More on the Bad Assumption

In my previous post, I talked about the erroneous assumption that leads people to expect proportional representation in any group of people they observe. Thomas Sowell has written an excellent article on this and I am sharing a few key points for you to consider.
Here are some examples:

If you watch football, you have often seen black players score touchdowns, but probably have never seen a black player kick an extra point. Is there a reason that teams do not want minority players to kick the extra point?

In basketball, blacks are clearly overrepresented and whites underrepresented. Is this a bit of racial scheming by blacks to control the game?

Government regulation of the housing market was increased when statistics showed that blacks were turned down for mortgages more often than whites. The scream of racism went throughout the land and some really bad decisions were made to ‘fix’ the problem.  However they cherry picked the facts they wanted to see, and failed to mention these:
- whites were turned down more often than Asians

- black-owned banks also turned down blacks more often than whites

- credit scores differed from group to group

Thomas Sowell has this sharp concluding statement: “The bean-counters are everywhere pushing the idea that differences show injustices committed by society. As long as we keep buying it, they will keep selling it – and the polarization they create will sell this country down the river.”

Don’t let baloney guide your thinking.

Bean-Counters and Baloney