With a demographic of 14% of US males being black, that's almost exactly what you'd predict the stats would be. Still, the argument that media reporting is biased is still concerning.
> With a demographic of 14% of US males being black, that's almost exactly what you'd predict the stats would be.
Well, "White" and "Not black" aren't the same thing. If killing cops was unrelated to race, you'd expect 75% of the acts to be by whites (US is 75% white), which is 6 in 8.
That's another troublesome point. Our distinctions are related to old Jim Crow notions that 1/64th Black made you Not White. Why not the other way around? If 1/64th White made you Not Black, then the USA would be about 99% white.
So I'm not sure what these stats even mean. At bottom, its a broken idea that a killer is White or Black; it largely depends upon who's doing the reporting.
"Not black" and "White" are different not because of things like the one-drop rule and its legacy, but because there are races other than "White" and "Black" present in the US.
"Not black" includes Native Americans/Alaskan Natives, Asians/Pacific Islanders, etc., not just Whites.
> Our distinctions are related to old Jim Crow notions that 1/64th Black made you Not White. Why not the other way around? If 1/64th White made you Not Black, then the USA would be about 99% white.
Er, no. Because even if modern Black vs. White racial identification were entirely driven by the one-drop rule (its not), there's only about 87% of the population that identifies as either White or Black, so shifting some portion of the Black to White isn't going to make 99% of the population White. Again, there are other races in the US besides White and Black.
On that subject, we seem to be missing a killing by an Other - at 13% of the population, we should have another minority in the demographic. Well, small sample set I guess.
Anyway I have to stop making tangential remarks in responses - folks always interpret them too closely.
5 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 21.4 ms ] threadWell, "White" and "Not black" aren't the same thing. If killing cops was unrelated to race, you'd expect 75% of the acts to be by whites (US is 75% white), which is 6 in 8.
So I'm not sure what these stats even mean. At bottom, its a broken idea that a killer is White or Black; it largely depends upon who's doing the reporting.
"Not black" and "White" are different not because of things like the one-drop rule and its legacy, but because there are races other than "White" and "Black" present in the US.
"Not black" includes Native Americans/Alaskan Natives, Asians/Pacific Islanders, etc., not just Whites.
> Our distinctions are related to old Jim Crow notions that 1/64th Black made you Not White. Why not the other way around? If 1/64th White made you Not Black, then the USA would be about 99% white.
Er, no. Because even if modern Black vs. White racial identification were entirely driven by the one-drop rule (its not), there's only about 87% of the population that identifies as either White or Black, so shifting some portion of the Black to White isn't going to make 99% of the population White. Again, there are other races in the US besides White and Black.
On that subject, we seem to be missing a killing by an Other - at 13% of the population, we should have another minority in the demographic. Well, small sample set I guess.
Anyway I have to stop making tangential remarks in responses - folks always interpret them too closely.