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"I read something in the paper that really confused me..." Louis C.K. [500x391] (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by twizzalsticks

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[–]YCSTS 51 points52 points ago

The last line is very funny, though the first thought is flawed. The idea is that there are no majorities. No group makes up more than 50% anymore.

[–]realigion 31 points32 points ago

Yeah it just every group (minus the largest) put together is bigger than the biggest group.

20% Hispanic

20% Black

20% Asian

40% White

There are more minorities than "majorities." The technical term is a plurality.

[–]HumerousMoniker 3 points4 points ago

But if it's 80% minorities then the largest group only makes up 20% of the population.

[–]realigion 16 points17 points ago

Yep. Which is called a "plurality," but a lot of people still call it a majority.

[–]HumerousMoniker 3 points4 points ago

Thanks for teaching me something today.

[–]HappyGoGinger 5 points6 points ago

When it's said like that (grouping minorities), it reenforces a concept of white and non-white, which is probably not good.

[–]realigion 1 point2 points ago

20% White

20% Black

20% Asian

40% Hispanic

is that better?

[–]HappyGoGinger 4 points5 points ago

Sorry, my reply wasn't in direct reference to your comment. I mean that when one says minorities, meaning the combined group of non-white people, it serves to categorize people as white and non-white.

I guess since you talked about plurals, I thought my comment would continue the conversation nicely. It has nothing to do with your examples, but more of public attitude.

[–]realigion 1 point2 points ago

Ah, okay. I understand what you were getting it, I was just hoping you didn't think I was propagating that by what numbers I happened to pick. Sorry about that!

[–]MrHall 5 points6 points ago

What about in america as a whole? Honkeys are still the majority in the USA so 80% of NYC could consist of people who are a minority in the US. Just a thought.

[–]LeonardNemoysHead 2 points3 points ago

This is still true. Non-hispanic whites still account for ~64% of the US population. The majority/minority dichotomy stops applying when there is no group larger than all other groups combined. When non-hispanic whites are <= 50% of the US population, that's when you have to start using plurality.

Talking about NYC in particular, the largest ethnic group are non-hispanic whites, which account for 44% of the population. There are neither minorities nor a majority group in the city itself, but it is a non-hispanic white plurality.

[–]adelie189 4 points5 points ago

What's this bit from? A special?

[–]twizzalsticks[S] 1 point2 points ago

In all honesty, I have no idea.

[–]paranoidbillionaire 1 point2 points ago

For Science!

Plus, the joke is over 22 years old... So prepare for a mind-warp when you see Louis in 1990.

[–]Roll251 1 point2 points ago

This is from the 45 minutes he did for the first 15 years he did stand-up. It's in multiple short-set tv appearances from then. The one I can picture in my head right now has him telling this joke in Caroline's on Broadway.

[–]krymson 11 points12 points ago

The paper is correct, but Louis's joke is still spot on because he's pointing out the flawed attitude of assuming white people are the norm, and everyone else is a "minority".

Statistically it's mostly correct, but the wording and the attitude it reinforces on a linguistic and social level it can be unfair in some situations, if that makes sense.

An example of the effect of this kind of attitude is that I'm an American in Taiwan, but I'm of Asian origin. Everyone has a mental picture of Americans as white, so half the time i tell people I'm American, i get confusion or outright disbelief.

[–]paranoidbillionaire 2 points3 points ago

Reference

As I told the OP in a comment down the page, the joke is over 22 years old... So prepare for a mind-warp when you see Louis in 1990.

[–]deshe 9 points10 points ago

If you have 20% Caucasians, and all the rest of the ethnic groups do not amount to more than 10%, you have 80% minorities.

It's not a matter of attitude, it's simple math.

[–]LeonardNemoysHead 10 points11 points ago

Nope. In order for a group to be in the majority, it must be larger than every other group combined. What you would have in this situation is a plurality of Caucasians.

[–]AlextheGerman 1 point2 points ago

Also if we are talking about one country and there are like 60% caucasians and 40% "minorities", you could also call them minorities even if they exist in higher percentages in certain areas. They will still be minorities in their country, interchanging those just because we are talking about a smaller area would be confusing, the way it is now everyone will understand without further explaining.

[–]golden_boy 1 point2 points ago

no, it isn't. a majority is defines as more than half. You need more within a set and outside of a set. In that case, Caucasians are simply the largest minority.

[–]LeonardNemoysHead 0 points1 point ago

Close. There would be no such thing as a minority in this situation.

[–]Snipingpuppet 0 points1 point ago

Close. Technically you can call them all a minority, but if you choose to do so, you must also acknowledge that they are all also a majority as well.

[–]Ironyz -1 points0 points ago

Actually, the largest minority would be referred to as a plurality.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]deshe 0 points1 point ago

How does that even imply I'm racist?

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]deshe 5 points6 points ago

They only thing I labeled mathematically is the size of a subset within a set. Yes, the set happens to be people, and the subset is determined according to race.

But in order for that to be racism, there has to be some prejudice in it. As in me, saying that some race is inferior to another in same respect, or propagating stereotypes, which I most certainly didn't do.

Oh, and ease up on the foul language there, skipper. No need to be mean to me just because I'm Jewish, you antisemitic Nazi.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]deshe 1 point2 points ago

I was just trying to demonstrate how much of a fool you are by using your own methods against you.

You never mentioned my religion, and I never mentioned any fact regarding any minority, ethnicity or race. All I said was, that if there are less of them then they are a minority. That's the definition of a minority. Acknowledging that a minority is a minority has nothing to do with racism. For it to be racism, there has to be some assertions which depend on race. I dare you to find a single one in what I said, explicit or implicit.

You're just looking for battles where there are none.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]deshe 2 points3 points ago

Ehmm... no A "minority" is a subset of a set which is smaller than another subset in the same partition. It's a race-neutral statistical concept.

You might say that the fact an ethnicity is a minority is irrelevant to most things people tend to attribute to it, and I would heartily agree.

But the fact is that races do exist, and so do statistics. One can acknowledge that simple fact without being a racist. Your standard for not being racist requires one to not acknowledge that fact that races exist, or that the size of a given race is measurable, which is utter bullshit.

Anyway, you've slipped below the threshold of my stupidity filter, so I'm gonna add you to my ignore list now. Have a good day, you stupid, pathetic fuck.

[–]KantusThiss 1 point2 points ago

port this to /r/funny or something.

[–]panda_nectar 1 point2 points ago

In the sociological sense, the word 'majority' refers to the group with the most power.

[–]mikekozar 2 points3 points ago

Why are you getting downvoted? You're completely right!

It's like saying the Occupy Wall Street guys are crazy for being pissed at the 1%. How can they hassle you, when you are the majority?

[–]froobop 0 points1 point ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neI76SsDGDk

[–]Kalivha 0 points1 point ago

You know how Dubai is majority Indian?

[–]saumuribiz 0 points1 point ago

oh this guy

[–]TheyAreOnlyGods -3 points-2 points ago

Attention to all the people trying to dissect the linguistic logic of what Louis said: Have you ever heard that bit about how you're not supposed to explain jokes? He's just making fun of white people's feeling that they are somehow normal.

When you think about it, if you were to show an alien a human model most representative of the race, it would very likely be an Asian or Indian.

[–]I_I_II_III_IIIII -4 points-3 points ago

OP is a fucking douche. You know he's seen this posted like 10 times just as I have. Thanks for "contributing" though.

[–]twizzalsticks[S] 4 points5 points ago

...No I haven't...

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