Emily, data and statistics are far too complicated for the average person to make sense of them, on their own.
Think of statistics like car repair. Cars are loaded with complicated electronics and you do not have the testing equipment necessary to diagnose your car's problem. So you take your car to Auto Zone where a clerk plugs his diagnostic tool into your car, and tells you what system in your car has a problem. Off you go to an auto repair shop, and tell them the code Auto Zone gave you.
The repair shop tells you they charge $150.00 an hour to diagnose your car's problem - and you are furious. You just told them what is wrong - right? Auto Zone diagnosed it for free - right? Wrong, wrong, wrong. All Auto Zone did was tell you what system was malfunctioning. They could not tell you which one of a thousand parts in that system failed.
To find out what part failed, you need much more sophisticated and very, very expensive diagnostic tools. There are as many as 35 computers in your car failed. To find out what failed, the mechanic needs to figure out it was a computer failure, a broken wire, part or what? After that the mechanic needs to figure out how many systems were impacted by the failure. It can take several different diagnostic tools and a lot of testing before the mechanic finally has a diagnosis - and can fix your car.
Well, the same thing happens with data and statistical facts.
Narrowing massive amounts of statistics and data down to one simple conclusion is impossible. But you made this mistake in your article titled Black People Need to Face Facts: White People Are Not a Threat To You. Not only did you fail to do the work necessary to reach any conclusion at all, you cited an article that reached the opposite conclusion, suggesting you also failed to read the article.
To correct your mistake you need to spend hours, even days, digging into FBI data and statistics. Emily, if you do not have the skills and the time to do that work, don't cite data and statistics again and call them facts.
I belabour this with you, because you want to work in education policy. That you will impact the lives of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of children is cause for concern - serious concern.
