Give us some positive news for a change.

Ever wondered how many ethnic minorities die in the UK each year from heart disease? Well you may wonder but nobody knows because the government does not collect such information. Could it be because the rates would be extremely high considering that 49 per cent of black Caribbeans and 68 per cent of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are living in low income households, compared with 21 per cent of the white population.

Just how many black people do die as a result of black on black violence compared with deaths in custody and other suspicious fatalities. Again there are no statistics, were they to be collected many of us would be too frightened to come out of our doors in the morning. Yet everyday we are bombarded with statistics that make us feel inferior to the rest of society. Black boys are continually being told how they are failing in education but little is said about the many numbers who succeed against such high odds.

There are always many ways to look at and present statistics. One meaningful comparison is rates of infant mortality, recorded according to the place of the mother’s birth, by no means a precise indicator of ethnicity. These show, however, that in 2002 in England and Wales, of children born to a mother herself born in the UK, 7.8 per 1,000 die within three months. This rises to 10.5 for mothers born in Bangladesh, 10.6 for mothers born in India, 14.5 for mothers born in Pakistan and 15.4 for mothers born in the Caribbean. Could it be that if those Caribbean children had lived and succeeded in education the figures for black boys would look somewhat different?

And just when you think it is ok to come out of your front door the statistics say that Blacks, Asians and, especially, those of mixed-race are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than whites.

Now why weren't they listening when we were trying to tell them that?

Do you think statistics are damaging to your self-esteem?
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