Culture & Society

by Linda Chavez, CEO Chairman Is America a deeply racist society, whose very institutions perpetuate the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow? Unfortunately, to answer “No” — even a qualified “No” — is becoming harder by the day. Since the horrific killing of George Floyd, millions have taken to the streets to protest not just police violence but to insist that systemic racism infects everything, everywhere in the lives of African Americans and others of color. If blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately more likely than whites to be shot by police, live in poverty, have higher unemployment rates, or die …

By Hans Bader It is now dangerous for an academic to conduct or even discuss research that shows an absence of racial bias in the criminal justice system. An Asian-American college official was forced to resign his position after discussing such research, as The College Fix reports in the article, “Scholar forced to resign over study that found police shootings not biased against blacks.” As it notes: Michigan State University leaders have successfully pressured Stephen Hsu to resign from his position as vice president of research…The main thrust to oust Hsu came because the professor touted Michigan State research that found police …

The data don’t show racial bias in police use of deadly force. A few viral videos don’t prove otherwise. So far, we haven’t seen a shred of evidence that George Floyd’s death in police custody last month was racially motivated. But for those looking to exploit the incident, that doesn’t seem to matter. Continue reading here:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-police-racism-isnt-an-epidemic-11592952420?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/buWWT8SZDL Related posts: Good News: Trump Rescinds Obama’s “Affirmative Action” Guidance Did Juan Williams libel LU’s Hans Bader? The Washington Post’s Not-So-Fine Op-Ed CEO Praises Justice Department

Two Caveats re Race and the Coronavirus The data are starting to show that the coronavirus is having a disproportionate impact on African Americans.  I raise two caveats.   First, beware of using race as a proxy for underlying conditions (various health issues and, a step removed, poverty and geography) that are the real reason for the disparities.   Second, beware of blaming discrimination as the sole or even main cause of these underlying conditions, when there are likely many other causes, often cultural and behavioral. A Study of Little Interest A recent study says it has found that, in states that have banned racial …

Besides which country you are born in, in my view the most important factor by far in explaining disparities in all manner of life outcomes (poverty, unemployment, crime, education, you name it) is whether you were born out-of-wedlock. And since Americans are very interested in racial disparities, from time to time I post the federal government’s latest data on this topic. Late last year, the final data for 2018 were published here (the key is Table 9 on page 25), and here’s what we learn: For all racial and ethnic groups combined, 39.6 percent of births in the United States …