Issue 1: {Thread}. Perhaps using statistics is too dispassionate when dealing with emotive issues like deaths in police custody in the USA and deaths in farm attacks in South Africa. There will always be people who employ statistics (perhaps manipulate them even) to support ...
... or refute a certain narrative. It can go either way. So statistics aside, if we are to say that there is a disproportionately high instance in deaths of black men in police custody in the USA, what do we benchmark that against? New Zealand? Denmark? Canada? Now, what if ...
... we were to extend that same logic when talking about farm murders in South Africa? If we were to benchmark the South African situation against New Zealand, Denmark and Canada, what would the trends show? We wouldn't be able to get away from using some stats and figures...
... but use them in a softer application, by merely asking: Are the deaths of black men in police custody a noticeable trend in these other countries as they (supposedly) are in the USA? And are the deaths of farmers in attacks on farms a noticeable trend in these countries....
... as they (supposedly) are in South Africa? And once we have established whether the USA and South Africa are anomalies in terms of these occurrences, will we apply what we know equally to both in terms of taking action? #blacklivesmatter #plaasmoorde #BLM #FarmMurders
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