Quote:
Originally Posted by particlewave
Why does their race or ethnicity matter? You’re suggesting that different races or ethnicities have different skill sets or work ethics. That’s very bigoted. 
You might want to rethink your wording  |
Oh I think it's a fair statement, that we don't need to get offended about, if we take in the right context.
There are absolutely cultural differences which are evident in workmanship. I see this in the construction trades all day. That does not mean that a person is not capable of the same as another simply because they're a different ethnicity. What it means, is that their cultural differences lend themselves to a specific type of skill.
Islanders, For instance, tend to have a much lower expectation about how flat concrete needs to be. That is simply a difference in their cultural norm.
Hispanics seem to understand that sometimes working hard IS working smart: rather than trying to find more tools to make a job easier, or automate it, they just buckle-in and do the hours needed to make it look nice. This is why 90% of the time I can accurately tell you the ethnicity of the drywallers on one of my projects.
This is no different from someone having a preference over the ethnicity (or gender) of their massage therapist. Asians have a different massage technique than Russians, for instance. (Or so im told, Haha)
Roma people, traditionally and culturally, tend to stick to themselves. As such, their metiers (or skilled trade) tends to be passed down from generation to generation, and therefore the "old ways" / techniques, are as well.
Are these generalizations? Yup. Are they stereotypes? Absolutely. As such, they're rife with exceptions. But they shouldn't be offensive, or "racist", as such. It's not as though anyone is suggesting that a certain ethnicity CAN'T do something as well as another.
When I built an "old- world" project that needed "old- world" stucco on it, my usual stucco contractor told me that I needed to find "an old Greek guy, whose grandfather taught him that technique". It didn't strike either of us as offensive.
For the record: my family is Hispanic / American Indian of decent.
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