A physicist's view of the notion of "racism"

Details A physicist's view of the notion of "racism" A physicist's view of the notion of "racism"

2007-04-22

arxiv.org/abs/0704.2883v1

Physics

Physics and Society

14 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

Scientific paper

It is not uncommon, e.g. in the media, that specific groups are categorized as being racist. Based on an extensive dataset of intermarriage statistics our study questions the legitimacy of such characterizations. It suggests that, far from being group-dependent, segregation mechanisms are instead situation-dependent. More precisely, the degree of integration of a minority in terms of the frequency of intermarriage is seen to crucially depend upon the the proportion p of the minority. Thus, a population may have a segregative behavior with respect to a high-p (p>20%) minority A and at the same time a tolerant attitude toward a low-p (p<2%) minority B. This remains true even when A and B represent the same minority; for instance Black-White intermarriage is much more frequent in Montana than it is in South Carolina. In short, the nature of minority groups is largely irrelevant, the key factor being their proportion in a given area.

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