September 2008

See original: Please do it at the Beach

http://www.last.fm/music/The+N…

See original: The New Pornographers – Mutiny, I Promise You

Just wanted to offer a reminder that data is as data does. Everything can be described using numbers. (You know, like how psychology is just a special application of biology, which is just a special application of chemistry, which is just a special application of physics, which is just a special application of math.)

But most people don’t speak numbers very well. If you want to get a point across to those people, you have to find a way to make the numbers into a pretty picture. Something inevitably gets lost along the way, and if you’re not careful, you may end up giving the wrong idea entirely. And, of course, sometimes the people who make charts intend to lead people astray. So you gotta be S-M-R-T! And pay attention.

Here’s an example of a chart that appeared in the Washington Post and probably has a lot of people thinking something that isn’t true:

Sg,

Believe it or not, a lot of folks are blind to bigotry that isn’t directed at them. For example, many would need to see a cross burning before they would call racism, a swastika before calling anti-semitism, or a “No Girls Allowed” sign before calling sexism.

What these people don’t get—what many of them are determined not to get—is that overt symbols and acts of bigotry, while bad news, are just the tip of the iceberg. Real damage is done by unquestioned cultural assumptions about what it means to be other (e.g. black, Jewish, woman, Muslim, poor, gay, etc.). These assumptions are so powerful because they are carried, like infectious disease are carried by people who don’t realize they’re infected, into all of the systems that determine who has power in our society. Very, very few people think of themselves as bigots, yet black people who kill whites in the United States are several times more likely to receive the death penalty than whites who kill blacks. Women earn about 80% as much as men doing the same jobs. Traffic planners seem to ignore the safety of kids and pedestrians in poor neighborhoods.

You won’t be on the receiving end of most forms of systemic bigotry, so it may not be so obvious. Which is why it’s worth listening to those who spend their time noticing, thinking about and writing about bigotry. Awareness of the problem is key to not being part of it.

I followed a link today (h/t Ta-Nehisi Coates) to an article that uses the current presidential campaign as a backdrop for pointing out some of those corrosive cultural assumptions. You (hopefully) won’t have any knowledge of the people mentioned in the piece, but I don’t think that should injure the points being made. Here’s an excerpt (and pardon the language, but it’s kind of integral to the point being made):