undefined | Better HN

0 pointshappymellon1y ago0 comments

No offence, but your comment is quite racist.

> literacy rates among whites were not much different than they are today. It is one of the bright spots of American history;

The rates only looked okay if you cut out at least 20% of thr population?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic...

Yeah, it was okay in New England but many states had laws preventing slave education.

0 comments

intuitionist1y ago

It’s racist to break out statistics along what was literally the single most determinative factor for life outcomes in antebellum America?

happymellonOP1y ago

No its racist to claim that literacy rates in the States were the highest in the world.

As long as you ignore all those pesky non-whites.

quacked1y ago

Unless the original commenters sneak-edited their comment, they included the word "whites" specifically to not ignore the non-whites and point out that universal literacy was not "universal" in the early US.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse