Try checking research

Re the column by Mr. Cal Thomas on Oct 12: I’ll be frank, I don’t like Vice President Kamala Harris, and I also don’t like when Mr. Thomas is intentionally obtuse about the definition of “people of color.” Language evolves based on how people use it. Awful used to mean things worthy of awe, but if I told my friends they were awful, I doubt they’d take it that way. Point is, language changes.

But I digress. Mr. Thomas, you said that “storms don’t discriminate.” You’re right, they don’t: People do. Due to discrimination (done by people), people of color are more likely to suffer long-term financial damage from natural disasters. Don’t believe me? Believe a peer-reviewed study from Rice University, “Damages Done: The Longitudinal Impacts of

Natural Hazards on Wealth Inequality in the United States” (Junia Howell and James R. Elliot, August 2018).

Using data from nearly 3,500 families across the U.S., and governmental data on damage and FEMA aid, the researchers followed those families from 1999 through 2013. The researchers looked at the personal wealth impact. What they found was that white families who lived in counties with $10 billion in damage from ’99 to 2013 gained an average of $126,000 in wealth. Black families who lived in counties with $10 billion in damage on average had a wealth decrease of $27,000. This is just one study, but if I didn’t have a 300-word limit to this letter, I would gladly provide you more examples and evidence of the inequality that exists in the way people are affected by storms.

Please consider a Google search of the research rather than a Google search of the words “is white a color?” in the future.

KATHLEEN MOWERY Little Rock