Wikipedia: [INDENT][INDENT]Social intelligence is the capacity to effectively negotiate complex social relationships and environments.[1] Social scientist Ross Honeywill believes social intelligence is an aggregated measure of self- and social-awareness, evolved social beliefs and attitudes, and a capacity and appetite to manage complex social change. Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey believes that it is social intelligence, rather than quantitative intelligence, that defines humans. [/INDENT][/INDENT] I’ve heard that Mensa style IQ tests don’t measure social intelligence very well, but rather symbolic manipulation. [INDENT][INDENT]See also
Emotional literacy
Intelligence quotient
Life skills
People skills
Social cognition
Social skills
Soft skills
Oh no, you are not ever going to get me to take a social intelligence test. There is nothing to be gained from that. As noted previously, I am a real douchebag although I prefer the term ‘prick’ because that is what my mother calls me affectionately.
Your “black friend”* is a fucking moron, but then again, who else would want the complete Dukes of Hazzard series? If you look beyond the first Amazon hit, each season can be had for around 20 bucks. It’s absolutely amazing, though. That show can only be found on physical disks, featuring unbreakable encryption. 600 bucks is nothing. If you can find it for $6000, pay it. That shit will be gold someday.
*I doubt anyone believed that remarkably convenient story. Don’t forget to post about your other black friend, the one with the " Dixie Forever" tattoo and the Stars and Bars flag on his garage.
It wasn’t a “convenient” story. It is from today and it is true. Here is the text of it:
“A few weeks ago before all this flag controversy I asked my wife to purchase my favorite childhood show series for my birthday and it was less than $200, now look at the price! as soon as they took it off the air the price went up CRAZY! Hey friends please don’t use my post to discuss the flag issue thanks.”
He isn’t a moron and his wife didn’t pay $600 for it. She bought it before the prices went up just out of chance (I said that earlier). My only point is that some people claiming good intentions only had the immediate effect of almost costing a really cool guy his birthday wish.
No, no, explain again how ‘progressive’ a region with streets, schools and statuary all celebrating the glorious fight for the right to enslave others is. That one never goes out of style!
After that, how about a second chorus of ‘we’re sooo misunderstood!’ And then a couple of more verses of ‘why do you persist in misjudging us this way?’.
Recurring problem in America (and not just the South): thinking that white people can get an accurate perspective of the history of race-relations, racism, and the black experience in America without deferring almost entirely to black people’s reports, views, and experiences. In the 1800s, black people, as a group, had an accurate and truthful understanding of how black people were actually treated in America, and white people generally did not. The same was true in the early and mid 1900s – black people, in general, knew what was going on (just with the treatment of black people – I’m not arguing that black people have any special insight into all truth and all topics), and many or most white people did not (and many of the white people that did thought it was appropriate).
Sorry, Tibby, but it’s ludicrous to claim that black people and white people lived mostly “in harmony” in the South after slavery. Black people were continual victims of terrorism in the South – lynchings, beatings, rapes, and the like were consistent threats for just being in the wrong place, using the wrong bathroom, or other such “crimes”. Black people were mostly unable to vote in huge swaths of the South for nearly a century after slavery ended. The KKK or white citizens’ councils ruled many towns, organizing to determine how best to keep the black population in their place.
You’d know all this stuff if most of your information came from black sources (meaning black writers from the time, black journalists, black people over a certain age [and not just one or two, but dozens or hundreds]).
It’s a relief to know that true racists have no safe havens in the South. I’m lead to the conclusion that all the racists in the South are fals ones – somehow.
Let’s contrast what Shagnasty found in his ass with a more empirical look at segregation, via Nate Silver at 538. Since he’s focused so much on Boston, MA and San Francisco, CA, I’ve selectively pulled from the cities on Nate Silver’s list in order to demonstrate the number and nature of southern cities that are worse than Boston and San Francisco in terms of diversity.
Note also that Silver’s analysis is not exhaustive of US cities. Additionally, there are of course many Northern cities that fare poorly on this list.
I know that Shagnasty and Tibby or not Tibby and their ilk eschew empiricism, so this will just result in handwaving, but others may find it more compelling than an argument by butt-product.
This list is organized from worst to best.
[ul]Chicago, IL
Atlanta, GA
Philadelphia
Baton Rouge
New Orleans
Memphis
Birmingham, AL
Greensboro, NC
Boston, MA
Norfolk, VA
Nashville, TN
Charlotte, NC
Ft Worth, TX
Winston-Salem, NC
Raleigh, NC
San Francisco, CA[/ul]
As a crazy liberal, atheist, law degree type I can say that my current home of Charlotte is slightly less racist than upstate NY where I grew up and way less racist than Indiana, where I lived for a few years.
Charlotte may not represent the south as a whole, but it’s certainly here.
I grew up in St. Louis, which is pretty much a Southern city. It was super racist. My Facebook page tells me that it continues to be so.
Pittsburgh is way less racist. It feels very segregated, although it did better on Nate Silver’'s list than I thought it would. It also suffers from problems with racism, as does the state as a whole. (Pennsylvania has been famously described aa Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between.)
Still, it’s way better than St. Louis.
Of course, this exchange of anecdotes is about useless, but as is usually the way on the SDMB, people respond more to anecdote than to empiricism.
Well, it makes some sense. People on a message board want to hear about what other people think - that’s kind of its essence. Just because anecdotal evidence isn’t scientific doesn’t mean it isn’t interesting or useful.
I do think your anecdote is meaningful and not necessarily surprising. I also think it points out the fact that even though there may or may not be general trends, the situation is probably more nuanced than many people think.
"Larry Reeves of Jacksonville Beach has a tattered Confederate flag on top of his motorhome. He initially thought NASCAR was banning the banner and didn’t display it this week. But once he saw some flying around him and asked a few questions, he realized it was voluntary and quickly sent his back up the pole.
“It’s just a Southern pride thing,” the 66-year-old Reeves said. “It’s nothing racist or anything. I’ve been doing this for 30 years.”
Personally, I’ve decided as a Northerner to stop cowtowing to the PC police as well. I’m putting my Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice flag back up on my car tonight.