Guess Who's Coming To Stats Class

The Pew Research Center releases a feel-good study about race relations in America which ducks the tough questions.  Here is CNN's take:

(CNN) -- Forty-five years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a ban on interracial marriage, the rate of marriage across racial and ethnic lines in the United States is on the rise, according to a new study released Thursday.

And while such "intermarriages" continue to grow, so too does public acceptance of such unions, according to the study by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project.

Not to be the skunk at this garden party, but...

First of all, the Supreme Court (Loving v. Virginia) struck down a law barring whites from marrying outside their race; I presume other races were free to mingle.

And we care because the Pew study is surprisingly coy on the question of just where the progress has ocurred in the inter-racial marriage front.

As they note in an earlier study, the wave of Asian and Hispanic immigration since 1980 has created vast new opportunites for inter-racial marriage.  So, is the new all time high in the intr-marriage rate being driven by Hispanics marrying whites and blacks while whites marry Hispanics and Asians?  It is hard to tell from this data, but that seems to be the case.

If one believed, back in 1980, that the dominant white culture was irredeemably racist and could never reconcile themselves to people of any color, news of increasing intermarriage between whites and Asians is encouraging.  (We did fear the Yellow Peril, endure Pearl Harbor, nuke Japan, and fight in Korea and Vietnam, after all, yet we seem to have overcome).

However, if one believes that, following the end of the legalized Jim Crow era, the real story is reconciliation or lack thereof between whites and blacks, well, this Pew study has buried the truth too deeply for me to find.

Just as a question mark, I will note this, from the Pew 2010 study: the newlywed intermarriage rate for whites rose from 3.2% in 1980 to 8.9% in 2008 (p. 13).  However, in 2008 49% of those white intermarriages were to Hispanics; 18% to Asians; 20% to 'other'; and 14% to blacks.  That suggests that roughly 1.3% of whites 'outmarried' to blacks.  Is that up from the aggregate 'outmarriage' rate of 3.2% in 1980, when there were many fewer Hispanics and Asians?  Pew knows, but I don't.

Well, its a nice feel-good story.  Happy Valentine's weekend.

 

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

Hello from Legoland.

[rse]

This is an area where the media companies seem to really want to have an impact. Anyone else notice that virtually every TV show has interracial couples. Not occasionally. Not some. All.

I am glad we are not what we were in this area but I still hate to feel like the memo went out. Uncommon but accepted is still different from omnipresent.

[matt]

you on the West Coast Jack?

[daddy]

Hard to beat this BBC Headline for dishonesty.

Fracking contamination downplayed.

BBC biased Science reporter Jon Amos tells us a new scientific study is just out that he obviously disagrees with but has zero evidence to contradict. "The concern that hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to extract natural gas is contaminating groundwater is overstated, claims a new report."

"The bottom line conclusion of our study is that in the states we investigated, we found no evidence that hydraulic fracturing itself, the practice of fracturing the rocks, had contaminated shallow groundwater," he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting."

That's it. The entire story is simply that the evidence of the study shows fracking is not as bad as the Enviro's claim it is.

So without any facts at all, Amos headlines the story "Fracking Contamination Downplayed". And when we look up the definition of the word "Downplayed", this is what we get:

down·play/ˈdounˌplā/
Verb:
Make (something) appear less important than it really is: "this report downplays the seriousness of global warming".
Synonyms:
belittle - play down - minimize

So by using "Downplay" in his headline, Amos is saying that the scientific report is intentionally making fracking contamination appear less important than it really is. In other words, he is telling us the report is intentionally lying.

Amos has no facts whatever to support his contention that the new report is intentionally lying...he just says it is.

As usual, comments not allowed at that BBC story.

[hit and run]

JiB:
Hello from Legoland.

How is it? We're taking the kids there in a pre-spring break sidetrip...

But don't tell them. It's a surprise that they won't find out about until we're pulling up to the gate.

[henry]

More globalization bunk here. It appears North Americans are behind the enlightened world in defining business goals as "societal purpose" -- focusing instead on profit and individual value to customers.

