Instigator / Pro
drlebronski's avatar
7
drlebronski
1449
rating
14
debates
35.71%
won
Topic
#3143

Black people are not inferior to white people.

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
3
12
Better sources
0
8
Better legibility
3
4
Better conduct
1
4

After 4 votes and with 21 points ahead, the winner is...

Fruit_Inspector
Tags
Politics
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
4
Time for argument
One week
Max argument characters
10,000
Voting period
One week
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Con
Fruit_Inspector's avatar
28
Fruit_Inspector
1632
rating
20
debates
72.5%
won
Description

As pro, I think that Being black doesn't determine your intelligence or anything else EXCEPT what it does determine (not all the time) Is where you will most likely be born but I won't touch on this as it's not a debate on systemic racism. IF I call you a white supremacist it's not an ad hominin attack as the definition of white supremacy is thinking black people are inferior to white people. There are multiple definitions of inferior but the one im going to use is not as good as someone else con must probe that black people arent as good as white people--- https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/inferior_1

Round 1
drlebronski's avatar
drlebronski
Pro
#1
Forfeited
Fruit_Inspector's avatar
Fruit_Inspector
Con
#2
I will open by commenting on the framework of the debate from my perspective as CON. We have been given a specific definition for the term inferior as it is found in the debate resolution. The resolution could be properly interpreted to read, "Black people are not as good as white people." I am not saying this to somehow change the resolution, and PRO is free to question this interpretation in the next round. If this is the definition that we have been provided, we need to understand what "good" means when comparing two groups of people. I believe the first two definitions from dictionary.com[1] cover the meaning well, but are also general enough to be considered sufficient for both sides of the debate:

  1. morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious
  2. satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree


I assume my opponent had the general concept of the second definition in mind when creating this debate, in that we would be comparing the overall quality of the two groups. This is also the sense of the word that I will mainly be considering from my side. However, the term "good" does also carry the connotation of moral excellence as the first of the two definitions makes clear. I would say that a person's moral character should be considered in analyzing their overall quality, so I will also include that within my arguments.

To summarize, utilizing an extreme overuse of commas, as CON in this debate, I will be arguing that black people, as a group, are overall inferior to white people according to PRO's framework and definitions.

America is Forcing Inferiority on Black People
This debate is not about the causes of inferiority. As the resolution states, it is about whether black people are inferior. That implies a current state of being. As we all know, America has racism built into it's very foundations. The very systems and institutions were created in such a way that would benefit white people to the detriment of other races. Think of it this way - if you are about to race someone but you shoot them in the knee, you will likely win. You are ensuring that your opponent becomes far less capable than you at racing. Even 10 years down the road, the effects of shooting your opponent's knee will continue to cause them to be an inferior racer.

This is how America works.

While there are a few exceptions, it can be said in general of black people as a whole that they are set up for failure so that white people can succeed. And the exceptions are not evidence that racism does not exist, because what is considered an exceptional outcome for black people is considered normal for white people.

Education
Black people are forced into poor communities with lower-quality educational opportunities. This leads to them having inferior skills in key learning areas such as math, reading, and critical thinking. "The net result of this pattern is that we have a de facto racially segregated K-12 school system that is more segregated today than it was forty years ago. And, this racial segregation is a strongly implicated in the low educational outcomes for African American, Latina/o and Native American students," states one article about disparate educational outcomes due to systemic racism.[2] The disparities in education between races creates a permanent disadvantage for black people that will affect the rest of their lives. If someone has inferior math skills, they will not be as good at making important financial decisions. Inferior reading skills will impair one's ability for future understanding and can negatively impact how equipped one is for employment. And critical thinking is important in so many disciplines that inferior skills will make things more difficult than for someone who is more developed in this area.

Employment
An article from The Brookings Institution explains the snowball effect that poor education has in producing educational disparities.[3] School readiness, high school graduation rates, and quality of colleges attended are all areas where white people exceed compared to black people. If black people are forced through systems that do not give them the same skills preparing them for the workforce, it naturally follows that they will not be able to find jobs with salaries as high as white people. Besides the prejudiced treatment from employers based on skin color, lower qualifications and learned skills will also make them less desirable to companies compared to their more capable white counterparts.

One can see how these watershed effects produce negative outcomes for the black community. As one article points out, "For some, not finishing high school [is] the first step along a pathway...what some have called the 'school to prison pipeline.'"[4] The school to prison pipeline means that criminal records will further harm their desirability to employers.

Housing
As I have already stated, black people are forced into poor communities which can be traced back to racist policies such as redlining. But they are also kept in these poor areas because of their unequal access to higher-paying jobs. We cannot forget that their inferior math skills also put them at a disadvantage for the financial planning required to successfully navigate the house-buying process. All this means that black people will necessarily be more poor as individuals, as well as a group overall, than white people. And when they are forced to live in the same communities with other poor black people, the cycle of poverty is exacerbated while rich white neighborhoods thrive at their expense. Whites benefit from the system, as well as their superior qualifications and learned skills acquired at the expense of black people.

Effects of Poverty
When racist policies force black people into a life of poverty, they are at far more risk of needing to resort to crime as a means of survival. Think back to the racing analogy. If the person who was shot in the knee still wants to succeed in the race, they may need to resort to cheating to have a chance. The American system essentially forces black people to commit crimes at higher rates than white people.

It’s true that around 13 per cent of Americans are black, according to the latest estimates from the US Census Bureau.

And yes, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, black offenders committed 52 per cent of homicides recorded in the data between 1980 and 2008. Only 45 per cent of the offenders were white.[5]

The need to resort to crime more often than white people takes a serious toll on the moral character of a person. Being forced into that behavior makes it easier to continue down that path. It can also produce guilt, leading to drug and alcohol abuse or other such behaviors.

Conclusion
Much more could be said about the negative impact that systemic racism has on the black community. The causes of inequitable outcomes are many. But what is consistent is the single truth that we perpetuate the inevitable inferiority of a particular group of people based on the color of their skin. We must accept that systemic racism produces the inevitable result that black people will not be as good as whites in such areas as education, financial planning and decision making, and job readiness. As long as the systems in America exist that inherently benefit whites at the cost of others, black people will be forced into inferiority in nearly every aspect of life compared to white people.

To avoid being complicit in this racist system, we must seek ways to make sure black people end up being as good as white people at reading, math, and critical thinking. This will help set them up to overcome their "shot in the knee" shortcomings forced upon them by white America.

Sources
Round 2
drlebronski's avatar
drlebronski
Pro
#3
Forfeited
Fruit_Inspector's avatar
Fruit_Inspector
Con
#4
I will pass on this round since we have not heard any arguments or rebuttals from PRO.
Round 3
drlebronski's avatar
drlebronski
Pro
#5
Forfeited
Fruit_Inspector's avatar
Fruit_Inspector
Con
#6
I guess we'll let this debate sit for one more week...
Round 4
drlebronski's avatar
drlebronski
Pro
#7
Forfeited
Fruit_Inspector's avatar
Fruit_Inspector
Con
#8
It is unfortunate that this debate turned out the way that it did. Let me remind the reader that a vote for CON does not mean you support what I said. In fact, I hope that you are somewhat appalled by my arguments. But such is the inevitable conclusion of those who support Critical Race Theory whether they like it or not. However, a vote for CON can simply be done based on the full forfeit of PRO.