Dear Habermas Logo A Jeanne Site

Rose and McClain's

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: March 13, 2000
E-Mail jeanne
E-Mail Susan

Race, Place, and Risk: Black Homicide in AmericaRudiger Appel's Figurine and Link to his site.

On Monday, 13 Mar 2000, Natasha Branch, UWP, wrote:

I thought that there were some interesting arguments posed in this article.  However, I was a little confused.  Was the author trying to say that It is hard for researcher's to investigate the on-going problem of blacks killing off one another?  Please explain a little more.  This sounds like a very interesting topic to me.  Pretty soon I will be in Graduate school, and I have to begin to look at possible topics for research.  This is something I would like to look into.

On Tuesday, March 14, jeanne responded:

Yes, Natasha. Cohen was saying that it is very difficult for us to research black homicide because the results can be so easily misinterpreted and used out of context to support any argument of the reader's choice. That is because we are very unsophisticated in our understanding of statistics, and are easily fooled by the use of professional jargon, especially when backed up by numbers.

Do not despair. By providing some very basic understanding of the ethical use of statistics, we can learn to interpret appropriately, there is hope that such research issues will come to the fore in this century. We cannot prevent others from taking arguments out of context; but we can raise our public discourse arguments to standards that demand that those using such tactics are forced to answer before the public.

Rose and McClain's study on black homicide is a good place to begin such efforts.