Assessment, Statistics, and Research

The US president caused a stir when he responded to a journalist question about police violence claiming that  more white Americans are killed by police than are black Americans ( Montanero , 2020). Is the president right? The correct answer deals with how you view the available data. Yes, if you count the  number of people killed by police. But keep reading. No, if you consider the rate of killing compared to the small percentage of Blacks in the US. So, what are the facts? ( Source = Washington Post  July 14, 2020 ) Number of people killed by police by race category Whites 2,499 Blacks 1,301 Hispanic 907 Other 220 Now consider the population sizes in millions Whites 197 Blacks 42 Hispanic 39 Other 49 Learn more about surveys and statistics  in Creating Surveys on AMAZON As you can see, Blacks are killed at a far higher rate than are whites, but more Whites are killed than Blacks. Unfortunately, discussions of race have become politicized. You can see the bar charts at the WP link. H

DATA SOURCE =  https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-daily-covid-deaths The number of people dying from COVID-19 has declined since the second half of April. Because we now have so many data points, I plotted half months rather than 7-day periods as before. Note that March and May have an extra day in the second half compared to April and June. I hope that the recent surge in hospitalizations in some US states do not mean a return to higher death counts. Of course, the symptoms can be severe for some survivors. Nevertheless, the death rate is in decline. We are seeing far more infections compared to European nations, which are now going to work and open for international travel. Resistance to safety recommendations appears high in some crowded areas like beaches in the US. The European data suggest what could happen for the US if people would voluntarily follow the scientific guidance about quality masks, safe distances, and hand washing. Avoiding close contact with infected persons

The Racial Microaggression Scale (RMAS) published in 2012 contains 52 items rated on a 4-point Likert Scale and organized in six categories: Invisibility, Criminality, Low achieving/ Undesirable culture, Sexualization, Foreigner/ Does not belong, Environmental Invalidation. Participants rate the items for experience from "never to often." If an act occurred, then they are asked to rate its level of stress from "not at all" to "high level." Sample Items 1. Because of my race, other people assume that I am a foreigner. 18. I am singled out by police or security people because of my race. 23. Other people act as if all of the people of my race are alike. 49. I feel invisible because of my race. The full scale is available from the PsycTESTS database below. Reliability and Validity These factors were assessed and published in 2012. See the reference below. Alpha for the full 52 items was .949 The items were organ