CDZ Average black people...Just defines an "average black person?"

[320 Years of History]

Introduction:
I have seen several members now writing about "average black people" this and "average black people" that.

• What exactly does "average black people," "average black man," "average black woman" mean?
  
  
• Just what exactly distinguishes "average black people" from anyone else?
  
  
• Are "average black people" defined by the fact that they go to school, get jobs, have productive careers, and pay their taxes, raise families, and abide by the law? Or, are they defined by the behaviors and circumstances of members of the black community who don't do those things?
  
  
• Is "average black person" defined as the black individuals whom you know? Whom you see most often regardless of whether you know them?
  
  
• Is an "average black person" some non-existent person or is that person real? For instance:
  • Is s/he the nurse at the hospital?
  • Is s/he the flight attendant on a plane or the TSA agent at the security checkpoint?
    
  • Is s/he the person who shows up to repair a downed power line?
  • Is s/he a police officer?
  • Is s/he the doctor who provides care to you and your family?
  • Is s/he the statistician who crunches numbers somewhere?
  • Is s/he the grad student or undergrad who just got a job somewhere?
  • Is s/he the project manager or team member implementing a new computer system?
  • Is s/he the attorney who prepares briefs and wins and loses cases like every other attorney?
  • Is s/he the mechanic who fixes your flat tire or shot water pump?
  • Is s/he the DMV employee who renews your driver's license?
  • Is s/he the mid-level government worker who manages "whatever"?
  • Is s/he the engineer who designs a bridge or formulates some new chemical?
  • Is s/he the military serviceperson working in any role the service assigns them?

Framework:
I'm asking because I obviously know some black folks quite well; I live in D.C.; I was born in D.C. It's all but impossible not have cultivated genuine relationships with black folks if one did. I see black folks all the time, hustling to catch a flight just as I am. I work with black folks. I see black folks working at grocery, department, and specialty stores. I meet with my black friends for drinks, sporting events and other social activities. I see blacks serving in a variety of functions in the business offices I visit. They work in the nursing homes.

All those folks strike me as "average black people." You know who doesn't strike me as average black people?

• Barack Obama. His wife, Michelle, sort of is; she would be an "average black woman" if her husband hadn't become Senator and then President.
• Spike Lee, Beyonce and a host of other black celebrities
• Femi Otedola
  
• Oprah
• Michael Jordan
• Mo Ibrahim

What makes those folks and other people like them not be average? They are all innovators. Well, for Obama, it's solely because he's President, but even there one finds a type of innovation that didn't exist prior to his discovering it and applying it to the goal of becoming a black U.S. President. It's clearly something, but it's not a something that's easily defined. It's got a lot to do with charisma. It's got a lot to do with drive. Those are the same things that distinguish folks like Bill Clinton, Mother Theresa, the Pope or Bill Gates from average folks. But make no mistake, had Mr. Obama not exploited his charisma and whatnot to become President Obama, he'd be an average black guy just like most every other black male attorney.

The rest of them, however, have innovated in ways that are far more easily perceived. Each, including Mr. Obama, has done the one thing that most people don't do: using their own ingenuity, they created personal brands and businesses that few people -- white, black or otherwise -- do and that only they could have, thought to and did bring to fruition. They strove to lead rather than follow and they've been successful at and by becoming leaders. For quite a few of them they are also "firsts" as go black folks, which by definition makes them be not "average black people." Too, for some of them they aren't "average" even though they happen to be black.


Discussion and consideration:
I'll just note that I'm as aware as the next person is of the demographic statistics pertaining to blacks and whites. Would I say that those statistics define who and who is not an "average" person of any ethnicity? No, most certainly not. That is where I think folks are confusing what it means to be "an average individual" (black, white, Asian, etc.) and what statistical demographic measures define as averages, medians, and so on with regard to easily quantified traits.

