By the way, I also did a Google search for “covid deaths black hispanic” and did not get the same search results as you. You want to know why? Because Google gives you results back based on your own personal algorithm. The fact that you got back a hit with the Ibrahim X Kendy article is a testament to *your* bias. In fact, my top search result was from the Center for Epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin. Again, I am so sick of grifters exploiting the ignorance of boomers and other “skeptics“ to advance a false narrative. Learn how Google searches work, Mike.
I also find it very interesting that you posted the data chart from the CDC without the headings. LoL. Anyone who bothers to click on the link and do their own research will see Black Americans had higher age-adjusted mortality rates than Whites. Again, contradicting your main argument that Whites are the ones who are the worst of. You dont have to be honest with yourself, but please dont treat your readers like idiots.
I know you are trying to get on the NPR is too woke bandwagon, but I hope you take this feedback seriously.
I did a very cursory Google search for stories on NPR about life expectancy, and found at least a few from the last year or two talking about disparities among White men, which is inconsistent with the crux of your argument. If you are going to do a meta-analysis of information presented on NPR, at least be honest about your data collection methods. I think you went purely off vibes here, and not actual stories (I will link to the stories at the bottom of my comment).
Second, you claim NPR misrepresented the data when YOU yourself just did the same thing. All the data you posted indicates that Black Americans do indeed have shorter life expectancy than White Americans, and yet you claim in BOLD letters that: FOR 6 OF THE PAST 8 YEARS PEOPLE OF COLOR HAD LONGER OR THE SAME LIFE EXPECTANCIES AS WHITE AMERICANS. So which is it, I ask you? Or, are Black Americans not counted as people of color, because that is too woke for you?
Anyway, here are examples of NPR reporting the exact kind of stories you accuse them of not reporting:
You completely missed his point, did you actually read the article or just skim it? Let me try to summarize:
-he acknowledges up front that black people and native Americans have shorter life expectancies than white people.
-However he also provides data showing that non-Hispanic white Americans have shorter life expectancy than a) the average American (of any race); b) of Asian Americans c) Latin/hispanic Americans
What he is contesting is the much-touted claim that white supremacy is the primary factor contributing to lower black life expectancy, when Latin and Asian American life expectancy is in fact higher than that of white Americans. If "white supremacy" was so pervasive, you would expect it to be affecting Asian and Latin/Hispanic life expectancy as well right? And you would also expect White Americans to be at the very top of the life expectancy, since white supremacy skews everything in their favor right?
Again, his primary contention is that the claim of an ever-present "white supremacy" does not bear out in a lot of really important statistical analyses, in this case American life expectancy.
He’s using the term “people of color” to refer to all non-white people, in which case his claim is supported by his chart (with some interpretation required; if the overall life expectancy is higher than the white life expectancy, then all non-white people - treated as a group - must have a higher life expectancy than white people). I do think the term “people of color” is confusing and should have been avoided.
So he is criticizing NPR for combining all people of color into a singular category so he does the same thing to prove his point? Sure...makes sense. If anything, the one lesson to be learned here, by both NPR AND Pesca, is that demographic groups should be treated as distinct, rather than lumped into one.
Anyway, way to ignore all the evidence to the contrary I presented, which by the way took me a whole 60 seconds to collect.
As someone who does actual research for a living, I am disgusted by Pescas laziness and lack of rigor.
Mike, I think you're right according to the numbers. However, as an octogenarian white man, I truly believe that I have experienced a lot of "good luck." I suspect that there are tranches of white folks who have truly been privileged. I'm one of them. I grew up in a blue-collar, lower socio-economic environment, but because of "whatever" managed to get an education and escape. I believe my escape was helped along by my privilege. Rob Henderson is another example - both he and I are "smart." We were readers and our teachers and others recognized us and we got the occasional break that folks of color and less gifted white folks received less of.
If you're white, not very bright and happen to have been brought up in the rust belt, and as technology removed most of the opportunity that used to be there, well it can seem like "somebody" or "something" has taken away the privilege that used to exist for us white folks. It pisses people off.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, the numbers are correct, but there's a lot more fine structure underneath than just ethnic background.
Yeah, the problem with the white supremacy argument is that there’s a vast difference in privilege between white folks from a tony Connecticut suburb and white folks from Youngstown, OH.
What we should be focusing on is class privilege, but having white and nonwhite lower classes at odds with each other serves the interests of the top 0.1% of all ethnicities.
Interestingly, W.E.B. DuBois, in his classic in "Black Reconstruction in America ..." that the low class white workers in the South, and the freed slaves missed their chance to come together in a combined labor movement! Exciting possibility. But highly unlikely given the cultural barriers. Yes. I agree. It's probably more about class now.
Did we need the covid death numbers to belie the myth of white privilege?
