Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
Close. It's fine to discuss it, but I think race is about as material as hair or eye color. The rest is an accurate statement of my belief.
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That's what the engineer in Chicago said.
The problem is that there are a lot of places where race matters. I know the most about the public health arena, but there are other areas as well. Sickle cell anemia and diabetes are two health problems that tend to be tied to race or ethnicity that I can think of off the top of my head. It's a lot easier for public health authorities to distribute and plan resources if they have good demographic data. I've never seen a public health study where race wasn't a variable, and a lot of times it's a meaningful or significant. The census data, including the racial and ethnic demographic data, is invaluable to public health researchers and the people who are divying up scarce resources.
