Thread by @Not__So_Obvious, So let me give you the perspective of a data scientist on [...]

So let me give you the perspective of a data scientist on this survey rather than the media pundits interpretation. At any point, ask questions along the way, this isn& #39;t a lecture or moralising, I just want to lay out what a psychologist and statistician reads here. https://twitter.com/KKoshnow/status/1277914659828318212">https://twitter.com/KKoshnow/...

https://twitter.com/KKoshnow/status/1277914659828318212

1. 31.6% of respondents had negative feelings about muslim australians and 22.4% negative towards middle-eastern australians.

So we have a negative perception here, and we can& #39;t make assumptions about the behaviour of these people towards muslims and middle easterners but

here& #39;s what we can tell. There is no indication of a racial element here. Islam is a prescriptive religion, with tenets and laws and expectations that are antithetical to many democratic nations, and this may be a concern. As for the middle east, it is associated with Islam, and

also the news that the majority receive out of the middle east is nothing but negative, and the people there are not painted in a good light. These are two potential reasons which could strongly impact the result of this question, but we don& #39;t know the underlying motivation and

so it is as reductive to push this narrative as it is to push the narrative that there is a racial underpinning to this answer. We can& #39;t make the assumption, we would need to follow up with a lot of "why" questions.

2. 36.4% said "Immigration is too high". Again, given that we

know from the end of the article that 80% see cultural diversity as a good thing, it seems reductive to ascribe this to racial animosity. Even if all of the anti-immigration crowd made up the 20% who don& #39;t see cultural diversity as good, who are the 16.4% who say it is good but

immigration is also too high. We can& #39;t explain this apparent conflict of perspectives with "racism". Again, the question of "why" is missing from this picture.

3. 41.1% believe that sticking to "old ways" weakens Australia. This is clearly an integration/multiculturalism

question. This could be to do with reducing cultural clashes, a desire to promote a more homogenous ozzie culture, or a desire to bring people into a singular community without barriers put in place by incoming cultures who are very different to the culture they are coming to

live alongside. Some cultures are very much incompatible. I don& #39;t think anyone would argue that Pakistan& #39;s laws and expectations on interfamily rape to punish lawbreakers would be welcome in Australia, so a conversation about which cultures are considered prolematic and why and

which communities are not sitting well with each other would open up the conversation.

4.20.5% believe african refugees increase crime. This article, notably, does not refute the position, only scoffs at it. It should be simple enough to grab the crime statistics for the

Refugee populations to disprove such an assertion.

5. 32% claim to have experienced racism in the workplace/educational setting. This is an interesting one, because it should also be compared to stats on how many complaints are made in workplaces for racism, and also what the

respondents mean by racism in terms of frequency and severity. Everyone at some point in their life is bound to encounter an intolerant asshole, but this is very different to being the recipient of abuse on a daily basis. Scale and severity matter, and we cannot infer either from

the answer to this question.

6. LOTE backgrounds experienced more racism. Again, severity and scale are missing from this dataset. What people construe as racism differs, so it& #39;s good to get an idea of what people mean when they say they were abused racially. Was it slurs?

Was it low expectations? Was it someone not being able to understand their accent? We can& #39;t tell just from this response.

Questions 7 and 8 are much in the same vein, so I won& #39;t repeat myself. The one that interests me the most is the "in the street" question, what is defined

as harassment in that setting.

9. 48.6% believe that minorities should act more like mainstream Australians.

This seems to be a culture question again. Australia has a particular culture that has built up over time, presumably those (other than refugees) that come there are

moving because they want to live and work in the Australian environment. It doesn& #39;t seem too far fetched that people would hope that settlers to Australia would want to integrate. So it& #39;s hard to take an animosity angle from this question again, and it doesn& #39;t pass data screening

for that conclusion.

10. 43% said all asylum seeker boats should be turned back.

This is an interesting question as well, because it pertains to perceptions. Do these respondents view the asylum seekers as genuine? Is the method of transportation an issue?

I am sure many

are asking concerned questions about why these asylum seekers are not using approved modes of transport and going through the application process from neighbouring safe countries when it is clear that Australia does not border a nation at war, or that persecutes particular groups

to death at present and the requirements of asylum mean that you seek safety in the nearest safe nation. I can& #39;t speak for the respondents but this seems likely a concern, which means that at the very least you must do a follow up to ascertain which respondents hate brown people

and which have concerns about illegal migration.

I hope this thread has shown that there are a myriad of interpretations for the answers that have been given and that to ascribe any point of view to them without having asked "Why?" is reductive and unhelpful.

Best wishes.

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