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Title: Do you live in the most racist place in America?
Source:
PennLive
URL Source: http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/201 ... u_live_in_the_most_racist.html
Published: Apr 30, 2015
Author: John L. Micek
Post Date: 2015-05-03 09:53:52 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 2264
Comments: 4
This map of Google searches will tell you If you live in the rural Northeast or the South, the chances are good that you live in one of the most racist places in America, according to a new report that analyzed Google search data to find the most racist communities in America. The report published on PLOS One comes from data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, who, as The Washington Post reports, used a similar method to measure the impact of racism on President Barack Obama's electoral fortunes. "Google data, evidence suggests, are unlikely to suffer from major social censoring," Stephens-Davidowitz wrote in a previous paper, The Post reported. "Google searchers are online and likely alone, both of which make it easier to express socially taboo thoughts. Individuals, indeed, note that they are unusually forthcoming with Google," he concluded. Stephens-Davidowitz further notes that "the Google measure correlates strongly with other standard measures social science researchers have used to study racist attitudes," The Post reported. If you're thinking that racism is a notoriously difficult thing to quantify, you'd be correct. Traditional survey instruments tend to be useless. If you ask someone if they're racist, they're going to say "No." Or, more likely, they may not realize they harbor racist attitudes because those tend to be subconscious or embedded behaviors, as The Post also correctly notes. But here's the surprise takeaway from the report: 
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#2. To: Willie Green (#0)
And exactly what is that measure. Before answering you should note how Hawaii is classified. It is a well know dirty little secret just how exremely racist some groups in Hawaii are.
#3. To: Willie Green, Fred Mertz (#2)
The newspaper added that researchers tried to "control for variants of the N-word not necessarily intended as pejoratives, excluding the "a" version of the word that analysis revealed was often used "in different contexts compared to searches of the term ending in '-er'." Here's a clue as to just how narrow this study defines racism.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestStephens-Davidowitz further notes that "the Google measure correlates strongly with other standard measures social science researchers have used to study racist attitudes," The Post reported.
Replies to Comment # 2. But here's the surprise takeaway from the report: Researchers looked at searches "containing the N-word," and found it "roughly as often as searches for "migraine(s)," "economist," "sweater," "Daily Show," and "Lakers.'" The Post reported.
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