To the Editor:
Mark Twain wrote in his autobiography, "Figures beguile me.” Beguile means to charm, often deceptively. Few people remember that particular comment of his, but many may know his other remark about figures, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Twain’s remark on statistics came to mind when I read Jack Ryan’s January 20 editorial in The Star-Herald, “Life Expectancy Takes a Nosedive.” I also thought of the bestselling statistics book, often mandatory college reading, Darrell Huff’s How to Lie With Statistics. I also then thought of Governor Reeves’ vendetta on Critical Race Theory. How do these things connect?
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is the bloviated straw dog Republicans are ranting over presently. This rant originated when then President Trump “learned” from Tucker Carlson that CRT was teaching school children to be racist. Tucker is the Fox News, white grievance-oriented, hot air pseudo journalist who is a privileged beneficiary of his mommy’s fortune made from Swanson chicken pot pies. His full name is Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, and his cable TV show, along with others Fox calls “news,” was a binge favorite of President Trump. Never having heard of CRT before Fox news informed him of it, Trump nevertheless began ranting about it in the same ill-informed way he did about Covid-19, his information also coming from Fox. Thus, he suggested that injecting disinfectants might help, along with other quack notions which led to his followers being hospitalized for ingesting de-worming horse medicine from local feed stores.
Trump, even out of office, began ranting that school children were being psychologically abused by CRT and turned into racists. It was brainwashing and propaganda to teach school children that “white privilege” existed or that the color of one’s skin mattered. It was also Marxist to view any persons in the U.S. as “oppressed” or any persons as “oppressors.” Of course, just like his Covid-19 invectives, Trump’s Fox inspired information about CRT was dead wrong and deadly. It was dead wrong because CRT is a theory of how institutions may incorporate racism in their structure, not an accusation that individuals themselves are racist, especially school children. Trump never understood this, or if so, he saw the benefit of distorting it to easily inflame his followers. It turned deadly because Republicans still fawning over Trump, most just as ignorant about CRT, immediately started goose stepping in unison to condemn teaching CRT in schools. The result has been the enactment of sweeping new state laws restraining what teachers may teach about race. Being the faithful Trump sycophant that he is, Governor Reeves jumped in. Hence, Mississippi now has Senate Bill 2133, which despite the walk out of all black senators, bans the teaching of CRT.
Back to figures and statistics though. I’m not implying that Ryan lied in his editorial. It was factually correct as it stood. While factually correct, however, his editorial hides a Big Lie, but not the one claiming Trump really won the presidency. It is a lie, however, which Mississippi school teachers may now be reluctant to examine with their students. The reason being that pedagogical care must be taken to avoid transgressing SB 2133, since it dictates that any teaching of racial differences is forbidden. Ryan accurately portrayed that from 2019 to 2020, life expectancy nosedived almost two years overall on average. From almost 79 (78.8 to be precise) life expectancy fell to 77 years. Ryan’s 77 -ear life expectancy in 2020 was for the United States as a whole however, an average. The CDC, in contrast, compiled a state-by-state life expectancy ranking for 2018. Average life expectancy was found to be 78.7, not too far from Ryan’s 78.8 in 2019. What was found, however, was that 25 states had a life expectancy of either right at 78.7 or actually exceeded that. In fact, eight states were at 80 years or higher, with Hawaii number one at 81 and Colorado close behind. (Incidentally life expectancy in France is presently 82.5.) After the 25 states which showed either 78.7 or greater life expectancy, other states ranged down in years, through the 78s, the 77s, the 76s, and the 75’s with Alabama at 75.1.
Where did the CDC rank Mississippi for life expectancy? It was only one of two states ranked in the 74s, coming in 50th at 74.6, next to the last in the entire U.S. It lost last place to W. Virginia, lowest of all at 74.4. (D.C. is in the rankings.) Assuming Mississippi’s data didn’t change much from 2018 to Ryan’s 2019 data, the average life expectancy in Mississippi at 74.6 was already at least four years lower than the national average, about six years lower than at least eight other states, and lowest among all states, except one. The truth that life expectancy was 77.8, almost 79 in 2019 and fell to 77 is thus a beguiling lie for Mississippi! Mississippians don’t live that long! They can’t have fallen from where they never were to begin with! Another aspect of the lie is that from 2019 to 2020, black life expectancy fell to 72 years, nosediving to its lowest level since 2001! Falling to 77 is thus also a lie for black Americans nationwide, not just for Mississippians. Recent 2021 data show that while life expectancy for whites in Mississippi was a low 74.6, it was even lower at 72.4 for the 38% black population.
Governor Reeves will probably sign SB 2133 making it illegal or treacherous to teach that racial disparities or differences exist in Mississippi, because he and Trump think that would instill racism, or the idea that one race might think itself superior to others, with the other thinks itself inferior. Perhaps he’ll sign while contemplating his next “Confederate Heritage Month” and while grieving for his cherished former state flag. He might even have access to reflecting on a Washington Post article in August 2021 asserting that since 2000, at least eight suspected lynchings of black men and teenagers have occurred in Mississippi, a certain way to reduce life expectancy. How does life expectancy data relate to SB 2133 though?
A legitimate educational question would be to ask, “What makes for notable differences in life expectancy in Mississippi, especially for blacks?” What if the question were asked about differences in household income, occupational attainment, prison incarceration, or overt police brutality? What if the question were asked about premature births, infant mortality, and infant deaths? Is Trump right, that students should not learn that in present day America the color of one’s skin still determines or influences how social reality is experienced? If one group of people or another is mostly “on top” and another group of people mostly “on the bottom” when these questions are examined, is that just happenstance? Is one group just serendipitously able to roll a hard 6 in life and rake in the winnings, while another group just fails to luck out and by sheer chance ends up losing. Is it just chance that lynching of black men and boys in MS may still be happening? Is it only coincidence that more black babies die in the first year of birth in MS than white babies?
Simply looking at what determines life expectancy requires honestly looking at a host of factors in Mississippi life. Genetics of course can be a factor, but more importantly is quality health care (counties in MS with no hospital), access to prenatal care (counties with no maternity care), nutrition (food deserts in the Delta), obesity rates (highest in U.S.) public sanitation (Jackson’s ghastly water problems), educational quality (marked unevenness statewide), and more. These factors impact all to some degree, but honest inquiry would allow one to ask the CRT inspired question as to whether “structural racism” (not individual racism!) brings some to be impacted far more than others. It would be worthwhile to ask whether Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents accurately portrays persisting attitudes towards black Americans, not only in Mississippi, but in America, if teachers were only allowed to teach from it.
Gov. Reeves doesn’t want such questions examined though, nor does most of the MS Senate. They would be perfectly happy with Ryan’s editorial as it stands, with no mention of Mississippi’s abysmal life expectancy ranking, which is even worse for blacks. When it comes to the topic of white privilege in Mississippi, or black oppression, ignorance and denial are bliss. As whites often naively claim, “My grandaddy didn’t own slaves, so I’m not to blame for anything.” Just as Reeves’ fawning adoration of Trump’s medical views helped in part make Mississippi the “Covid Death Capital of the U.S,” his slavishness to Trump’s view of pedagogy may now foster the death of thoughtful education, particularly in matters of race and equality. If some find it more difficult to “live long and prosper" in Mississippi no one should be allowed to teach why.
Beverly E. Johnson
Kosciusko
