Feel free to propose that in fact it doesn’t matter how racially biased a test is because it’s good in other ways. I don’t know how many people will agree with you, though.
He claimed that a test that is bad overall is worse than a racially biased test. That might be a nontrivial argument if it he could show that it is worse by some fairly universal criterion. I pointed out that that he can’t show this, because I can come up with a scenario where the racially biased test is clearly worse than the overall bad test.
His reply to that was “there is more to politics than race”. In context (rather than by taking the literal words), he’s telling me that I shouldn’t emphasize race so much when talking politics. His argument for that? Um… none, really. There’s no argument to respond to or accept. All I can do is say “no, I don’t accept that premise. I think my emphasis on race is appropriate”.
If I may jump in here … Eugene seems to be asking if you consider non-racism inherently, terminally important or purely instrumental in the great war against sucky tests.
You seem to be agreeing that yes, racism really is more important than, say, conservative bias.
I’m not certain if you actually believe that … I would guess you do … but you seemed somewhat confused by the question, so I thought I’d ask.
It’s not an argument, it’s a premise.
Feel free to propose that in fact it doesn’t matter how racially biased a test is because it’s good in other ways. I don’t know how many people will agree with you, though.
You said you weren’t willing to accept the argument. Do you have any better reason than “I don’t feel like it”?
Wasn’t willing to accept what argument?
He claimed that a test that is bad overall is worse than a racially biased test. That might be a nontrivial argument if it he could show that it is worse by some fairly universal criterion. I pointed out that that he can’t show this, because I can come up with a scenario where the racially biased test is clearly worse than the overall bad test.
His reply to that was “there is more to politics than race”. In context (rather than by taking the literal words), he’s telling me that I shouldn’t emphasize race so much when talking politics. His argument for that? Um… none, really. There’s no argument to respond to or accept. All I can do is say “no, I don’t accept that premise. I think my emphasis on race is appropriate”.
Why is bias on the test that happens to correlate with race worse than any other bias?
I don’t see any argument in that.
If I may jump in here … Eugene seems to be asking if you consider non-racism inherently, terminally important or purely instrumental in the great war against sucky tests.
You seem to be agreeing that yes, racism really is more important than, say, conservative bias.
I’m not certain if you actually believe that … I would guess you do … but you seemed somewhat confused by the question, so I thought I’d ask.