There's a huge difference between being an "average" individual who does things and lives in a way that is comparable to most other folks and merely being one person who fits neatly somewhere on a tidy and simplistic list of statistics. When I think about who is "average" and who is not, I think about whether the individual stands apart in some meaningful way:

• Are they basically going about their lives like everyone else?
• Are they "going along with the program" (average people), or are they "defining their own program" and inviting others to join them (extraordinary people).

Take the guy who goes to school and becomes a doctor. Does a residency somewhere. Opens a practice and cares for people. He gets married and raises a family. In my mind, that guy is an average fellow; he's a typical doctor, and whether he's black or white, he's still an average guy. He's doing exactly what's expected of him, neither more nor less. That's what it means to me to be average.

Take another guy who becomes a doctor. This guy, however, finds a cure or pioneers a new medical procedure or invents a new device, or whatever. That guy is not average. He has accomplished something that nobody before him did. How he did it is irrelevant; the fact is he did something that not one of the other doctors who have precisely the same training and who have access to the same observations and so on that he did, yet they didn't "see" what he did and come up with that or their own innovation.


Conclusion:
So where I'm coming from by asking the thread question is that were I a black person who's just going about my life and doing what I'm supposed to to make a decent living and so on, I'd be furious and insulted to be thought of as not an "average" individual, or worse as not an "average black man." I may or may not fall into the big section of a pie chart, but that wouldn't make me not be a typical guy, even as a black guy. In short, I'd be choleric that folks want to define me by an assortment of labels and figures rather than by my comportment, constitution and character.

You see, it seems to me, based on the implications of what I've been seeing folks on USMB write about so-called "average black people," that while they may indeed have moved from defining black people by the color of their skin, all that's really happened is that they've traded that dehumanizing, socially emasculating definition for a different one that has the same effects. How are black people's circumstances made any better by their being defined by a bunch of numbers?

"Average black people," black people overall, are not better off merely because now, rather than seeing all blacks as basically the same we see now see them in terms of the number that quantifies their section of the pie chart. For example:

• Oprah, a black one-percenter, fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.
• The doctor who'll operate on me is one of the black 14 percenters. He fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.
• The mechanic at the gas station is a black 48 percenter. She fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.

Having thus classified each of them, now one/America knows how to relate to them.

Well, that's morally turpitudinous in my mind. Just what is it going to take for America to get to the place where we see black folks and white folks and Latino folks and so on and say/think, "There's a person. There is a group of people. As expected, except the guy who shot his mother and the woman who invented the 'whiz-bang widget,' they are average folks, human beings, just like me. Some are wealthier than I and others aren't; some have better educations than I and some don't. Some happen to be of a different ethnicity than I. They are still, like me, 'average people.'"? Is that not really all that anyone wants? Is that not what everyone deserves?

 

[theliq]

Introduction:
I have seen several members now writing about "average black people" this and "average black people" that.

• What exactly does "average black people," "average black man," "average black woman" mean?
  
  
• Just what exactly distinguishes "average black people" from anyone else?
  
  
• Are "average black people" defined by the fact that they go to school, get jobs, have productive careers, and pay their taxes, raise families, and abide by the law? Or, are they defined by the behaviors and circumstances of members of the black community who don't do those things?
  
  
• Is "average black person" defined as the black individuals whom you know? Whom you see most often regardless of whether you know them?
  
  
• Is an "average black person" some non-existent person or is that person real? For instance:
  • Is s/he the nurse at the hospital?
  • Is s/he the flight attendant on a plane or the TSA agent at the security checkpoint?
    
  • Is s/he the person who shows up to repair a downed power line?
  • Is s/he a police officer?
  • Is s/he the doctor who provides care to you and your family?
  • Is s/he the statistician who crunches numbers somewhere?
  • Is s/he the grad student or undergrad who just got a job somewhere?
  • Is s/he the project manager or team member implementing a new computer system?
  • Is s/he the attorney who prepares briefs and wins and loses cases like every other attorney?
  • Is s/he the mechanic who fixes your flat tire or shot water pump?
  • Is s/he the DMV employee who renews your driver's license?
  • Is s/he the mid-level government worker who manages "whatever"?
  • Is s/he the engineer who designs a bridge or formulates some new chemical?
  • Is s/he the military serviceperson working in any role the service assigns them?

Framework:
I'm asking because I obviously know some black folks quite well; I live in D.C.; I was born in D.C. It's all but impossible not have cultivated genuine relationships with black folks if one did. I see black folks all the time, hustling to catch a flight just as I am. I work with black folks. I see black folks working at grocery, department, and specialty stores. I meet with my black friends for drinks, sporting events and other social activities. I see blacks serving in a variety of functions in the business offices I visit. They work in the nursing homes.

All those folks strike me as "average black people." You know who doesn't strike me as average black people?

• Barack Obama. His wife, Michelle, sort of is; she would be an "average black woman" if her husband hadn't become Senator and then President.
• Spike Lee, Beyonce and a host of other black celebrities
• Femi Otedola
  
• Oprah
• Michael Jordan
• Mo Ibrahim

What makes those folks and other people like them not be average? They are all innovators. Well, for Obama, it's solely because he's President, but even there one finds a type of innovation that didn't exist prior to his discovering it and applying it to the goal of becoming a black U.S. President. It's clearly something, but it's not a something that's easily defined. It's got a lot to do with charisma. It's got a lot to do with drive. Those are the same things that distinguish folks like Bill Clinton, Mother Theresa, the Pope or Bill Gates from average folks. But make no mistake, had Mr. Obama not exploited his charisma and whatnot to become President Obama, he'd be an average black guy just like most every other black male attorney.

The rest of them, however, have innovated in ways that are far more easily perceived. Each, including Mr. Obama, has done the one thing that most people don't do: using their own ingenuity, they created personal brands and businesses that few people -- white, black or otherwise -- do and that only they could have, thought to and did bring to fruition. They strove to lead rather than follow and they've been successful at and by becoming leaders. For quite a few of them they are also "firsts" as go black folks, which by definition makes them be not "average black people." Too, for some of them they aren't "average" even though they happen to be black.


Discussion and consideration:
I'll just note that I'm as aware as the next person is of the demographic statistics pertaining to blacks and whites. Would I say that those statistics define who and who is not an "average" person of any ethnicity? No, most certainly not. That is where I think folks are confusing what it means to be "an average individual" (black, white, Asian, etc.) and what statistical demographic measures define as averages, medians, and so on with regard to easily quantified traits.

There's a huge difference between being an "average" individual who does things and lives in a way that is comparable to most other folks and merely being one person who fits neatly somewhere on a tidy and simplistic list of statistics. When I think about who is "average" and who is not, I think about whether the individual stands apart in some meaningful way:

• Are they basically going about their lives like everyone else?
• Are they "going along with the program" or (average people) are they "defining their own program" and inviting others to join them (extraordinary people).

Take the guy who goes to school and becomes a doctor. Does a residency somewhere. Opens a practice and cares for people. He gets married and raises a family. In my mind, that guy is an average fellow; he's a typical doctor, and whether he's black or white, he's still an average guy. He's doing exactly what's expected of him, neither more nor less. That's what it means to me to be average.

Take another guy who becomes a doctor. This guy, however, finds a cure or pioneers a new medical procedure or invents a new device, or whatever. That guy is not average. He has accomplished something that nobody before him did. How he did it is irrelevant; the fact is he did something that not one of the other doctors who have precisely the same training and who have access to the same observations and so on that he did, yet they didn't "see" what he did and come up with that or their own innovation.


Conclusion:
So where I'm coming from by asking the thread question is that were I a black person who's just going about my life and doing what I'm supposed to to make a decent living and so on, I'd be furious and insulted to be thought of as not an "average" individual, or worse as not an "average black man." I may or may not fall into the big section of a pie chart, but that wouldn't make me not be a typical guy, even as a black guy. In short, I'd be choleric that folks want to define me by an assortment of labels and figures rather than by my comportment, constitution and character.

