Category: Razib Khan

Browncast: An Ex-Muslim Bangladeshi convert to Buddhism speaks

Razib Khan 路 July 9, 2021 路 9 comments

Another BP Podcast is up. You can listen on聽Libsyn,聽Apple,聽Spotify, and聽Stitcher聽(and a variety of other platforms). Probably the easiest way to keep up the podcast since we don鈥檛 have a regular schedule is to聽subscribe to one of the links above.

Today, I talk to “Alex,” a Bangladesh freethinker who reverted to Buddhism from Islam. He’s someone who rubbed shoulders with a lot of activists in Dhaka in the mid-2010’s, while also being a 4chan troll.

We discuss the economic and social situation in Bangladesh, but also the oppression of tribal people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Pew Survey on India (religion, etc.)

Razib Khan 路 July 1, 2021 路 33 comments

The Pew Survey on India is long. Here are my main impressions/surprises:

– The strong emphasis on Hindi in the Gangetic plain is pretty striking (“Central”)

– The stuff about mass conversions to Christianity in South India seems overdone. I understand people can/will lie on Census due to reservations, but this seems less plausible for a pollster. That being said, a disproportionate number of conversions are in the South

– South India is less religious, less nationalistic, etc. This seems to apply across religions (that is, Muslims in the South are less focused on religion just like Hindus in the South are)

– Opposition to “inter-caste” marriage is very strong. And, it is strong among non-Hindu groups too

– All Indians seem rather nationalistic

Indian American survey (outmarriage rate)

Razib Khan 路 June 27, 2021 路 17 comments

The sex-ratio skews male outmarriage for immigrants but balances out for native-born Indian Americans. The 30% rate is pretty low from what I expected. Also, surprised that 40% of spouses of Indian Americans were Indians born in India, but I wonder what percentage of these are 1.5 generation (born abroad, raised in the USA).

Eastern Y Chromosomes in the Indian subcontinent

Razib Khan 路 June 25, 2021 路 5 comments

Looking at the Y chromosomes in the Indian subcontinent, it seems that haplogroups C (found in lots of Patels) and F are the only ones with “eastern” affinity that deeply rooted in the subcontinent. Thoughts? H is found in a lot of Adivasi, but seems more related to West Eurasian populations.

This is on my mind because the Uralic populations show the strong male-based spread of eastern Y chromosomes. Finns are 60% eastern on the Y and less than 1% on the mtDNA.

Yoga: do your thing my brownz

Razib Khan 路 June 9, 2021 路 9 comments

Sometimes I can’t help it, I’m going to do it. So here it goes, Yoga Teacher Jessamyn Stanley Believes White Supremacy Has Polluted Yoga – and It’s Time to Talk About It:

Jessamyn Stanley needs you to know what yoga is really about – and it’s not the poses.

In her new book Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance, the yoga instructor and body activist shares reflective personal essays that touch upon everything from racism to the cultural appropriation of American yoga, from consumerism to cannabis.

…

The book explores the existence of white supremacy and cultural appropriation in American yoga. “I would venture to say that everything in our collective society is rooted in white supremacy. I am sure there are many people who would disagree with that, and honestly I don’t care because I believe that and I know it’s the case,” she says.

…
“The appropriation comes from practitioners who are not South Asian looking at South Asian teachers and saying, ‘I need to do exactly what they’re doing. I need to practice yoga exactly how they’re practicing it.’ Yoga as a concept exists in so many cultures. It’s literally the basis of so many different things: the idea of acceptance and the yolking together of the light and the dark. But these teachers are just saying, ‘Practice yoga.’ They’re not saying, ‘Pretend to be Indian.’ They’re not saying, ‘Steal someone else’s ethnic identity.’ They’re saying, ‘Practice the balancing of truth and light within yourself.’ “

Two words: Kali Yuga. This whole timeline is cursed. It’s absurd. It’s perverted.

I’m not Hindu, so I don’t “believe” in yoga in a spiritual sense, though I have seen its efficacy is a form of exercise firsthand.聽 But the way it is…yoked, to the most absurd and bizarre social justice movements today is just a wonder to behold.

White privilege, and how to get it

Razib Khan 路 June 7, 2021 路 19 comments

The figure above shows that Indian American women make $1.21 for every $1.00 that a white man makes. I knew this data, but the infographic was brought to my attention to illustrate that not all South Asians are privileged. Pakistani women make $0.84 and Bangladeshi women $0.69.

Here’s the “problem” – 84% of “South Asians” are Indian American.

The reason that Indian Americans do so well is pretty obvious: human capital. They’re educated, they’re entrepreneurial, etc. At least to me. What if you believed that all outcome differences between nonwhites are due to white supremacy?

What have you heard about this? How is it people who now accept The Narrative explain how brown-skinned Indian Americans do so well while brown-skinned Pakistanis don’t? What have you heard?

Stolen oppression

Razib Khan 路 June 5, 2021 路 47 comments

‘The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind’ – A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale’s Child Study Center spoke about ‘unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way’.

The psychiatrist in question is Aruna Khilanani. Her parents are doctors. She was educated in private schools. But, she talks about her experience with discrimination. You know, stuff like not being supported as much in her medical residency as a blonde peer.

We have a problem. Who has the standing to point out the hypocrisy and manipulation of these people? I’m frankly sick of it. Any brown person in the United States does experience some racism. But those of us with education and resources are not really underprivileged in any way. The vast majority of white Americans, whose life expectancy is decreasing, have it worse off than us. That’s just a fact.

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