Will Shetterly's Blog, page 88

Beulah McFee page 26

The widening class gap in black violent crime

FromThe other side of Black Lives Matter | Brookings Institution: Segregation by income amplifies segregation by race, leaving low-income blacks clustered in neighborhoods that featuredisadvantages along several dimensions, including exposure to violent crime. As a result, the divide within the black community has widened sharply. In 1978, poor blacks aged twelve and over were only marginally

Beulah McFee page 25

Recognizing bullshit online #1: Counterfactual Identity Swaps

I'm not saying "counterfactual identity swaps" are the first or greatest examples of bullshit; the number just means I suspect I'll add more items to the list. Matt Breunig defines theCounterfactual Identity Swap: The way the CIS works is you take an event in the news and you speculate on what the event would be like if the identity of the actors involved were different. Unsurprisingly, the

Is #BlackLivesMatter effective? The argument against.

The kindest thing to say about #BLM is they mean well, but they're having trouble communicating their message. The problem begins with their name and their insistence that saying "all lives matter" is racist—most Americans of all races think #AllLivesMatter is a better description of their views than #BlackLivesMatter. Today, I saw this quote by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trying to address the

Beulah McFee page 24

We binge-watched Broadchurch season 2 — no spoilers

I gave the first season of Broadchurch 5 stars on Netflix, which in retrospect was a mistake, because I can't give the second season 6 stars, though I would. Okay, Netflix doesn't let you rate seasons, which is a shame, because few shows are equally good from season to season. But in this case, it's perfectly legit to give both seasons one rating. Like a good novel, they're two halves of a whole.

Three boys shot because of toy guns: Tamir Rice, Andy Lopez, Nicholas King - #DemilitarizeThePolice

Tamir Rice Age: 12 Shots fired: 2 Hit: 1 Replica gun: Airsoft without orange tab that resembled a Colt 1911 pistol Andy Lopez Age: 13 Shots fired: 8 Hit: 7 Replica gun: Airsoft without orange tab that resembled an AK-47 rifle Nicholas King Age: 14 Shots fired: 1 Hit: 1 Replica gun: Airsoft painted black that resembled a Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol (Note for anyone

Beulah McFee page 23

For people who think Henry Louis Gates' arrest was about racism

Study on Henry Gates arrest says Cambridge police don't use racial profiling: "Of the 392 adults arrested for disorderly conduct, 57 percent were white and 34 percent were black. That racial breakdown almost exactly mirrored the racial composition of the population that Cambridge police investigated for disorderly conduct, the center's analysis shows."