[burger]

Well, that was an unnecessarily condescending response.  I've read the piece you linked, and a whole bunch of other writing on this issue.  And I certainly didn't claim that racial patterns in housing are a coincidence (indeed, I said almost the exact opposite: "that might be because of current racism, or because of past racism, or for any number of other reasons").  There's no question that housing policies in the past were explicitly (and reprehensibly) racist.  But that in no way contradicts the point I was trying to make, which is that present-day disparities by themselves do not prove the existence of present-day racism.

Just to be clear, I'm not arguing that racism is dead, or anything like that.  It just really bothers me when people oversimplify a complex issue and insult anyone who dares disagree with them.

Your original post didn't distinguish between present and past racism.  And from the way you wrote it, your ambivalence about racism's effects, past or present, led me to believe that you weren't aware of some of the history on the housing issue (you wrote, "and that might be because of current racism, or because of past racism, or for any number of other reasons", which sounded to me like you just didn't know the history)  I really didn't mean any condescension.

[burger]

Well, that was an unnecessarily condescending response.  I've read the piece you linked, and a whole bunch of other writing on this issue.  And I certainly didn't claim that racial patterns in housing are a coincidence (indeed, I said almost the exact opposite: "that might be because of current racism, or because of past racism, or for any number of other reasons").  There's no question that housing policies in the past were explicitly (and reprehensibly) racist.  But that in no way contradicts the point I was trying to make, which is that present-day disparities by themselves do not prove the existence of present-day racism.

Just to be clear, I'm not arguing that racism is dead, or anything like that.  It just really bothers me when people oversimplify a complex issue and insult anyone who dares disagree with them.

Your original post didn't distinguish between present and past racism.  And from the way you wrote it, your ambivalence about racism's effects, past or present, led me to believe that you weren't aware of some of the history on the housing issue (you wrote, "and that might be because of current racism, or because of past racism, or for any number of other reasons", which sounded to me like you just didn't know the history)  I really didn't mean any condescension.