You see, it seems to me, based on the implications of what I've been seeing folks on USMB write about so-called "average black people," that while they may indeed have moved from defining black people by the color of their skin, all that's really happened is that they've traded that dehumanizing, socially emasculating definition for a different one that has the same effects. How are black people's circumstances made any better by their being defined by a bunch of numbers?

"Average black people" are not better off merely because now, rather than seeing all blacks as basically the same we see now see them in terms of the number that quantifies their section of the pie chart. For example:

• Oprah, a black one-percenter, fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.
• The doctor who'll operate on me is one of the black 14 percenters. He fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.
• The mechanic at the gas station is a black 48 percenter. She fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.

Having thus classified each of them, now one/America knows how to relate to them.

Well, that's morally turpitudinous in my mind. Just what is it going to take for America to get to the place where we see black folks and white folks and Latino folks and so on and say/think, "There's a person. There is a group of people. As expected, except the guy who shot his mother and the woman who invented the 'whiz-bang widget,' they are average folks, human beings, just like me. Some are wealthier than I and others aren't; some have better educations than I and some don't. Some happen to be of a different ethnicity than I. They are still, like me, 'average people.'"? Is that not really all that anyone wants? Is that not what everyone deserves?

320 Years,there have been Great Black(Your Words)Civilizations in Africa when Your forebears were living in Mud Huts..........go check out,steve

In Australia we are only referred to as Australians and we are not Average,no matter where someone comes from......unlike America who refer to people,even after generations as:- Irish Americans,Jewish Americans,Russian Americans,Southern Americans,Latino Americans,Muslim Americans,White Americans,Black Americans, ad-nausium......I think you are the only Country who segregates people in this way......let alone calling Average White Americans,Average Black Americans........it is some sort of throwback to early European settlement,Racism and how and where Immigrants settled together in the past...As in the Italians of Jersey etc,. .....Great Post by the way.....steven

 

[mudwhistle]

Introduction:
I have seen several members now writing about "average black people" this and "average black people" that.

• What exactly does "average black people," "average black man," "average black woman" mean?
  
  
• Just what exactly distinguishes "average black people" from anyone else?
  
  
• Are "average black people" defined by the fact that they go to school, get jobs, have productive careers, and pay their taxes, raise families, and abide by the law? Or, are they defined by the behaviors and circumstances of members of the black community who don't do those things?
  
  
• Is "average black person" defined as the black individuals whom you know? Whom you see most often regardless of whether you know them?
  
  
• Is an "average black person" some non-existent person or is that person real? For instance:
  • Is s/he the nurse at the hospital?
  • Is s/he the flight attendant on a plane or the TSA agent at the security checkpoint?
    
  • Is s/he the person who shows up to repair a downed power line?
  • Is s/he a police officer?
  • Is s/he the doctor who provides care to you and your family?
  • Is s/he the statistician who crunches numbers somewhere?
  • Is s/he the grad student or undergrad who just got a job somewhere?
  • Is s/he the project manager or team member implementing a new computer system?
  • Is s/he the attorney who prepares briefs and wins and loses cases like every other attorney?
  • Is s/he the mechanic who fixes your flat tire or shot water pump?
  • Is s/he the DMV employee who renews your driver's license?
  • Is s/he the mid-level government worker who manages "whatever"?
  • Is s/he the engineer who designs a bridge or formulates some new chemical?
  • Is s/he the military serviceperson working in any role the service assigns them?

Framework:
I'm asking because I obviously know some black folks quite well; I live in D.C.; I was born in D.C. It's all but impossible not have cultivated genuine relationships with black folks if one did. I see black folks all the time, hustling to catch a flight just as I am. I work with black folks. I see black folks working at grocery, department, and specialty stores. I meet with my black friends for drinks, sporting events and other social activities. I see blacks serving in a variety of functions in the business offices I visit. They work in the nursing homes.

All those folks strike me as "average black people." You know who doesn't strike me as average black people?

