A few days ago, I took note of a pinhead study purporting to measure racism in the hearts of Americans. Naturally, the study contorted the absurdist methodology into an argument that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act should be preserved. Some took the absurdity seriously enough to post it without critical comment. New Jersey Oregon Kentucky Maine North Dakota Connecticut Colorado Minnesota
Since clumsy statistics are now relevant to the Section 5 debate, here’s another fact: more hate crimes per capita occur in states not covered by Section 5. In fact, they occur in northern states. The FBI says so. The worst states for hate crimes (Hate crimes per capita: pop:hatecrimes)
Massachusetts
Granted, hate crimes are not tightly related to voting laws. But neither can one credibly squeeze the absurd methodology in the previous study into voting laws. One could argue violently acting out on racial prejudices (hate crimes) is more relevant to voting laws than silently and peacefully holding those same prejudices. None of this is to be taken too seriously, and that’s my point. It is irresponsible to be posting absurd studies in the first place and trying to argue with a straight face it relates to Shelby v. Holder. Any port in a storm, I suppose.