• MorPolitics@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    I wouldn’t say that; sometimes statistics, like crime statistics, are distorted at the point of collection. The misclassification of non-white offenders as “white” in crime statistics leads to an overrepresentation of white crime in the USA, which racist people could probably use as fuel for their perceived persecution.

    In the UK, you’ll see Pakistanis being labeled as Asian, which would lead people to joke that Japanese people are doing X or Y crimes. In the USA, you’ll see Arabic or other non-stereotypical white names, and pictures of people obviously not white, being labeled as white.

    P.S. I don’t support any racist whatnot; it’s just a notable example of data collection skewing a statistic and causing an overrepresentation of crimes committed by so-called white people.

    The FBI’s White Crime Numbers Count More Than White Americans

    • Soupbreaker@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      That source is some guy’s blog masquerading as a newspaper. Also, even if it’s accurate, I don’t see how “whites” (which has always been a malleable term) being marginally overrepresented in some subset of crime statistics is worth anyone’s attention at this point. How is this of value to anyone except white supremacists trying to pretend their ideology is supported by facts?

      • MorPolitics@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        It’s probably the wrong example to bring up, even if it is true, since it’s likely to elicit an emotional response that undermines the delivery of the original intent of my point: that data collection is a point where the statistics people rely on are often skewed.