We had a listening session at work yesterday regarding verdict from the Chauvin trial.
Lots of tears, lots of quivering voices. I was a little baffled, I mean, I know there are various perspectives on the issue, but didn't realize the emotional investment that some people carry.
Maybe part of the reason is that reality is a long way from perception:
" Eight in 10 African-American survey respondents believe that young black men are more likely to be shot to death by the police than to die in a traffic accident; one in 10 disagrees. Among a highly educated sample of liberal whites, more than six in 10 agreed. In reality, considerably more young African-American men die in car accidents than are shot to death by police."
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/social-construction-racism-united-states-EK.pdf
The responses can be: How are so many people so misinformed? OR It's BS! There's no way traffic accidents kill more black men than are killed by police!
Well it isn't even close: Traffic deaths of black men are over 3,000 per year and police (fatal) shootings of black men are around 200 per year. So, this is like a 15-fold difference. And also, BTW. Twice as many white men are shot to death by police every year than the number of black men. Yes, there are more white men than there are black men, but then black men commit about as many violent crimes as white men, so the number of police/suspect interactions should be about the same.
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