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Comment by povertyworld | Hacker News Reader

Out of curiosity I just googled it, and yes, there is, and it's actually more serious than lack of diversity in adtech. If there aren't enough underrepresented minority applicants at Google, they will just have to hire an overrepresented minority to spy on you instead. But if the dental schools aren't producing enough minority dentists, those communities may not have access to quality dental care.

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> But if the dental schools aren't producing enough minority dentists, those communities may not have access to quality dental care.

Sorry, I must have missed the memo that citizens can only visit dentists of the same ethnicity.

I'm just going by what the NYU College of Dentistry says. I assume they've thought a lot more about access to dental care than I have.

>Dentists who are underrepresented minorities are more likely to serve communities in need and therefore address disparities in dental care.

https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2019/septem...

Indeed - although the point may still be valid.

Once you're qualified, it's natural to go off and place yourself where you can make money.

As an anecdotal example, in my local practice, there are a lot of Eastern-European and now Greek dentists. They're excellent and came here to make more than they would at home (and prop up the NHS whilst they're at it) - I do have a concern that there's likely to be an impact on dental care in their country of origin though. I know precisely that has happened with nursing.

You find it difficult to believe that white dentists generally serve the communities they live in, which, by income squared with demographic data, tend to be overwhelmingly white?

Yes.

I find that difficult to believe, if you're being intellectually honest.

To be honest, I'm just not used to living in a place with ethnic division along geographic boundaries. It may exist, but I've not personally seen it so yea, it's hard to imagine. Not saying it doesn't exist, but you asked the question to me personally.

Ah well, it’s a significant problem in many parts of America. Pretty much every metropolitan area has ethnic segregation to some extent among geological lines. This is due to a variety of factors- white flight, a long history of oppression and a fairly recent desegregation movement, towns where black people weren’t allowed to stay the night, generational discrepancies exaggerating existing effects, etc.

It’s fairly normal for there to be a wide variety of reasons why specific areas are predominantly one or another ethnicity.

You shouldn't be surprised that people prefer to see doctors (and lawyers and plumbers etc) from their home country and speak their native language. Similarly, if you were living in a foreign country with a different national language, you'd likely prefer the same.

Just because someone is a different ethnicity doesn't mean we don't have a shared culture. Immigrants move to a country because they like the language/culture and want to be a part of it.

Immigrants move to a country to take advantage of the opportunities there and improve their standard of living. I have never met an immigrant that moved to a foreign country because they "liked the language/culture and want to be part of it".

Then maybe the incentives are wrong? If I ever move to another country, I'll pick the country based on the culture, not just on opportunity. It's too important not to think about.

depends on the (source:target) pair. People immigrating from India->US are coming from a vastly different background/goals/needs than those going US->India. Money probably dramatically beats out culture wants until you reach a certain point; those coming from a first-world country likely have lower monetary wants, and so culture has greater relative value.

Those coming from third-world to first-world are likely much more interested in money than culture, and I can't say for certain but my intuition is that the kinds of ethnic segregation (eg in NY/Chicago, where there's a whole array of little microtowns) that you see in the US are mostly generated by those poorer populations seeking wealth, not cultural value.

I imagine the equivalent American/European expat towns don't exist nearly as strongly/commonly in india/china, as the inverse exists in the US. (of course, you'd also expect less americans/europeans migrating to india/china, since the monetary difference isn't as strong).

What you are saying is true, which is why a single national language is important. People will naturally gravitate towards communities where their language is spoken, so we unify ourselves by ensuring that English is the common national language.

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