Statistics Are Funny That Way Indeed
Tags: White Supremacy, Culture, Police Brutality, Whiteness, BlackLivesMatter

Statistics Are Funny That Way Indeed

Presenting the JACKASS Theory

The JACKASS Theory is an acronym for Just Acting Caucasian Kills A Simple Solution.

There is an interesting exchange here in the comments of this piece where some smart alecky person suggests that police brutality and violence towards Blacks are in fact warranted based on cherry-picking statistical data.

Laughable. Deceptive. Fallacious. This is how I describe the conjectural claims made to support police killing Blacks deservingly and why people should be more afraid of Black people.

I wonder why just 13% of the population would want to commit 52% of the murders. Apparently the statement and its conclusion is non sequitur in logic. 13% percent of the population that is Black do not commit 52% of murders. But I am going to overlook this and try to dissect it anyway for benefit of the doubt purposes.

The target of the discussion does not directly point to me but presumably it is an answer to the title of this piece in terms of how it might just be that something is wrong with me and my thinking on the subject of race. Why would he want to believe fallaciously that 13% of the population that is Black commit 52% of murders. This is something that the author of this cherry-picked data in which he has left no source for reference should ask himself. But I can competently present a source of that data.

Channel 4?! factcheck

When using and analyzing data a prudent and rational person would consider the approach and methods used in arriving at such data. You should know that this data is based on non-compulsory, self-reporting by police departments nationwide and one should be wise enough to concede that there is enough bias in the data that favor police since it is procured and provided by police. Why? Because there is much self-classifying and self-categorizing in their procurement. Also are we sure that in its collection that everything was included or anything was excluded from its recording?

That the Department of Justice and the FBI would even release such bad data let alone consider it is truly telling of the historical precedent here. Consider this one of many proofs upholding the JACKASS Theory.

If you are asking why that would be, then motivated ignorance ensures that you dismiss a great deal of American history and that you also do not consider that the field of psychology has any merit on the study of bias in human behavior or societal behavior. There is also the presumption that there is no simple and common human error to be found in this data.

Data is often systematically and institutionally biased in ways that are very tedious and expensive to correct.

Secondly, while there is little justification for homicide why is there a preponderance of this crime occurring in the US firstly. Does poverty play a role in this? What about faulty policy making that ensure public safety? Or does the justice system and their misapplications of justice play a contributing role? What about disenfranchisement? Segregation? Discrimination?Education?

Never asking yourself these questions suggest that the system and its constructs are valid and perfect, even though the system is in constant flux of correction.

Only an unequal society could produce such terrible results

There is also the propensity of such data to willfully instigate this violence through oppressive police encounters in an observer-expectant effect and a corollary stereotype threat.