Don’t we have interracial murder data, college admissions data, employment preference data (which went totally crazy in 2022/2023), federal contracting data, etc, etc?
Wow, it is nice to see this from Mike Pesca! I was a long-time Slate subscriber and Pesca fan, but I switched them off several years ago because I want to be informed, not brainwashed. Not that Pesca ever tried to brainwash me. Rather, I was frustrated that he never mentioned the fact that his colleagues were trying to.
To Mike's credit, he never whined about being "mistreated." And while I can strike a noble pose for standing up for him, their IT operation was at least half the problem. My Slate Plus subscription was constantly screwed up; couldn't get "Plus" sessions on the Political Podcast, etc. Mike carried me through the pandemic. He has the only podcast that I've consistently listened to. My other favorites (credit to Slate, I guess), are the Political and Felix Salmon's finance.
I've always thought Mike was great--though I had bailed on Slate long before 2021. (I had been a plus subscriber since they started it.) It is so sad how media brands have become ideological soapboxes for idiots. Now that I know Mike is independent, I'll check out his substack.
Good article. Would point out that the first chart doesn’t show white people dying from covid at proportionally higher rates; as far as I can tell, it’s showing the percentage of covid deaths represented by each race, and the breakdown is about what you’d expect if all races were affected equally. Am I misinterpreting?
How could it be a good article if the data dont support his conclusions? What exactly makes it good? Just the fact that he tried to throw NPR under the bus, even if he doesn't have the evidence to back up his argument?
I appreciate the time you spent and the depth of your analysis (as usual). My one point is that Covid deaths adjusted for age indeed still indicate that Black and Indigenous (and most all) people died at a higher/disproportionate rate than White people (to this day) except for Asian American people. Age adjusted rates do matter if one is being this thoughtful about data, trends, and statistics.
By the way, I also did a Google search for “covid deaths black hispanic” and did not get the same search results as you. You want to know why? Because Google gives you results back based on your own personal algorithm. The fact that you got back a hit with the Ibrahim X Kendy article is a testament to *your* bias. In fact, my top search result was from the Center for Epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin. Again, I am so sick of grifters exploiting the ignorance of boomers and other “skeptics“ to advance a false narrative. Learn how Google searches work, Mike.
I also find it very interesting that you posted the data chart from the CDC without the headings. LoL. Anyone who bothers to click on the link and do their own research will see Black Americans had higher age-adjusted mortality rates than Whites. Again, contradicting your main argument that Whites are the ones who are the worst of. You dont have to be honest with yourself, but please dont treat your readers like idiots.
I know you are trying to get on the NPR is too woke bandwagon, but I hope you take this feedback seriously.
I did a very cursory Google search for stories on NPR about life expectancy, and found at least a few from the last year or two talking about disparities among White men, which is inconsistent with the crux of your argument. If you are going to do a meta-analysis of information presented on NPR, at least be honest about your data collection methods. I think you went purely off vibes here, and not actual stories (I will link to the stories at the bottom of my comment).
Second, you claim NPR misrepresented the data when YOU yourself just did the same thing. All the data you posted indicates that Black Americans do indeed have shorter life expectancy than White Americans, and yet you claim in BOLD letters that: FOR 6 OF THE PAST 8 YEARS PEOPLE OF COLOR HAD LONGER OR THE SAME LIFE EXPECTANCIES AS WHITE AMERICANS. So which is it, I ask you? Or, are Black Americans not counted as people of color, because that is too woke for you?
Anyway, here are examples of NPR reporting the exact kind of stories you accuse them of not reporting:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/31/1120192583/life-expectancy-in-the-u-s-continues-to-drop-driven-by-covid-19
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/22/1144864971/american-life-expectancy-is-now-at-its-lowest-in-nearly-two-decades
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/11/29/1215746931/us-life-expectancy-2022-increase
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/25/1164819944/live-free-and-die-the-sad-state-of-u-s-life-expectancy
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/18/817687042/deaths-of-despair-examines-the-steady-erosion-of-u-s-working-class-life
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1120355473/life-expectancy-drops-in-the-u-s-for-the-second-year-in-a-row
You completely missed his point, did you actually read the article or just skim it? Let me try to summarize:
-he acknowledges up front that black people and native Americans have shorter life expectancies than white people.
-However he also provides data showing that non-Hispanic white Americans have shorter life expectancy than a) the average American (of any race); b) of Asian Americans c) Latin/hispanic Americans
What he is contesting is the much-touted claim that white supremacy is the primary factor contributing to lower black life expectancy, when Latin and Asian American life expectancy is in fact higher than that of white Americans. If "white supremacy" was so pervasive, you would expect it to be affecting Asian and Latin/Hispanic life expectancy as well right? And you would also expect White Americans to be at the very top of the life expectancy, since white supremacy skews everything in their favor right?
Again, his primary contention is that the claim of an ever-present "white supremacy" does not bear out in a lot of really important statistical analyses, in this case American life expectancy.
