[jcizzle]

You know those streets changed names 80 years ago, right? Monroe/Boulevard split in 1932, for example. You also know that every American knows about the civil rights era, too? They teach us that in school. You can keep pointing back to history and saying 'Hey, it was unfair!' and I doubt anyone is going to disagree with you. My point is that things are changing for the better, whether you want to look forward or behind is up to you.

[rayiner]

If I bend a paperclip, it's going to stay bent. Until someone unbends it, it's state will be attributable to my bending it, no matter how long ago that happened.

I'm not saying "those neighborhoods were poor 50 years ago because they were segregated, that's so unfair!" I'm saying "those neighborhoods are still poor because they were segregated 50 years ago, and nobody has undone the effects of segregation and put those people back in the position they would have been but for segregation."

[dcole2929]

yummyfajitas there is a stark difference between the experiences of the groups you mentioned in America and the 200+ years of slavery, followed by 100 years of segregation and discrimination, followed by 50+ years of racial profiling and predatory policy that blacks in America have gone through. I don't for a second doubt the hardships of other races and many have pulled themselves up from where they began here, but you can't honestly compare the two experiences and find anything more than surface level similarities.

[yummyfajitas]

According to Rayiner, a paperclip won't unbend itself. Now, maybe sometimes it will, other times it won't if it's been subjected to the right historical stimulus.

I'm also not really sure how you can suggest the historical hardships that Korean Americans faced weren't a lot worse than black Americans. Korea was dirt poor (think worst part of Africa levels) since forever, then a war, then refugees into the racist US. Post WW2 Filipinos and post-Vietnam war Vietnamese have a very similar story.

So tell me; why again is Rayiners "nothing ever unbends itself" story remotely plausible?

[rmxt]

Playing misery poker with racial hardships (like you are) is ridiculous and vain to begin with, but I'll ask you this: can you find one example of an American law targeting Koreans akin to this Louisiana law specifically targeting blacks?

"Any person...who shall rent any part of any such building to a negro person or a negro family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a white person or white family, or vice versa when the building is in occupancy by a negro person or negro family, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five ($25.00) nor more than one hundred ($100.00) dollars or be imprisoned not less than 10, or more than 60 days, or both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court."

https://goo.gl/sBpv2x

EDIT: My limited recollection of American history reminds me that there were protectionist laws against Chinese immigrants on the Western frontier. For the sake of this exercise, let's limit your law search to 20th century discrimination against non-Japanese, non-Chinese immigrants.

[yummyfajitas]

A law requiring residential discrimination is a bigger hardship than a war decimating your country? Really?

[rmxt]

You didn't answer the question. I'll take that as a "no".

My point is that the properties of each paperclip are unique. Trying to make the sort of extrapolations between paperclips that you tend towards (misery poker) is not an exercise that leads to improvement for anyone.

[yummyfajitas]

You used this exact analogy 8 months ago and it's fallaciousness was demonstrated (Asians/Jews/Irish all "unbent" themselves, as did many immigrant groups from < 50 years ago, e.g. Indians and Vietnamese boat people).

Why repeat an argument you know to be flawed?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9942354

[tptacek]

You are going well past your trademark contrarianism and into something creepier here.

[jcizzle]

Can't respond to you directly, thread limit... but Kirkwood is no longer poor, as evidenced by the cost of the author's home. Someone did bend it back, and internet commenting wasn't the thing that bent it back.