4 ms·

With respect, I do not see why FBI crime statistics are considered racist. It is because it is a part of the US government? There are many things people are ma

With respect, I do not see why FBI crime statistics are considered racist. It is because it is a part of the US government? There are many things people are mad at the US. Ukraine conflict, Israel conflict, etc. I wonder if people are flagging because it is US government adjacent.

Levitz 3y ago
>With respect, I do not see why FBI crime statistics are considered racist. It is because it is a part of the US government? Because this data requires serious, responsible and honest engagement, and it's tempting to use it to confirm biases. Allow me to make a parallelism stepping aside from controversial topics. Imagine we had graphs of discovered vulnerabilities in closed source and open source software. It wouldn't surprise me if the amount of vulnerabilities discovered in open source software was way higher than those of closed source software. At first glance this may paint a terrible picture of open source, yet, if you actually engage with the subject, you would find out that the reason as to why this happens is that those vulnerabilities are found out, while they stay hidden in closed source. Yet anyone not willing to dig in that deep could point out and claim "See? Open software is terrible!" In the same way, you can look at crime statistics by race and claim that black people in the US are terrible. This requires ignoring socioeconomic status and a whole lot of other factors, but it's really easy to ignore those and it's really easy to just point at a graph. The data is not the problem. The way people engage with the data might very well be, this is a complex and delicate matter and it is my hope it can be dealt with in the way it deserves. ...Not that it has to be dealt with here, really, the website is pretty damn nice.
- maldev 3y ago
  Most people don't quote data that is easily misinterpreted though. Like sure if you did shoplifting, speeding, or something else, it may require that. But if you're quoting murders, or violent crime, that stuff is often reported, especially in nicer areas, and may even be less reported in poorer areas.
- istinetz 3y ago
  > This requires ignoring socioeconomic status Finding holds if you control for SES.
  - wenebego 3y ago
    What is the finding and your source?
- YiraldyGuber 3y ago
  [flagged]
mansion7 3y ago
Because they demonstrate that race Y is overwhelmingly more likely to commit violent crimes against race X, while the media/government narrative is currently that race X is the biggest threat to the country.

Levitz 3y ago

>With respect, I do not see why FBI crime statistics are considered racist. It is because it is a part of the US government? Because this data requires serious, responsible and honest engagement, and it's tempting to use it to confirm biases. Allow me to make a parallelism stepping aside from controversial topics. Imagine we had graphs of discovered vulnerabilities in closed source and open source software. It wouldn't surprise me if the amount of vulnerabilities discovered in open source software was way higher than those of closed source software. At first glance this may paint a terrible picture of open source, yet, if you actually engage with the subject, you would find out that the reason as to why this happens is that those vulnerabilities are found out, while they stay hidden in closed source. Yet anyone not willing to dig in that deep could point out and claim "See? Open software is terrible!" In the same way, you can look at crime statistics by race and claim that black people in the US are terrible. This requires ignoring socioeconomic status and a whole lot of other factors, but it's really easy to ignore those and it's really easy to just point at a graph. The data is not the problem. The way people engage with the data might very well be, this is a complex and delicate matter and it is my hope it can be dealt with in the way it deserves. ...Not that it has to be dealt with here, really, the website is pretty damn nice.

maldev 3y ago
Most people don't quote data that is easily misinterpreted though. Like sure if you did shoplifting, speeding, or something else, it may require that. But if you're quoting murders, or violent crime, that stuff is often reported, especially in nicer areas, and may even be less reported in poorer areas.
istinetz 3y ago
> This requires ignoring socioeconomic status Finding holds if you control for SES.
- wenebego 3y ago
  What is the finding and your source?
YiraldyGuber 3y ago
[flagged]

mansion7 3y ago

Because they demonstrate that race Y is overwhelmingly more likely to commit violent crimes against race X, while the media/government narrative is currently that race X is the biggest threat to the country.