He’s using the term “people of color” to refer to all non-white people, in which case his claim is supported by his chart (with some interpretation required; if the overall life expectancy is higher than the white life expectancy, then all non-white people - treated as a group - must have a higher life expectancy than white people). I do think the term “people of color” is confusing and should have been avoided.
So he is criticizing NPR for combining all people of color into a singular category so he does the same thing to prove his point? Sure...makes sense. If anything, the one lesson to be learned here, by both NPR AND Pesca, is that demographic groups should be treated as distinct, rather than lumped into one.
Anyway, way to ignore all the evidence to the contrary I presented, which by the way took me a whole 60 seconds to collect.
As someone who does actual research for a living, I am disgusted by Pescas laziness and lack of rigor.
Mike, I think you're right according to the numbers. However, as an octogenarian white man, I truly believe that I have experienced a lot of "good luck." I suspect that there are tranches of white folks who have truly been privileged. I'm one of them. I grew up in a blue-collar, lower socio-economic environment, but because of "whatever" managed to get an education and escape. I believe my escape was helped along by my privilege. Rob Henderson is another example - both he and I are "smart." We were readers and our teachers and others recognized us and we got the occasional break that folks of color and less gifted white folks received less of.
If you're white, not very bright and happen to have been brought up in the rust belt, and as technology removed most of the opportunity that used to be there, well it can seem like "somebody" or "something" has taken away the privilege that used to exist for us white folks. It pisses people off.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, the numbers are correct, but there's a lot more fine structure underneath than just ethnic background.
Yeah, the problem with the white supremacy argument is that there’s a vast difference in privilege between white folks from a tony Connecticut suburb and white folks from Youngstown, OH.
What we should be focusing on is class privilege, but having white and nonwhite lower classes at odds with each other serves the interests of the top 0.1% of all ethnicities.
Interestingly, W.E.B. DuBois, in his classic in "Black Reconstruction in America ..." that the low class white workers in the South, and the freed slaves missed their chance to come together in a combined labor movement! Exciting possibility. But highly unlikely given the cultural barriers. Yes. I agree. It's probably more about class now.
Agreed, and there were also a lot of things the former slaveowners and other upper class whites in the South did to ensure that didn’t happen.
Did we need the covid death numbers to belie the myth of white privilege?
Don’t we have interracial murder data, college admissions data, employment preference data (which went totally crazy in 2022/2023), federal contracting data, etc, etc?
Wow, it is nice to see this from Mike Pesca! I was a long-time Slate subscriber and Pesca fan, but I switched them off several years ago because I want to be informed, not brainwashed. Not that Pesca ever tried to brainwash me. Rather, I was frustrated that he never mentioned the fact that his colleagues were trying to.
Maybe I'll give him another chance.
I quit Slate Plus in protest when they canceled Mike. And the fact that their IT sucks; that was a minor issue.
Julia Turner ruined Slate, and I suppose Plotz was complicit. (Note that Turner is at the LA Times. How’s it doing? A real Midas touch, that lady.)
Remember Slate under Kinsley? I’d still read it.
I didn't know Slate had canceled Mike. (I was gone by then.) Is there somewhere I can find details of Mike's cancelation?
[Edit: found it. What a bunch of clowns are running our media now. It's pathetic.]
To Mike's credit, he never whined about being "mistreated." And while I can strike a noble pose for standing up for him, their IT operation was at least half the problem. My Slate Plus subscription was constantly screwed up; couldn't get "Plus" sessions on the Political Podcast, etc. Mike carried me through the pandemic. He has the only podcast that I've consistently listened to. My other favorites (credit to Slate, I guess), are the Political and Felix Salmon's finance.
I've always thought Mike was great--though I had bailed on Slate long before 2021. (I had been a plus subscriber since they started it.) It is so sad how media brands have become ideological soapboxes for idiots. Now that I know Mike is independent, I'll check out his substack.
Good article. Would point out that the first chart doesn’t show white people dying from covid at proportionally higher rates; as far as I can tell, it’s showing the percentage of covid deaths represented by each race, and the breakdown is about what you’d expect if all races were affected equally. Am I misinterpreting?
How could it be a good article if the data dont support his conclusions? What exactly makes it good? Just the fact that he tried to throw NPR under the bus, even if he doesn't have the evidence to back up his argument?
I appreciate the time you spent and the depth of your analysis (as usual). My one point is that Covid deaths adjusted for age indeed still indicate that Black and Indigenous (and most all) people died at a higher/disproportionate rate than White people (to this day) except for Asian American people. Age adjusted rates do matter if one is being this thoughtful about data, trends, and statistics.
This is not about being thoughtful; This is about jumping on the NPR is too woke bandwagon, aka, grifting.
Agreed, but NPR, quite frankly, is too woke.