13h ago

Why are people of mixed ethnicity disproportionately underrepresented in positions of power and influence within society?

So I wonder why to this date on a high level of things like the corporate world and even in the media you still mainly see white/caucasian people?

Like when I think of CEO’s, boy bands or movie stars I rarely see for example black people. I feel like they’re under represented and it needs to change.

I once asked a similar question on a different Lemmy account and they were telling me I’m racist for being against racism. How does this make sense? I’m pretty sure white supremacy is a real thing and I think it’s important to speak up about it. Why do you think this is still an issue? Do people not care about it?

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It’s institutional racism usually.
The people who rise to these positions often come from generational wealth or at least upper middle class economic status.
It’s hard to build generational wealth when your ancestors are enslaved, either literally with shackles or more metaphorically by living paycheck to paycheck with little chance of advancement.
- People of mixed race are also often shunned by both parents' ethnicities for not being "full" which results in less social cohesion.
  Basically, people of all ethnicities are bastards to anyone they perceive to be "less than full". Not unlike how colorism works.
  
  colorism only goes one way and that's against dark-skinned people. these terms are meant to analyze systems of power, there's no oppression against light-skinned people

Probably a lot of proportional representation and a fairly heavy hand to bias representation. I'm tell you, it's fucking hard to get well sourced, recent data, but here are some charts to ponder:
My favorite format, but the data source was unclear.
Presentation demonstrating change over time, backed by US demographics data - about as good as we can get.
The most recent, but ... Buzzfeed? How much salt you want with that?
A consistent point is that whites are still the majority population, so you'd expect to see them more often.
But beyond that hides white, male privilege. There should be at least as many women CEOs billionaires, since women make up slightly more than 50% of the population, and yet they still comprise only 10% of the Fortune 500 CEO list. Dig into that at all and you find a massive bias.
The % on TV seems about right, or even over corrected for diversity. It's the IRL corporate America that's off-kilter, so maybe if that's what you're seeing on TV it's also accurate.
- What’s the difference between white and hispanic ? Spanish people look pretty white to me
  
  In US demographic surveys, they make a distinction between "White, non-hispanic" and "White."
  There's little difference except whether cops can shoot you and get away with it, or not.
  
  Hispanic is an ethnicity while white is a race. you can be of any race and Hispanic and of any ethnicity and white but that doesn't mean they're the same thing.
  Hispanic means Spanish-speaking people from Latin America which is different from Spanish which is a person from Spain. despite what the conquistadors would like people to think, not everyone in Latin America has Spaniard lineage. there are indigenous people that never got fully assimilated and don't speak Spanish

With media, you get a lot of straight, white (usually young) men bitching about “forced diversity” if the main characters aren’t their idea of “standard human” which is, of course, a straight, white, neurotypical, cisgender man. He can have a British accent if he’s fancy or an Australian one if he’s rowdy. Otherwise American all the way, baby.

Social reproduction of the elites. Which is the advanced version of kids do the same job as their parents
Getting with parents with money and connection is a huge cheat code. While some people have to work to pay their rent at university, some other have their parents buying them an appartement. Guess who can afford to volunteer in a political party, do art or develop software on the side ? Some people do have family with connection which means they'll be able to meet the right person to finance their project while many other stop at this step. It's why it's hard to join the elite when your family isn't part of the elite for multiple generations.
And many immigrant end-up at the lower-level of the social pyramid, their kids grow up with parents who have no money, no connection, and sometimes don't even know the language. which make them harder for them to climb the "social ladder" a generation latter their kids don't have nay kickstart, so it's not surprising that very few are represented in position in power, even if their family has been around for over 100 years. And without any surprise the one who do often have been part of the elite before immigrating.

Follow the money

no one knows for sure

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