Persistent lies
This week, I was reminded of the power of lies. It happened in a meeting where a strong community advocate commented, “About half the people in Detroit can’t read. I just checked because I don’t want to misstate the percentage. It is 47% of the adults who are functionally illiterate.”
This figure is a lie.
It is also persistent.
A Google search asking “what is the literacy rate in Detroit? “produces the 47% figure. The AI summary attributes the statistic to “the National Institute for Literacy (around 2011)”.
In truth, the 47% figure came from a small study conducted in 1993. The results were published by the National Institute for Literacy in 1998. The study had a number of limitations, including a margin of error that makes the statistics meaningless. The authors of the study acknowledged that it cannot give insight into anything at the municipal level.
Data Driven Detroit did an analysis of the number when it appeared in the mainstream news. They concluded:
The literacy figure that people cite—47%—is from a single analysis conducted by the National Institute for Literacy in 1998, based on data collected in 1993, nearly 30 years ago. While this data is extremely outdated and doesn’t take into account changes in the landscape over the past 30 years, it was also not very reliable even when it was published…The margin of error exceeding 10% of the estimate is cause for concern and exceeds our own internal mechanism for flagging estimates as potentially inaccurate.
The persistence of the statistic in public conversations and City Council deliberations prompted the Detroit People’s Platform to attack the figure in their newsletter, saying:
Simply stated, the statistic is incorrect and has been debunked by Data Driven Detroit. The fact that it continues to be used in arguments dealing with policy is concerning because of the potential for anti-Black/anti-neighborhood bias in city policies and perception of community, to inform Council decision-making. That is troubling.
This figure found its way to the general public in May of 2011 when the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund published a report, Addressing Detroit’s Basic Skills Crisis. This report resulted in a media frenzy with local and national news blaring headlines that half the city of Detroit could not read.
In its first effort to debunk the number, Data Driven Detroit pointed out that “this statistic is more about the poor data literacy of some of our news agencies than it is about Detroit’s literacy rates. Many of them referred to the report as a “new study,” missing the important detail that the research is far from new…That’s right: those “alarming new statistics” are based on data almost two decades old. Almost all of the media coverage neglected to communicate that fact.”
Forbes is one of the few sources that acknowledged its mistake and pointed out the implications of the lie. Forbes went back to the original study and offered this assessment:
We tried to track down the research on the National Institute for Literacy website and couldn’t find anything remotely relevant. (One thing we did find while Googling is that this same “new” factoid, variously sourced, has been a staple of white supremacist websites for at least a decade.)
The persistence of this lie reminds us of the power of destructive ideologies to shape our imaginations and understandings of reality. They become the basis for justifying authoritarian rule.
This is the truth Trump understands about lies. It is the truth behind his assault on immigrants, women, people of color, history, critical thought, and his need to expand the military to control all those who seek justice and peace.
Combatting lies requires a commitment to values rooted in respect for people, place, and the ambiguities and complexities of life.
As we move into a season of reflection, we encourage you to engage in reading as a form of resistance, sharing the sources of truth you find as we work toward a new world.