--- In [email protected], "Bob Giramma" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:

> Suppose two children are born on the same day.  One is raised in an 
urban black neighborhood in Detroit.  The other is raised in a 
suburban Jewish neighborhood outside Boston.  Can you predict which 
child is likely to be more successful in life?
> 
> I bet most people will bet on the second child succeeding, and the 
statistical record is heavily in their favor.  The only difference of 
which we are aware are the comparative cultural environments in which 
those children are raised.  I've told you nothing else about the 
children in this scenario.
_____________________________________________________________________

You have also told us nothing about the two cultures the two children 
are to be raised in. You have only told us the racial/ethnic identity 
of the neighborhoods. Sounds racist to me.

In fact, no prediction can be made about the likelihood that a 
particular individual child will be more or less "successful" than 
any other child by examining the collectivist circumstances of the 
neighborhood in which that child is raised - whatever collectivist 
criteria you want to use. Why is it that many children who are raised 
in urban black neighborhoods, including some from Detroit, go on to 
be enormously successful in their chosen fields while many children 
who are raised in surburban Jewish neighborhoods, including some 
around Boston, have only mediocre success in those same chosen 
fields? Why is it that some children who are raised in urban black 
neighborhoods and some children who are raised in suburban Jewish 
neighborhoods often enjoy equal or comparable success in their chosen 
fields?

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