Where Scott Martin made his mistake.

The article I'm referring to is: Observation Skills do not Equal Racism.

Since this is my blog I am responsible for everything that appears here. The most recent post from my friend Scott Martin made me uncomfortable until I figured out where I think he made his mistake. I've decided to post a response. Here it is.

This article made me quezy the first time and saw it, and the second time. However after reading the article several times I figured out where the problem was. First off Scott is not a racist. However in this case he is operating on a false premise. That premise being that because 80% of white people did not cite violence as applying to the African-American population they don't think violence is a problem in the African-American population, or that they are afraid to say it's a problem. Same with 89% not citing irresponsiblity.

Scott is pointing out that these are in fact problems in the African-American community. Which You, Me, Bill Cosby, Barack Obama, and Bill O'Reilly should all agree is true. However the question asked wasn't which of these are problems in the African American community. The question was which one of these describe African Americans? If you ask me if African Americans are violent I'd say no. Most African Americans are not violent. Most African Americans aren't irresponsible. However if you asked me if violence and irresponsiblity are problems in the African American Community I'd say yes. I believe most people would including most African Americans. Admittly it's sematics, but in this case the sematics happened to be very important and I believe Mr. Martin got them wrong.