Stats flummox

IMG_20200915_113927. Sire. Who can argue with an Elie Wiesel quote? The problemn comes whem you take the automatic protests that come with a shooting of a man in Lancester. The oppressor in this case is the knife wielding black man, but that notion clashes with the basic ambience this business — tucked far enough from downtown so as not to be at risk of any post-wildfire smoke pre too cold vandalism that springs from mostly peaceful protests.

The latest edition of the alt weekly (maybe last week’s; I have taken to reviewing them two at a time every other weekk) includes the racial survey on “who gets bullied at school?”. THe answer is everubody, if we want to be honest about it, if at different level and durations. But I do find the precision of these percentages… Meaningless. On questioning of they were ever bullied about their race or ethnicity
Black eighth graders were 10 times morelikely to respond yes, at 21.3%, than their white counterparts, at only 2.2%.

Sometime in fifth grade, a Hispanic population in my majority Hispanic public school became racially conscious to a manner that did clearly horrified the teachers. So in this context, as some boys take to ripping the midwestern white population that made up the attempted pen-pal program the teacher was trying to line up, and I myself learn the word “honky”. As racial epithets go, I am well aware that to comment at the sight is some proto variation of falling into what will later be called “white fragility”. So I cannot mark this as being “bullied for ethnic or racial reasons”, moreso than if, perhaps, someone were to do a Speedy Gonzalez voice “all in good fun”, micro-aggression that may be classifiable as bullying.
Not to say wider society isn’t bearing out the points behind the percentages or whatever double standard this represents, just that the –however justified a double standard — it means there isn’t too much meaning in and of itself for the 2 to 21 ratio.

Y’know…

IMG_20200916_180518

The purveyor of this sign…
Are they with that am con writer in voting for Trump if he pardons him?
Or does he (she? Xe?). go down the road of the bumper sticker side by side “Obama / Biden 2012” “Free Assange” — and where Obama official and one time Biden veep prospect Susan Rice twerting her horrors when Trump broached the idea?
Not that one oughta necessarially be a one issue voter…
You can if you want to be, though. But you will get what you get no matter.

Leave a Reply