• Barack Obama. His wife, Michelle, sort of is; she would be an "average black woman" if her husband hadn't become Senator and then President.
• Spike Lee, Beyonce and a host of other black celebrities
• Femi Otedola
  
• Oprah
• Michael Jordan
• Mo Ibrahim

What makes those folks and other people like them not be average? They are all innovators. Well, for Obama, it's solely because he's President, but even there one finds a type of innovation that didn't exist prior to his discovering it and applying it to the goal of becoming a black U.S. President. It's clearly something, but it's not a something that's easily defined. It's got a lot to do with charisma. It's got a lot to do with drive. Those are the same things that distinguish folks like Bill Clinton, Mother Theresa, the Pope or Bill Gates from average folks. But make no mistake, had Mr. Obama not exploited his charisma and whatnot to become President Obama, he'd be an average black guy just like most every other black male attorney.

The rest of them, however, have innovated in ways that are far more easily perceived. Each, including Mr. Obama, has done the one thing that most people don't do: using their own ingenuity, they created personal brands and businesses that few people -- white, black or otherwise -- do and that only they could have, thought to and did bring to fruition. They strove to lead rather than follow and they've been successful at and by becoming leaders. For quite a few of them they are also "firsts" as go black folks, which by definition makes them be not "average black people." Too, for some of them they aren't "average" even though they happen to be black.


Discussion and consideration:
I'll just note that I'm as aware as the next person is of the demographic statistics pertaining to blacks and whites. Would I say that those statistics define who and who is not an "average" person of any ethnicity? No, most certainly not. That is where I think folks are confusing what it means to be "an average individual" (black, white, Asian, etc.) and what statistical demographic measures define as averages, medians, and so on with regard to easily quantified traits.

There's a huge difference between being an "average" individual who does things and lives in a way that is comparable to most other folks and merely being one person who fits neatly somewhere on a tidy and simplistic list of statistics. When I think about who is "average" and who is not, I think about whether the individual stands apart in some meaningful way:

• Are they basically going about their lives like everyone else?
• Are they "going along with the program" or (average people) are they "defining their own program" and inviting others to join them (extraordinary people).

Take the guy who goes to school and becomes a doctor. Does a residency somewhere. Opens a practice and cares for people. He gets married and raises a family. In my mind, that guy is an average fellow; he's a typical doctor, and whether he's black or white, he's still an average guy. He's doing exactly what's expected of him, neither more nor less. That's what it means to me to be average.

Take another guy who becomes a doctor. This guy, however, finds a cure or pioneers a new medical procedure or invents a new device, or whatever. That guy is not average. He has accomplished something that nobody before him did. How he did it is irrelevant; the fact is he did something that not one of the other doctors who have precisely the same training and who have access to the same observations and so on that he did, yet they didn't "see" what he did and come up with that or their own innovation.


Conclusion:
So where I'm coming from by asking the thread question is that were I a black person who's just going about my life and doing what I'm supposed to to make a decent living and so on, I'd be furious and insulted to be thought of as not an "average" individual, or worse as not an "average black man." I may or may not fall into the big section of a pie chart, but that wouldn't make me not be a typical guy, even as a black guy. In short, I'd be choleric that folks want to define me by an assortment of labels and figures rather than by my comportment, constitution and character.

You see, it seems to me, based on the implications of what I've been seeing folks on USMB write about so-called "average black people," that while they may indeed have moved from defining black people by the color of their skin, all that's really happened is that they've traded that dehumanizing, socially emasculating definition for a different one that has the same effects. How are black people's circumstances made any better by their being defined by a bunch of numbers?

"Average black people" are not better off merely because now, rather than seeing all blacks as basically the same we see now see them in terms of the number that quantifies their section of the pie chart. For example:

• Oprah, a black one-percenter, fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.
• The doctor who'll operate on me is one of the black 14 percenters. He fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.
• The mechanic at the gas station is a black 48 percenter. She fits into "this" section of the "black folk" pie chart and "that" section of the "everybody" pie chart.

Having thus classified each of them, now one/America knows how to relate to them.