[rse]

OT but LUN shows the accreditors are moving into early childhood learning.

AdvancEd-reaching all the way into the cradle to make money and destroy America. What a charming business model.

Aren't government provided cartels fun and profitable?

[Captain Hate]

So the beeb's being dishonest, daddy? The deuce you say!

[jorod]

Everything you wanted to know about the Chicago Way but were afraid to ask:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0217-20120217,0,4677115.column

[MarkO]

I'd like to feel good, but there is so much effort going into matters in which race is a huge component that I can't. Race is also used at all times as a weapon. That's not what I consider a better time.

[daddy]

Since we're talking about Statistics, it's always appropriate to bring up Lies, Damn Lies, and Mark Twain.

On the extrapolation front, the IPCC Glacier melting forecast guys could use a man like Sam Clemens. Here Twain, ex-Mississippi River Boat pilot, and extremely familiar with that river, explains how to extrapolate using Scientific data.

"Now, if I wanted to be one of those ponderous scientific people, and `let on' to prove what had occurred in the remote past by what had occurred in a given time in the recent past, or what will occur in the far future by what has occurred in late years, what an opportunity is here! Geology never had such a chance, nor such exact data to argue from! Nor `development of species', either! Glacial epochs are great things, but they are vague--vague. Please observe. In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. This is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
~Mark Twain, The Atlantic Monthly, 36, 193 (1875)

[Clarice]

I don't actually think "hispanic" is a race either Are my Argentine cousins a different race than I am? Not so.

[Captain Hate]

If "hispanic" is a race, good luck counting the number of races in India.

[Extraneus]

For anyone else who'd never heard of Norman Borlaug:

Borlaug’s life was one of extraordinary paradoxes: He was a child of the Iowa prairie during the Great Depression who worked on the family farm, attended a one-room school, flunked the university entrance exam—but went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work that ultimately prevented worldwide malnutrition, famine, and the premature death of hundreds of millions.

[sbw]

Everyone knows Norman Borlaug.

Or should.

[matt]

The divisions these days are more economic, much less racial. Society has become global even in the Deep South, much as the race machine objects.

This is simply more weed smoke from the diversity industry.

When they're electing Injuns in South Carolina and Looziana and God forbid they're Republicans and an uppity Uncle Tom like Herman Cain runs for president and another uppity Tom like Justice Thomas is seated by a Republican president, the whole race based game is up.

Somehow, the Republicans got the whole "we are all Americans" message while the Left continues to divide and put a dash mark into people's identities.

The subtext to me is that the avatar of the article is Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmmm.....everything is wonderful now because the light bringer worked his magic.

[Thomas Collins]

It's nice that folks of different ethnicities and races are finding each other for some humpin' and bumpin' and marryin'. However, racial justice will not be attained until the tenets of economic liberty embodied in the free labor movement are recognized as basic rights (right to contract, right to property, right to pursue one's chosen work, and the other economic rights so snidely dismissed by the progs). The strength of the free labor philosophy can be seen in the LUNed article, in which a pro-slavery Missourian expressed the hope that an economic downturn would undercut the free labor movement.

None of us will ever be free at last until the new birth of freedom that is the unfilfilled promise of our Civil War is brought to pass. Ironically, those today who pontificate on about racial justice are those who are the biggest threat to the ideals of the free labor movement.

[narciso]

Now mind you, if a tree fell in the woods on Todd's watch, well you get the idea;

http://bigjournalism.com/jjmnolte/2012/02/17/nbcs-chuck-todd-previews-how-media-will-team-with-occupy-to-hammer-obamas-gop-challenge

[NK]

TomM-- fabulous pun in your post title.
The race industry in this country longs for the days Whites were rich oppressors and black/brown were the poor victims. Americans have moved on; I can't say we live in a post-racial society, but people generally look to character rather than skin color. The race industry hustlers hate that.

[Ignatz]

Thanks for that Twain excerpt daddy.
Hilarious.
Al Gore probably uses it as a text book.

