+248 It sucks when you want to say a statistically supported fact, but it sounds a little racist. For example "the Chinese are good at math" is supported statistically, however, the statistics don't prevent you from sounding kind of racist. If its true, and isn't intentionally mean, than it shouldn't be offensive. amirite?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Not every Chinese person is good at math, though. When you say things like that, you're creating stereotypes.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Our school posts charts of certain things like what percent of referrals were from what violation, which races took more AP exams, ect. and some people feel INSULTED when they see that african americans have a huge amount of referrals than any other race in the school and that the asians in the school take more AP exams than any other race. Though they're kind of forgetting that it's THEM that are making those results.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why would your school post that?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

To show certain data to others and to try and target certain bad points and trying to fix them. Actually, right now our school has 2 hour early dismissal days for "Professional Development: Attacking the Gap!" The "gap" is the gap of things such as grades, offenses, and other things compared to other races.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

oh, i thought they were going to ransack the GAP at the nearest outlet mall, bummer.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If I were a Chinese kid who wasn't good at math, I wouldn't want people going around saying, "The Chinese are good at math, according to statistics". Then I'd be some sort of statistic anomaly, and that can be horribly damaging to a person's self image.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Cuz theres nothing better for your self esteem than being a correct statistic.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That's also part of it: if you're an Asian and you're good at math, you're not exceptional at math, even though you may be a good. When people see that you're good at math, they'll say, "It's just because your Asian", and your talent doesn't get any recognition. That's damaging to your self esteem, too.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Alright lets lay some stupid notions to bed. The statistic is "the Chinese are good at math." It's true, as a country China is good at math in fact it scores higher than nearly all other nations, so logically the people who make up the country, i.e. the Chinese are good at math. Just like how the rest of the world says the Americans are fat, not all Americans are, but the majority speaks in terms of statistics. And the statistics say america is pretty fat compared to everyone else. Furthermore, if a statistic offends you because it doesn't represent all the people all of the time. Than no statistic, or scientific, inquiry has ever been proven true, ever, simply because nothing happens in statistics a hundred percent of the time. The label stereotype is a misconceived notion. To dismiss a claim like china is good at math because not all 100% of the people in china are good at math is a preposterous notion. It's not racism, its not a stereotype, it is a fact supported by study. Stereotypes don't incorporate facts, they are just a general and hateful perception of a social or racial group. Chinese is not a racial group, Asian may be, but Chinese is not.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's a stereotype.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

o.k.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Lets look at this extremely lets say 70%,group 1, is tested and has cancer, your in the 30%, group 2, would you be offended that they said that the people in group 2 had no cancer. No, you probably wouldn't, simply because they are stating a fact. I honestly can't see why people see it so differently with countries. Its like if we give the groups country names they suddenly become offensive.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'd just like to throw out that Chinese (in China) are more likely to score higher on standardized math tests (ie be better at math) for two reasons: 1) The Chinese education system pounds the students about how to take tests and do well on them (I'd be willing to bet they'd scoring higher on any standardized test for that reason, actually...) 2) The Chinese education system puts a lot emphasis on math and sciences. Certainly more than the US does, although I wouldn't want to speak for any other country since I don't know. So if you put a Chinese kid from a Chinese school and any kid from an American school (even a Chinese American), I would expect the Chinese kid to do better in math. Not because of his race, but because of his educational background.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

exactly!

by Anonymous 11 years ago