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chaotic_nippleSo, I started reading an article about the alleged racism and sexism in American Idol. And what were the very first pieces of "Evidence" the author presented? The fact that out of 9 winners, "only" 4 have been women and 3 haven't been white.
It is true, technically, that 4/9 is less than 50%. It's also true that 5/9 is more than 50%, and that with an odd denominator, it is impossible to get exactly half. This first piece of data is therefore meaningless.
As for the race issue, non-caucasians make up 28% of the US population. 3/9 = 33.3%, so that means brown people are actually over-represented as winners. But this is also meaningless, as 2/9 = 22.2%, which would be under-represented.
It is literally impossible to get results that are closer to equality than those given, yet this is supposed to be evidence of some sort of systematic bias? Maybe the author made better points later in the article, but honestly, if they're going to demonstrate that sort of innumeracy in the very first paragraph, I'm not going to waste my time reading further.
It is true, technically, that 4/9 is less than 50%. It's also true that 5/9 is more than 50%, and that with an odd denominator, it is impossible to get exactly half. This first piece of data is therefore meaningless.
As for the race issue, non-caucasians make up 28% of the US population. 3/9 = 33.3%, so that means brown people are actually over-represented as winners. But this is also meaningless, as 2/9 = 22.2%, which would be under-represented.
It is literally impossible to get results that are closer to equality than those given, yet this is supposed to be evidence of some sort of systematic bias? Maybe the author made better points later in the article, but honestly, if they're going to demonstrate that sort of innumeracy in the very first paragraph, I'm not going to waste my time reading further.