Well, that's morally turpitudinous in my mind. Just what is it going to take for America to get to the place where we see black folks and white folks and Latino folks and so on and say/think, "There's a person. There is a group of people. As expected, except the guy who shot his mother and the woman who invented the 'whiz-bang widget,' they are average folks, human beings, just like me. Some are wealthier than I and others aren't; some have better educations than I and some don't. Some happen to be of a different ethnicity than I. They are still, like me, 'average people.'"? Is that not really all that anyone wants? Is that not what everyone deserves?

320 Years,there have been Great Black(Your Words)Civilizations in Africa when Your forebears were living in Mud Huts..........go check out,steve

In Australia we are only referred to as Australians and we are not Average,no matter where someone comes from......unlike America who refer to people,even after generations as:- Irish Americans,Jewish Americans,Russian Americans,Southern Americans,Latino Americans,Muslim Americans,White Americans,Black Americans, ad-nausium......I think you are the only Country who segregates people in this way......let alone calling Average White Americans,Average Black Americans........it is some sort of throwback to early European settlement,Racism and how and where Immigrants settled together in the past...As in the Italians of Jersey etc,. .....Great Post by the way.....steven

It's just Democrats using identity politics to divide us.
That's the difference between America and other countries when it comes to politics. We have a disease in this country. It's created in our colleges and in our entertainment industry. The media is the center of it. Hollywood. Harvard. Washington. The Borg mindset by the left. It's something we inherited from our past....leftover from Southern Democrats over 100 years ago. The philosophy that lies are the most essential tool needed to get rich in politics. Become a Democrat and you can say or do anything and get away with it.

 

[320 Years of History]

I think you are the only Country who segregates people in this way......let alone calling Average White Americans,Average Black Americans.......

The U.S. isn't the only place that does that or something akin to it, but based on my travels, all the places that have something like the delineations of which you wrote/we speak also have pretty deeply entrenched racial issues/strife.

One thing that's essential to keep in mind when comparing nations that appear to have racial issues is that what ostensibly appears to be U.S.-style racism often enough isn't. In India, yes, it's pretty much the same thing: skin color based racism that favors white folks. In other nations, it seems more a matter of nationalism, xenophobia, or theistic disdain. For example, in my experience:

• Japan: Among biased Japanese, it doesn't much matter what one's race, ethnicity or skin tone is; one is not Japanese and that's the basis of derision and discrimination. I experienced it once trying to go to a club in Akasaka, Tokyo. It was quite disconcerting and left a very sour taste in my mouth that isn't entirely gone even now some 15 years later. Is the attitude universal among Japanese? I don't really know, but it's hard to say. It rears its head in situations in which, as a non-expat foreigner, I don't generally find myself. It's not an issue when I'm going to restaurants, stores, hailing taxis, and so on.
• Australia: From what I can tell, and you surely know far better than I, it seems that Indians are the objects of what may be racial derision, but I can't tell whether it is based on their being immigrants and that they are Indian is only incidental to it, whether it's because they are the brown (aka non-fair) people who are also immigrants, whether it's because they are brown people, or whether it's due to something else. It seemed to me there are a lot of Chinese immigrants in Australia too, but I didn't glean the same sorts of bias toward them. I haven't spent any material amounts of time in Australia, so I don't have a sense of whether the same attitudes are in play re: Aboriginals. Truly, I didn't sense a lot of bias period, but two Indian employees in my firm expressly asked not to be assigned to a project in Australia -- that was a very unusual request -- so that's where my info on this comes from.

Anyway, I think you get the idea of the importance of being careful about too quickly calling a given nation's attitude one of racism vs. something else that is similar but different.

Lastly, TY for the complimentary remark.

 

[theliq]

I think you are the only Country who segregates people in this way......let alone calling Average White Americans,Average Black Americans.......

The U.S. isn't the only place that does that or something akin to it, but based on my travels, all the places that have something like the delineations of which you wrote/we speak also have pretty deeply entrenched racial issues/strife.

