What is it about discrimination, or the mere possibility of it, that so frequently leads otherwise sensible observers to leap from hypothesis to conclusion without pausing to present evidence or argument?
I wish I knew. But since I don’t I’ll just have to content myself with pointing out examples. Here’s a good one, from an editorial, “Catching the Flu,” in the Washington Post yesterday. Arguing that “education about the flu and the flu vaccine needs improvement,” the WaPotorial asserts the following:
While the CDC recommends the vaccine for everyone over age 50, that message has not been carried with equal force to every community: Far more whites receive the vaccine than do blacks and Hispanics.
It is of course possible that whites receiving more flu vaccines than blacks and Hispanics may be the result of less education about the vaccine being provided to black and Hispanic communities, and that discrepancy in turn (if it exists) may possibly be the result of discrimination. But the mere fact that more whites receive the vaccine does not, by itself, come anywhere close to proving that the discrepancy in vaccination rates is the result of insufficient messages being carried to minority communities.
Umm… possibly more whites get the vaccine because there are more whites than there are blacks or hispanics?
What are the percentages?
“What is it about discrimination, or the mere possibility of it, that so frequently leads otherwise sensible observers to leap from hypothesis to conclusion without pausing to present evidence or argument?”
Must be the same thing about standardized tests that causes otherwise sensible observers to make ridiculous assumptions and hysterical conclusions, in the absence of supportive data. :)
Speaking of leaping to conclusions:
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/7518506.htm
“SCHOOL REFORM Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn yesterday, appearing visibly upset, said the white Philadelphia principal who used the N-word in an eighth-grade class last month should be forced out of her school, the Overbrook Educational Center.
Glenn, one of two African-American members on the five-member commission that governs city schools, said she did not accept Mary Rita Sheldon’s explanation that she spoke the word only in telling students that it is a bad word that should never be used.”
Deciding to Make Race an Issue Just Because….
John, over at Discriminations hit the nail on the proverbial head with this one.
Working in the field, I can say that, if anything, the minority community is given MORE information regarding vaccine availability rather than less.
They just refuse to act on it. Many believe the urban legends about tainted vaccines that are rampant in the black community. Others simply don’t believe that vaccines work. But the vast majority, by far, simply have no interest whatsoever in preventative medicine.
Wasn’t it reported some time ago that black people still are apprehensive about things like vaccination programs, due to the Tuskegee experiment? I wonder if that’s true, and if it could be a factor here.
Could it be that they just don’t read newspapers or watch news on TV? Most sitcoms don’t have a lot of information about vaccinations. You can lead a horse to water….