Eh, you are doing the thing where you want trades to be one sided. Like, wouldn’t it be cool if bigotry was not only unfair, but also didn’t save any time.
Insofar as you can look at somebody, you can look at their clothes, which are far better signals. If you’re looking for the guy who might mug you, the black guy with a button-up shirt and tie shouldn’t even come up in your radar.
So I look through the names and throw out the people whose name isn’t some variation of Brad.
Names contain more information than race, however, they are also strong signals of cultural upbringing, which again, is a far better signal than race. Bradley is more likely to be upper-class than Brad. Phineas is better than either.
Anytime you can use race to make a quick assessment, there’s a better signal that you could be using instead, just as quickly and easily. Namely, the signals that people choose for themselves, which will say far, far more about them than the qualities they didn’t.
I was kind of simplifying for ease of explanation. Obviously, filtering isn’t a one and done. It’s a process, yeah?
Like, Michael Vick isn’t likely to mug me, for a variety of reasons, but the most obvious is that he isn’t here. He’s also rich, and surrounded by photographers, but this pales in comparison to the filter of “not present”.
The first filter gets rid of the black dude in the suit and tie. He isn’t here. He’s off somewhere else. The setting of “be mugged” is not an environment where ties are worn. I look around, there are a variety of sketchy folks. The ladies (if there are any) are overwhelmingly the safer choice to ask for help. Sexist? Sure. True. Yep. Should I instead ask each of the rough looking folks a quick survey to figure out whether any of them are explicitly pacifists?
Also...like, race/sex/whatever influence the choices that people make. If you want me to filter (as one of many filters, the first of which was “submitted their resumes to this job) on a choice instead of a category, it’s usually going to be a one for one deal. Like, if I toss all the resumes named Jerome, I may not be explicitly racist, but come on.
Insofar as you can look at somebody, you can look at their clothes, which are far better signals. If you’re looking for the guy who might mug you, the black guy with a button-up shirt and tie shouldn’t even come up in your radar.
Names contain more information than race, however, they are also strong signals of cultural upbringing, which again, is a far better signal than race. Bradley is more likely to be upper-class than Brad. Phineas is better than either.
Anytime you can use race to make a quick assessment, there’s a better signal that you could be using instead, just as quickly and easily. Namely, the signals that people choose for themselves, which will say far, far more about them than the qualities they didn’t.
I was kind of simplifying for ease of explanation. Obviously, filtering isn’t a one and done. It’s a process, yeah?
Like, Michael Vick isn’t likely to mug me, for a variety of reasons, but the most obvious is that he isn’t here. He’s also rich, and surrounded by photographers, but this pales in comparison to the filter of “not present”.
The first filter gets rid of the black dude in the suit and tie. He isn’t here. He’s off somewhere else. The setting of “be mugged” is not an environment where ties are worn. I look around, there are a variety of sketchy folks. The ladies (if there are any) are overwhelmingly the safer choice to ask for help. Sexist? Sure. True. Yep. Should I instead ask each of the rough looking folks a quick survey to figure out whether any of them are explicitly pacifists?
Also...like, race/sex/whatever influence the choices that people make. If you want me to filter (as one of many filters, the first of which was “submitted their resumes to this job) on a choice instead of a category, it’s usually going to be a one for one deal. Like, if I toss all the resumes named Jerome, I may not be explicitly racist, but come on.