WaPo‘s Wonkblog had to go all nerdy with the The Hill‘s popular “50 Most Beautiful People” feature by figuring out that the winners are mostly white.
This year’s list was unveiled Wednesday. Perusing the so-called beauties, there’s actually a lot of diversity — 3 beauties in the Top 10 are not white, two are black, and six are women. It’s almost as if the people who created the summer list were actually concerned with displaying an array of races and ethnicities.
But the numbers speak otherwise.
By Thursday, WaPo had compiled its stats from the last five years worth of lists. They had Chris Albon of Popily, a nerd site that analyzes data, conduct the dirty work.
After calling the list “the most meaningless popularity contest in a city that prides itself on meaningless popularity contest, they inform that the best ways to get on the list are:
A. Be white.
B. Be from Virginia.
On that white issue, WaPo writes, “No way to sugarcoat this one.” An overwhelming 65 percent of the list over the past five years is white. This comes with the sobering stat that 63 percent of the nation is white. So is it actually that bad?
The Hill‘s editor-in-chief Bob Cusack suggested to The Mirror that readers look to WaPo‘s own stats on the matter — that 63 percent of the nation is white.
There are other tips — statistically speaking — on what you have to do to secure a spot on the list.
If you hope to beg your way onto next year’s list, see them here.
UPDATE: Cusack offered a quote to help explain his views. “The list is diverse and in fact is much more diverse than Capitol Hill, as evidenced by the statistics in the story,” he told The Mirror.