Using and Confusing Polls and Statistics

John Balzar ruins an otherwise thoughtful piece by answering his own question (“What’s wrong with America?”) with meaningless statistical gibberish (Commentary, Dec. 22). He says, “Nearly half of the white population thinks the country is going in the right direction and nearly two-thirds of African Americans see it headed wrong,” as if that expressed a meaningful racial dichotomy.

Even without discounting for the lack of precision in typical polls, that is “nearly” equivalent to simply saying that between half and two-thirds of both races see the country headed in the wrong direction. While that may not be cause for celebration at the White House, if anything it suggests interracial consensus rather than division. Perhaps a better answer would be that our poor grasp of math fundamentals leaves us vulnerable to the misuse of polls and statistics to exaggerate and oversimplify the racial and political divisions between us.

Jack McGregor

Woodland Hills