One thing that's essential to keep in mind when comparing nations that appear to have racial issues is that what ostensibly appears to be U.S.-style racism often enough isn't. In India, yes, it's pretty much the same thing: skin color based racism that favors white folks. In other nations, it seems more a matter of nationalism, xenophobia, or theistic disdain. For example, in my experience:

• Japan: Among biased Japanese, it doesn't much matter what one's race, ethnicity or skin tone is; one is not Japanese and that's the basis of derision and discrimination. I experienced it once trying to go to a club in Akasaka, Tokyo. It was quite disconcerting and left a very sour taste in my mouth that isn't entirely gone even now some 15 years later. Is the attitude universal among Japanese? I don't really know, but it's hard to say. It rears its head in situations in which, as a non-expat foreigner, I don't generally find myself. It's not an issue when I'm going to restaurants, stores, hailing taxis, and so on.
• Australia: From what I can tell, and you surely know far better than I, it seems that Indians are the objects of what may be racial derision, but I can't tell whether it is based on their being immigrants and that they are Indian is only incidental to it, whether it's because they are the brown (aka non-fair) people who are also immigrants, whether it's because they are brown people, or whether it's due to something else. It seemed to me there are a lot of Chinese immigrants in Australia too, but I didn't glean the same sorts of bias toward them. I haven't spent any material amounts of time in Australia, so I don't have a sense of whether the same attitudes are in play re: Aboriginals. Truly, I didn't sense a lot of bias period, but two Indian employees in my firm expressly asked not to be assigned to a project in Australia -- that was a very unusual request -- so that's where my info on this comes from.

Anyway, I think you get the idea of the importance of being careful about too quickly calling a given nation's attitude one of racism vs. something else that is similar but different.

Lastly, TY for the complimentary remark.

We do have a few Racist Drongo's(Aussie for Idiots basically) and there were a few unpleasant Attacks against Indian Students(The Indian Media did a big beat up on that situation) fair enough,but it it soon passed.I cannot even talk about the disgusting treatment of the Aboriginal First Australian Peoples,over the years but will do,suffice to say,a lot of things are changing but the conservatives(who are called the Liberals here,WHAT A JOKE)still hold back.

By the way I have been to Japan quite often and the Japanese as we know them are not the Original people of this/their Land,like Australia Japans First People are like our Aboriginals and mostly live on the Northern Most Island of Japan.By the way Indians have the intrenched Caste System,which is no big shakes...steven

 

[Al Azar]

On a scale of one to ten, around a five.

 

[Fair&Balanced]

I can only speak for myself, but when I use terms like "the average black man" I mean exactly that. Average as per the stats we have on black men.

Then I use that term juxtaposed to "the average white man" to compare and contrast the averages of the two races.

 

[Holos]

What exactly does "average black people," "average black man," "average black woman" mean?

The word mean is synonymous to the word average. They are both arithmetical terms describing the same result, but through different processes.

So when you ask "what does a worded expression mean?" the question pertains to how those words have been associated in the person who is perceiving them (in this case, you), by the average of times they were associated to each other word when either you read about them, heard them or listened to them.

The question is curious because it pertains to a double examination for a specific mathematical result envisioned, verified in greater detail by two different processes agreeing in aim.

Just what exactly distinguishes "average black people" from anyone else?

Again, what distinguishes is the ability each of us have to calculate the mean or the average of a specific data-set, either as a single, constant mathematical group, or as multiple mathematical groups associated through a continuing period of time.

 

[hauke]

ok i don t care whats the colour of your skin

so average black person is just useless

your talking about an average human being.

and i think thats useless too.

average is ok for statistiks, but every human is an individual, so theres no such thing as an average human being.

and who cares what dns structure that human got.

 

[320 Years of History]

ok i don t care whats the colour of your skin

so average black person is just useless

your talking about an average human being.

and i think thats useless too.

average is ok for statistiks, but every human is an individual, so theres no such thing as an average human being.

and who cares what dns structure that human got.

Within the context given by the OP, I agree with you.