[NK]

TomC-- free labor and freedom of property rights are the 21st century moral equivalents of the 19th Century 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. The race industry hustlers today are like the Kansas territory slavers, who hoped for disasters to justify their existence. That, and they are both immoral parasites.

[Captain Hate]

Per Tammy Bruce: Deadbeat Sherrod Brown is delinquent on the taxes for his DC condo for the umpteenth time. Taxes for thee but not for me.

[Thomas Collins]

Yes, NK, isn't it ironic that today's race carders claim the mantle of the Civil War amendments while working tirelessly to undercut the principles of economic liberty embodied in them.

[Ignatz]

The Club For Growth provides what looks to me like a very fair assessment of Santorum's overall record.

[Thomas Collins]

And, on the basis of rse's posts on the results of her research on the current educational system, I sadly conclude that there is not much chance that today's students will learn the history of the relationship between the drive for economic liberty and the movement for racial justice.

[Clarice]

Look what greeted O when he attended a fundraiser on Nob Hill in Boston:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/02/obama-holds-nob-hill-fundraiser-tea-party-breaks-out/

[NK]

TomC-- I really don't find it ironic. I equate today's race industry hustlers with the Kansas territory slavers, they are both immoral parasites. Both swimming against a changing world that would soon make them obsolete. So the shameful behavior of today's race hustlers is consistent with those 19th century slavers. Sad, but not ironic.

[hit and run]

For some reason I have a sudden longing to hear from Joyce Kane.

[rse]

Oh TC, don't be so sure. Might as well incorporate that story in as well. Goes to the nature of the serfdom.

Matthew Ridley uses Borlaug in his great Book, The Rational Optimist as an example of government blocking innovation to protect current politically connected producers. Took way to long for that product to get to market in India as a result.

Today is a regroup to get notes together to conclude this missive. Hooray!!

[Thomas Collins]

I suppose I give them too much slack, NK. But I'm always hoping that even progs can have a Come to Jesus moment.

If adding stuff about the history of the economic liberty movement disrupts the unity of what you have already written, rse, you could hold it for a follow-up article for a periodical. I should note I am no expert on when to go with what one has for a book. My most significant thought pieces are the essays I wrote for Mr. Richard, my high school study hall monitor who assigned me essays as punishment for whatever acting up I was doing in study hall! In any event, rse, good luck on the final push!

[Thomas Collins]

By the way, NK, I'm not quite ready to equate today's race hustlers with 19th century slavers, but I do note that the pro-slavery folks were expert in the misuse of social science for political purposes (arguments supposedly based on science on the mental inferiority of the slaves).

[Ben Franklin]

" I wrote for Mr. Richard, my high school study hall monitor who assigned me essays as punishment for whatever acting up I was doing in study hall!"

TC, the troublemaker...lol

[BB Key]

Nob Hill in SF ?

[Thomas Collins]

Mr. Richard overheard me discussing graduation ceremonies with my classmates, BFF, and expressed astonishment that I was graduating.

[NK]

TomC-- no 150 year apart analogy is perfect, but I do find the 2 groups to be morally repugnant social agitators. BTW-- what is Dana going on about with 'troublemaker'?

[NK]

Yes-- Nob Hill in San Fran. Who would have thought, hundreds of conservatives demonstrating in SF, and giving a polite finger to 'Bam.

[narciso]

is it ignorance or chutzpah, or some combination of both, igspah;

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-touts-sc-boeing-plant-nlrb-sued/381216

[Ben Franklin]

" what is Dana going on about with 'troublemaker'?"

It just seems out of character for him.....'he's a Hellion, I tell you'.

[narciso]

"Nothing to see here, these aren't the droids

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/02/caught-after-leaving-mosque-jihadist-arrested-on-his-way-to-blow-up-one-of-our-nations-most-symbolic.html

[hit and run]

It just seems out of character for him.....

Not if you're going by appearances.

