Ethnicity pay gap and dodgy BBC reporting

checjb

checjb

checjb

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Royston, Herts
Hi,
I saw this article on the BBC News site and you'll see that the headline is that white workers earn 3.8% more than the average ethnic worker. However, people of Chinese or Indian ethnicity earn more than whites but the headline isn't "Chinese earn x% more than others". Is it just me or is the whole article a bit provocative?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48919813
 
D.P. said:
Ehh, this is the headline
Click to expand...

Now the headline per se but the main thrust of the messaging, IMO.

As for me being provoked, it's not the content of the article but more the way they've played a bit fast and loose with the messaging. I guess I spend too much time paying with data sets in my job. :D
 
Why do Chinese earn more than whites?

“Because they work harder due to their culture”

Oh okay.

Why do whites earn more than non Chinese/Indian minorities?

“Because they’re racist, but only to non Chinese and Indian minorities. Just like how the gender gap is because of sexism. There is no other answer to the problem and you should accept this ridiculously simplistic answer. If you find this provocative you should look at yourself.”

Oh okay.
 
Mason- said:
Why do Chinese earn more than whites?

“Because they work harder due to their culture”

Oh okay.

Why do whites earn more than non Chinese/Indian minorities?

“Because they’re racist, but only to non Chinese and Indian minorities. Just like how the gender gap is because of sexism. There is no other answer to the problem and you should accept this ridiculously simplistic answer. If you find this provocative you should look at yourself.”

Oh okay.
Click to expand...


Why do men earn more than women

"Because patriarchy!"
 
Mason- said:
Why do Chinese earn more than whites?

“Because they work harder due to their culture”

Oh okay.

Why do whites earn more than non Chinese/Indian minorities?

“Because they’re racist, but only to non Chinese and Indian minorities. Just like how the gender gap is because of sexism. There is no other answer to the problem and you should accept this ridiculously simplistic answer. If you find this provocative you should look at yourself.”

Oh okay.
Click to expand...

Lol pretty much this!
 
It seems to be a confused article in that it celebrates Chinese and Indian people earning more. But unless all minorities are earning more than white people then there must be a racist conspiracy going on.
 
Mason- said:
Why do Chinese earn more than whites?

“Because they work harder due to their culture”

Oh okay.

Why do whites earn more than non Chinese/Indian minorities?

“Because they’re racist, but only to non Chinese and Indian minorities. Just like how the gender gap is because of sexism. There is no other answer to the problem and you should accept this ridiculously simplistic answer. If you find this provocative you should look at yourself.”

Oh okay.
Click to expand...

Yep.

Are we gonna hear how we should be paid more? cuz reasons.

Oh wait no, it's only ever a problem when it's white people.
 
Mason- said:
“Because they’re racist, but only to non Chinese and Indian minorities. Just like how the gender gap is because of sexism. There is no other answer to the problem and you should accept this ridiculously simplistic answer. If you find this provocative you should look at yourself.”

Oh okay.
Click to expand...

LOL :D

I suspect a lot of it is cultural, I mean both the members of one of the highest earning groups (Indians) and lowest (Bangladeshis) are rather similar in terms of "race", appearance etc... they do however have some obvious cultural differences.

Likewise, they don't seem to have broken down the black category but I wonder if they'd find a difference between say African and Caribbean. For example in the US African Americans tend to be the nut low in most of these things, low achievement, high chance of being criminals etc... But African immigrants to the USA on the other hand tend to do quite well, like Asian American levels of achievement - in fact they're well set up there in part thanks to African Americans as in some cases they can benefit from the rather crude affirmative action measures in place. For example every so often you get a headline about some American kid who got admitted to a whole bunch of Ivy leave universities - inevitably they're an African immigrant or the son/daughter of an African immigrant - they get a higher chance of acceptance thanks to their skin colour even though they belong to a group that arguably doesn't have any issues with academic achievement. (conversely Asian Americans get screwed and Jewish Americans are more than happy to be lumped in with other white people in this instance) Even the first "African American" president wasn't really, he was the son of an African immigrant and a white women.

If there is a genetic factor then perhaps it relates to class? I mean I'd suspect that if you forcibly removed (or perhaps sold into slavery) the population of various council estates in the UK and imported them to say Hong Kong or Singapore... then generations later the offspring of that isolated British chav population is allowed freedom albeit some segregation... I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually ended up with a white population of academic low achievers who were prone to crime. That could be purely down to the history of oppression they'd faced and their culture, if there was a genetic factor then that could also be partially down to the fact that by nature of the way they were taken there you didn't exactly select the best from that original population.

Some British couple move over to Singapore later on, say an Engineer and Doctor, they have a kid - that white immigrant kid is probably going to perform rather differently to the hypothetical white ex slave/ex segregated population. In fact given any affirmative action policies targeted at "whites" in general that kid has probably been dealt the best hand possible.
 
These articles are always phrased very poorly, the reality is that Chinese and Indian people coming here will be coming for good reason and will undoubtedly have a degree level education. The sheer amount of Chinese students being incentivised into universities in this country is a marvel.

This just seems like common sense to me, knowing the countries history with certain groups and the fact that 40% (Greater London) - 99% of the population of White British will have a huge variance in comparison to either the top two or bottom two ethnic groups in said study.

There is no "gap", there are just different jobs/careers and a difference in success/failure of communities to assert value onto achieving academically into higher paying jobs (this goes for White British people too).
 
Last edited:
who cares which ethnic group earns the most? the chinese guy who owns the takeaway is poor, so the fact that chinese people earn the most on average doesn't really matter to him.
 
Jumper118 said:
who cares which ethnic group earns the most? the chinese guy who owns the takeaway is poor, so the fact that chinese people earn the most on average doesn't really matter to him.
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All the Chinese guys that own takeaways near me drive i8s, s350s and m5s
 
Jumper118 said:
good. their food must be good then.
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Doesn't have to be, could be pretty mediocre, I'd certainly not assume that a small business owner is necessarily poor. Obviously there is a high failure rate in that business but given an existing business that has been sustained over a few years they might well be doing rather well.
 
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