Motus Mentis

7 Comments

1. Dom says

   “African-Americans “living in a county with an ethnic density of 50% or more … were 46% less likely to report doctor-diagnosed heart disease and 77% less likely to report cancer than those who lived in an ethnic density of less than 25%,” said a summary of the report, authored by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.”

   I’m not buying it. They just don’t report such things. There is no mention of the actual disease incidence. It’s like the Zimmerman case — well reported, even though much worse is very common in dense black areas.

   Posted October 31, 2012 at 5:47 am | Permalink
2. TheBigHenry says

   “I have never known a word to become absolute dogma, without a speck of evidence, the way ‘diversity’ has.” — Thomas Sowell

   Posted October 31, 2012 at 12:13 pm | Permalink
3. Malcolm says

   What aren’t you buying, exactly, Dom? The study says that they DO report such things, and that the rate at which they are reported varies according to ethnic homogeneity. Are you then saying there is no persistent correlation between the rate at which disease is reported and the underlying rate of disease?

   Posted October 31, 2012 at 12:24 pm | Permalink
4. Malcolm says

   The other possibilty, of course, is that people actually are substantially better off living in low-diversity communities.

   People naturally tend to self-segregate anyway, even when they do live in diverse communities. It seems not unreasonable to imagine that such instincts actually confer a selective advantage, and so persist.

   Posted October 31, 2012 at 12:28 pm | Permalink
5. Dom says

   I meant the people in dense populations are not reporting. It might be because low income people do not get regular exams, or cultural habits.

   I don’t see how my chances of cancer are affected by my neighbor’s race.

   Posted October 31, 2012 at 1:56 pm | Permalink
6. Malcolm says

   I don’t see how my chances of cancer are affected by my neighbor’s race.

   Well, that’s the point there, I think. But the implication would be that living in more-homogeneous communities is generally happier and less stressful, and so results in better health outcomes.

   Posted October 31, 2012 at 2:29 pm | Permalink
7. Malcolm says

   It’s a fair question, though: what’s the main causal factor here?

   Posted October 31, 2012 at 2:42 pm | Permalink