[NK]

Narciso-- yes another adherent of the Prophet (peace be forever upon HIM) straps on the C4 belt and attempts to mass murder Americans. I'm SHOCKED-- didn't this Mohamedan get the memo that Barry is now the POTUS and we are in the New Times when the seas stop rising and the World loves Amerika?

[hit and run]

rse:
Today is a regroup to get notes together to conclude this missive. Hooray!!

I'll be emailing some day soon. Another spring break, another chance maybe to meet? We'll be in the same place as last year's near miss...

Oh,and don't think I count my JOM meetups like Jane where you would just be a number. It's not a contest to me,where you'd be like notch #29 on my JOM Meetup Belt or something.

I'm not like that.

[Clarice]

Yes, SF, of course. Too much on my plate today.

[centralcal]

Busy at work, so apologies if this has been linked or mentioned earlier, but what a hoot!

Al Sharpton's SUV Impounded at La Guardia

At that point, Sharpton emerged from the terminal after a flight from Washington, DC, and raised holy hell over the situation.

“He begins yelling, saying the cop was just doing this because of who he was,” a source said.

“Sharpton was adamant there was insurance,” the source said. “He said he was on the phone with his lawyer, and he told the driver not to give the officer his keys.”

But the driver ignored his boss and turned over the keys to the cop — who issued the vehicle three summonses for illegal parking, lack of insurance and suspended registration.

[Ben Franklin]

"last year's near miss..."

I think you meant last years near 'Hit'...

[Captain Hate]

Impound we much!

[Porchlight]

I had heard of Borlaug but his was one of the many names where you've heard it before and yet really have no idea who the person is or was.

So now I know. Thank you Extraneus, that was an inspiring read.

I wonder if Borlaug ever met Julian Simon.

[Threadkiller]

The airport cops acted stupidly.

[A Casual Observation]

@ 2:22 - A distinction should be made between Hispanics and Latinos, and no, they are not a race, as I shall explain briefly.

Generally speaking, Latinos are all Central and South Americans of German, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and native American indian ancestory.

Hispanics are people from those regions (or the Carribean) strictly of Spanish ancestory. Therefore, Latino is the most commonly accepted word for a resident or former resident of those countries, especially since many of them are of "mixed blood", such as German/Spanish in Venezuela or Spanish/indian in Mexico as just two of many possible examples.

A little known fact, also: Cortez allowed many Jews fleeing the Inquisition to join his expedition, and an exodus to the New World continued; hence, many Central Americans are of, for example, Spanish/Jewish/Indian/French ancestory.

[Threadkiller]

Is African a race?

[rse]

Let me know hit. Now that I am about to be more free from all the research books and materials, writing gets more portable.

It's always nicer to read nerdy materials with some surf and sand in the foreground.

TC- not history of liberty so much but I am interweaving history and economics in order to be able to describe the consequences of what are in fact intentions contrary to what has been announced. So it is both what is really going on and why the implementation if it were to go as planned would gut what makes an economy work. So I have had to explain what makes it work. That was what was so time consuming. This is the ultimate Newspeak but I have the real definitions and the little known but important players. They were quite graphic which is why no one mentions their names in the US. Thank goodness the intl scheming set thinks they can talk frankly out of the country. Like the Pres of the accreditor above.

[jimmyk]

“He begins yelling, saying the cop was just doing this because of who he was,” a source said.

Translation: The cop was doing this in spite of Al's cry of "Don't you know who I am?"

[Neo]

(CNN) -- Italian authorities on Friday arrested eight people in possession of an estimated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. Treasury bonds, according to Italian paramilitary police and an Italian news agency.

The discovery of the fake bonds -- made to look as if they were printed by the U.S. Federal Reserve in 1934 -- came about as part of an investigation into a local mafia association.

The Federal Reserve doesn't like competition.

[NK]

JimmyK- you got it. Other than bloviating Alec Baldwin (and maybe Spike Lee) I can't think of any NYer other than Rev Al quicker to pull the "Don't you know who I am" BS.

[NK]

Neo--- excellent snark about the bogus bonds. BTW-- other than the particular printing press, what distinguished these pieces of paper from today's Treasuries?

