|
What does this Statistic mean?
Can anyone tell me what this statistic means??
More young black men are murdered each year than were willed in all the decades of lynching.
Thanks so much!
[ ]
Want to answer more questions in the Miscellaneous category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Random Weirdos?
to add to the previous answer(all correct) during the latter years lynching went from a public spectacle to something done out of sight so there were many black men "lynched" but it was never reported or recorded. So this further blurs any true analysis of any figures that could be produced so using this statistic to prove a point would be weak at best.
]
Well, that's just a statement. A statistic necessarily involves numbers.
What it means is that someone is saying that during the decades of lynching young black men (which happened mostly in the South around the turn of the century and for crimes as minor as whistling at a while woman) a certain number of young black men were killed through lynching. Let's call that X. So there has to be a cut-off point. Like young black men's deaths from the lynching decades (1900 through 1960 just to make something up) = X.
That number is exceeded by the number of young black men who are killed today by means other than lynching. So for every modern year, the number of young black men who are killed is greater than X, which is the total of all of the deaths during the 'lynching years'.
It seems to be saying that lynching is sensational. That it wasn't really such a big deal. The truth is that first, more young black men are killed today because there are a lot more young black men today. There are more born and more survive childhood than during the lynching decades. So plain numbers "more individuals" doesn't mean as much as it would mean if they said one in 100 black men was lynched in the past (made up number) and now one in 50 black men is killed these days. Plus, it's hard to equate 'lynching' with killing. Lynching was an illegal mob activity where young black men were kidnapped and killed (usually hung from a tree) without a trail by an angry mob of white people. What they're saying about black men 'killed' today could include the number of black men killed by black-on-black violence, gang wars, or even killed by auto accidents.
This 'statistic' is vague in many ways and ends up being provocative without really saying anything factual.
Sabine
]
More Questions: |