This diary is in reference to Shaun King's diary from Tuesday: New poll finds that Americans deeply respect protests ... except from African Americans
Another diary took issue with the title and overall assertions of Shaun King's diary. The second diary suggested that these assertions are not supported by the poll he cited. However, what this second diary lacks is any real evidence backing that claim up, so it is not very helpful.
However, after looking at the image Shaun King includes in the diary, as well as the write-up that goes along with King's source, I would agree that the title of his post, and the assertions he makes in his diary, are not supported by the evidence presented.
Here is how I come to that conclusion.
First, again, the title of the diary.
New poll finds that Americans deeply respect protests ... except from African Americans
Here are then the assertions King makes in the diary:
1. No ethnic group believed more in the power of protest than white Americans.
A poll-high 67 percent of white Americans believed that "when Americans speak up and protest unfair treatment by the government, it always makes our country better."
2. When asked if they felt it was always good for America when black Americans "protest unfair treatment by the government," the number plummeted 19 percent for white Americans. No ethnic group thought less of African Americans protesting than white Americans.
and here is the poll in question.
Here is the problem that I derive with King's assertions:
If you look at the last category, it is categorized as "non-white Americans." Meaning it is not a straight comparison between the answers of White Americans and Black Americans.
The original source for the data also takes note of this discrepancy.
Views of non-white Americans are markedly different from the views of whites on this issue. (Due to sample size limitations it was not possible to break out the views of black Americans independently). Non-white Americans are actually more likely to agree that the country is better off when black Americans protest unfair treatment than when Americans in general protest unfair treatment. A majority (56%) of non-white Americans agree that Americans protesting unfair treatment by the government makes the U.S. better, but nearly two thirds (65%) say that black Americans protesting unfair treatment makes the country better.
So there is no way to tell how many other ethnic groups were included in the poll as respondents (Latino, Asian, Native American, etc.).
So, starting with the title of the diary, here are my issues with King's assertions:
1. New poll finds that Americans deeply respect protests ... except from African Americans
If you look at the poll, when all Americans are taken into account, a majority (54%) still agree that black Americans protesting makes the country better. I think this contradicts the overall assertion of the title.
2. No ethnic group believed more in the power of protest than white Americans.
We can't tell for sure if white Americans were the ethnic group that believed the most in the power of protest for all Americans. Because the non-white category was not broken down into different ethnic groups, it is possible that one of the other ethnic groups had a higher percentage than white Americans, but because they were all lumped together, that percentage was averaged out.
3. No ethnic group thought less of African Americans protesting than white Americans.
Again, for the reason stated above, that the non-white ethnic groups were not split up, I do not think you can draw this conclusion. It is possible that there was another ethnic group where the support for black protest dropped more than white Americans. It's possible that support for black American protests was so high with black respondents that it raised the average, for example.
These assertions, without being able to see the full data broken out by ethnic group category, I do not think are supported by the evidence presented in this poll.
Furthermore, the poll in question seems flawed, at best. They do not say if a similar question was given for "White American" protest, as well "Hispanic of Latino American" protest, "Native American" protest, etc. That way, we cannot see if there is just a matter of a bias in the respondents based on their own ethnic group, for example.
This is not to say that the results of the poll are inaccurate, or that there was any deliberate obfuscation of the data. However, it is irresponsible to draw a conclusion from a set of data when there are easily identifiable gaps in the data that do not support that conclusion, and can possibly lead to opposite conclusions.
I do not know if this reaches the extent suggested in the other diary that Shaun King was "triggering a land mine," however, knowing how much many daily kos readers value the importance of data, I felt that this was an important point to take note of.
Of course, I have also written this in a way that I do not mean to end all discussion on the conclusions. People are still free to draw their own conclusions, but this is often best served when the all the data available is properly presented. That is one of the best roles that science can play in society.
Perhaps it is inappropriate of me to write this response to King's diary as my own separate diary, however I did feel a certain way about it being lost in the comments. For that, I have no better defense other than my own pride, perhaps.
However, in Shaun King's same diary, he posted the following question:
What conclusions do you draw from these results?
This is my sincere attempt at honoring that request.