[A Casual Observation]

Is African a race? No, but Negro or Negroid is.

[Jane]

I'm not like that.

lololol Yeah right!

[Threadkiller]

Why is "african" listed as Obama's race on his birth certificate?

[A Casual Observation]

Why is "african" listed as Obama's race on his birth certificate?

Who knows? There could be many explanations.

[Ignatz]

--BTW-- other than the particular printing press, what distinguished these pieces of paper from today's Treasuries?--

The counterfeit ones were printed by and for the benefit of an organized crime syndicate.
Oh, wait.

[jorod]

Hispanic is a minority. A minority is a special interest group dedicated to conning the taxpayers out of as much of their money as possible.

[NK]

Ig-- agreed, distinction without a difference.....

[A Casual Observation]

@ 4:52 - Some Africans are Caucasoid, and others are Mongoloid. They're not all Negroid.

[Threadkiller]

So my certificate should say "North American"?

[narciso]

You do have to admire someone willing to go to that extent on a con, 6 trillion (Dr. Evil
pinky raise)

[A Casual Observation]

@ 5:11 - That is a non sequitur.

[Threadkiller]

Not really. Either continents are races, or they are not.

[A Casual Observation]

An African is a resident of the [continent] of Africa, whether he be white, black or brown.

Kenyan is a nationality, whether he be white, black or brown.

Negro is the race of most Africans, but not all Africans. A continent or a nationality doesn't determine a race.

Obama's birth certificate [should] show that he is a "Mulatto", a person of both white and black extraction. Why it doesn't, I don't know. Or maybe it does. I haven't seen it, and quite frankly, I don't care what it says.

[Threadkiller]

Some expert.

[A Casual Observation]

I don't claim to be an expert. I was just trying to help you. If I haven't, c'est la vie.

[Jane]

Now you've done it TK! Expect an eruption in 5...

[A Casual Observation]

@ 5:52

Wrong again, ditzy. Nyah, nyah, na, na, nyah - Pfft!

[bgates]

Fun moment on the radio this afternoon (in a purple part of a big swing state):

Coming back from a commercial break, the intro for the show on the generally apolitical station playing in the gym says, "Friday Fiesta: Their ratings are...higher than the President's. (Don't know if you guys want to brag on that one.)" Then they play a clip of Barry saying "everybody has to grab hoes".

So local radio in Orlando has no problems with ripping on Captain Fantastic.

[Jack is Back!]

Back from Legoland.

Matt, the one in Florida.

Hit, arrive early. Espeically, if it is over the break when every kid on east of Big Muddy will be coming to the Orlando-Winter Haven area. You know it is about 45 minutes from downtown Orlando. Its not on I-4 but off of US 27. US 27 is a 4 lane wide long commercial strip with traffic lights - in other words it can take longer to go the 20 miles from I-4 to Legoland than it did to go from Orlando down to Winter Haven. Why they stuck in the middle of Polk County, I have no idea. But since the citrus groves are being given up for other purposes I guess it was cheap land.

We had done the Windsor Legoland in England and this one seems to have more roller coaster type rides but not the Dragon water ride in Windsor. Still all the other parks and fun things are there for the kids to enjoy. Many more Lego stores than the one in Windsor. But if you are an Lego VIP member you can't use the card there for discounts. But you'll still end up adding a few hundred dollars to your Lego buying experience.

Coming back on I-95 we ran into a big accident that slowed down the return. Looks like someone trying to avoid a minor fender bender flipped their car over into the woods on the side of the road.

[hit and run]

Thanks JiB!

Hit, arrive early. Espeically, if it is over the break when every kid on east of Big Muddy will be coming to the Orlando-Winter Haven area

We're coming on NC spring break schedule,so we'll miss most of the FL spring breakers. And we'll be staying in a hotel just blocks from the park.

And I don't want to think about the hundreds of dollars that can be spent in the onsite stores. As ACO so eloquently put it, "Nyah, nyah, na, na, nyah"

Such eloquence is only found in a precious few. ACO is so very precious.

