Mixing up correlation with causation. A while back I was having a discussion here on Lemmy because people were saying pitbulls are dangerous and pointing to the disproportionate amount of deaths caused by pitbulls vs the percentage of dogs that are pitbulls. The argument goes something like this “Pitbulls are responsible for 55% of killings, but they’re only 12% of all dogs, therefore Pitbulls are dangerous”.

Oh, and BTW if you agreed with that argument above, congratulations, you’re officially a racist, because those are the numbers of murder convictions and demographics for Black people in the USA. The argument is the same, and the reason why it’s flawed is the same: correlation does not imply causation. Just because there’s something seems disproportionate out of context doesn’t mean it has the most obvious cause, in both cases the reasons are much more complex and mostly have to do with education and opportunity (or lack thereof).

White people are shot more by cops proving there is no police brutality against people of color.

(No, this isn’t my actual opinion. This is an arguement racists use and white suprimists)

To cherry pick it and use it to promote fascist views

Probably to support racism. Like the black people crime statistics.