward to Diane's posts on why Jews are so underrepresented in Engineering

As Godless pointed out in his exciting reapearrance, Jews are not underepresented in engineering, they're overrepresented.

Ikram, I understand the point of your parable, I'm just not sure you're entirely correct. We have never apologized for "our own" ethnic group (We're individualists anyhow.). Razib doesn't act as though he thinks South Asians are the New Brown Aryans, in fact his opinion is expressed fairly honestly (i.e he frankly admits he doesn't find sub-continental women attractive, & has pointed out poor south asian olympic performance), and that's where I think your analogy really fails. Whether the topic of "Janine's garage" comes up too much is up to you I guess. But A) We aren't saying anything behind Janine's back, Janine can hear everything, and sometimes agrees or objects. B) We don't apologize for our own lawn's (as you suggest), but in fact notice that the well-kept lawns belonging to other people present make our lawn look as relatively shabby as janine's (see thread linked above [also read the title of the post]).

How would you feel about maybe blogging here, and maybe with your individual perspective, help to steer the topics away from Janine? (if Razib doesn't mind, I think that would be cool.)

Pawan,

White women more independent than black women?! This is highly questionable. As razib et al have pointed out, black women (in Africa and elsewhere) have been relatively independent of their men for a long time.

duende,

Reason 1 is plausible, but when you consider that most blacks living in the UK reside in London, it seems to me that there is critical reproductive mass to sustain black endogamy.
Reason 2 might be plausible if the out-marriage rates for black men/women were reversed in the UK (with greater numbers of black women crossing the color-line, than black men).
Reason 3 is undoubtedly true, but the same could be said of US blacks.

Rob,

You wrote,

“Do black boys respond better to black women as teachers? White men? are there any studies? Does anyone care?”

I care, although any rigorous study of this particular topic would probably not be palatable. Studying racial differences unnerves many, not unreasonably. How exactly would a researcher go about finding the answer to your question without being tarred as a racist? What if such a study revealed that black boys respond best under state sponsored segregation? What then?

“I guess I just think that black women have done such a poor job raising black boys, that something else needs to be tried.”

Well, I think that black women could use a little help from black men. Black men used to pitch-in, under segregation. I’m not advocating segregation, but aspects of Jim Crow were positive for blacks.

We have never apologized for "our own" ethnic group (We're individualists anyhow.).

Ikram,

here, via one of Razib's old posts, is why the analogy of your lawn, is a poor substitute for "your" race:

I've noted earlier how I consider myself a group of one. I guess if Carlton Coon was resurrected he could classify me as "Aryo-Dravidian-Mongoloid" or something of that mix. What the hell do I care? Race differences and ethnic groups interest me, but it is just a reflection of my interest in human evolution and history...why should someone really care if their group is disfavored somehow? I've mentioned before-the average IQ of India is around 81. So that is the average IQ of my group, right? Or is it? I could choose to "reclassify" myself with upper class Bengalis, who might have a higher IQ. Or I could choose to reclassify myself with my family-many of whom have graduate level science degrees and so probably have a higher IQ. Or I could reclassify myself as just the group of Razib, and be done with it all.

If you scroll down, the post right below it is one from Godless, answering early charges of 'too much janine'.

instead of telling us what to think ikram, express yourself if you want. the blog isn't designed to interest you-but cater to the bloggers who write for it. but, if you want, you can be a blogger here too, check your saeedik - at - hotmail accnt