[A Casual Observation]

You betcha

[Jack is Back!]

Hit,

Spend the extra money ($20 versus $12) for "Preffered Parking". Gets you almost to the front door versus hiking a 1/2 mile from the main parking lot.

BTW, saw my first Ron Paul bumper stiker in the parking lot of Legoland. Not one but 3:) There is something about fantasy, fun and foolishness that attracts the Ronulans.

[Danube of Thought]

"Why is 'african' listed as Obama's race on his birth certificate?"

Because the forger didn't have A.C.O. to help him.

[Extraneus]

Great to see you guys making the most of these times, because, come 14 1/2 or so, the boys might not be wantin' to hang with you anymore, especially at Legoland. :-)

[Jack is Back!]

Clarice,

Actually, if your relatives are from Argentina then they are really Italians who speak Spanish who wish they werer English and lived in Paris.

[Jane]

11 minutes to an eruption. Is that a record?

[rse]

jib-

I may have shared this before but my eldest, the warrior, has really good fine motor skills. He also has excellent handwriting that always surprised my mom.

It was from all the legos he loved to build as a boy. Plus the imagination that went into the cities he used to build.

Such a superb activity at so many levels.

[A Casual Observation]

PLease try to keep up, ditzy.

[Danube of Thought]

Pretty sure Nixon was an Aryan. But he never released his birth certificate, so we can't know for sure.

[hit and run]

Jane:
11 minutes to an eruption. Is that a record?

It's not a respectable record until it gets to single digits.

[A Casual Observation]

Here's your single digit.

[Jane]

Actually I thought it was a record in the other direction Hit.

So I'm close to 25, what are you up to?

[hit and run]

Here's your single digit.

It's one of the most attractive single digits I can ever remember. The elegance and class are what attract me most.

[hit and run]

Jane:
what are you up to?

Not much. Hanging out,having a Titos.

[(Another) Barbara]

SWarren (if you're still around):

I think the last thread has been strangled by ACO so I'm putting this here -- a link to one of many Daily Kos exhortations for Dems to vote in Michigan's Republican primary for Santorum. (LUN)

[glasater]

I've read that only registered R's and Independents can vote in the Michigan primary.
If one is registered D one cannot vote.

[cathyf]

Why is "african" listed as Obama's race on his birth certificate?

Maybe because that's what Stanley Ann told the birth registrar at the hospital? I mean this was long before pull-down menus that limited your choice to official categories -- this was a person who rolled a piece of paper into a typewriter and typed it out. And a white girl in 1961 could quite plausibly want to make clear that the baby's daddy was an exotic African rather than a despised n-word.

One thing we know is that Stanley Ann was quite the odd bird.

[Frau Fingerhut]

SF Welcome for Prez. Kool-

They know how to give the finger in Frisco!

[Clarice]

No, JiB they're eastern Europeans who headed for the first Western country they could get into before the Nazis took over.

[Captain Hate]

One thing we know is that Stanley Ann was quite the odd bird.

Unfortunately that trait hasn't skipped a generation.

[jimmyk]

11 minutes to an eruption. Is that a record?

All I know is that if you have one lasting four hours you should call your doctor.

[jimmyk]

Oh, you said "eruption." Never mind.

[Clarice]

Niters. Keep an eye on Hit while I'm gone, He's home alone and that usually means trouble.

[hit and run]

Eyes down.

I'm going to bed.

[(Another) Barbara]

Glasater: Here's the answer from the Michigan State website:

"Do I have to be a Republican to vote in the Republican primary?

No. The state doesn’t register voters by party. You do, however, have to request the ballot of the party whose primary you want to vote in."

It's the same as Hawaii, Donna. I usually request a Democratic ballot in the primary because the Republican races here are either unopposed or don't have a candidate at all (that's how bad things are in Hawaii). I take a Dem ballot and vote for the weakest candidate in each race, and I make no apologies for doing that. It's politics. We fight the war with the weapons we have.