“Statistics are just people’s stories with the tears wiped away”

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Hunter College (New York, NY)
Ruth Sidel
Ruth Sidel received her B A. from Wellesley College, her M.S.W. from the Boston University School of Social Work, and her Ph.D. from Union Graduate School. Her research interests center around poverty, particularly its impact on women and children, and the need to develop a comprehensive, universal family policy in the United States. She has made several study visits to China and has written extensively on health care and human services in China as well as in Great Britain and Sweden. She teaches Introduction to Sociology, Child Welfare and special seminars such as Childhood in New York and Women and Leadership.
     
3 May 1969, Springfield (MA) Union, “Find Out Now, Breathe Easy” (from the book Why Me? by William Gargan), pg. 15, col. 1:
Sometimes I say in a speech: “Medical statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off.” The statistics are you, your loved ones, your neighbors.
 
Google Books
Women and Children Last:
The Plight of Poor Women in Affluent America
By Ruth Sidel
New York, NY: Viking
1986
Pg. XVI:
Statistics, it has been said, are “people with the tears washed off.”
 
New York (NY) Times   
DESTITUTION IS JUST A DIVORCE AWAY
By Alice S. Rossi; Alice S. Rossi is a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her most recent books are ‘‘Gender and the Life Course’’ and ‘‘Feminists in Politics.’‘
Published: April 27, 1986
WOMEN AND CHILDREN LAST The Plight of Poor Women in Affluent America. By Ruth Sidel. 236 pp. New York: Viking. $16.95.
RUTH SIDEL, a professor of sociology at Hunter College, has also been a psychiatric social worker whose clients were families trying to cope with serious economic and emotional problems. A major strength of ‘‘Women and Children Last’’ is that Mrs. Sidel draws deeply and equally from these two elements of her professional experience.
 
As a sociologist, she provides a concise, updated profile of the social and economic changes that have affected the lives of American women and children over the last 20 years, drawing on the best data available from the census and numerous surveys. But Mrs. Sidel knows from her firsthand contacts as a psychiatric social worker that such statistics present ‘‘people with the tears washed off.’‘
 
13 July 1986, Minneapolis (MN) Star and Tribune, “Poverty with the tears washed off” by Marta Tarbell, pg. 13G:
..out in her introduction, statistics “are people with the tears washed off.”
 
Google Books
Mothers and Daughters of Invention:
Notes for a Revised History of Technology
By Autumn Stanley
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
1993
Pg. 513:
Statistics are people with the tears wiped off.—Ruth Sidel
 
Google Books
Keeping Women and Children Last Revised
By Ruth Sidel
New York, NY: Penguin Books
1998
Pg. ?:
But statistics, it has been said, are “people with the tears washed off.”
 
Twitter
Ann Bowyer
‏@elizannj
RT @malfletcher #statistics are just people’s stories with the tears wiped away.
4:39 PM - 7 Jan 2010
 
Twitter
David C. Colby
‏@davidccolby
From @jacobcharold “maybe stories are just data with soul”—Brene Brown;Julie Richmond said statistics are people with tears wiped dry
3:16 PM - 3 Jan 2011
 
Twitter
Zac Robinson
‏@zjrobinson
#nrlds John Wakerman says that it is essential to keep the emotion in advocacy: statistics are the stories with the tears wiped away…
11:56 PM - 5 Aug 2011
 
Twitter
The Vacuum Project
‏@VacuumProject
“Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off”
12:38 AM - 22 May 2012
 
Twitter
Olivia Ball
‏@DrOliviaBall
3.6 billion poorest people were made $1 trillion poorer in the last 5 years.
“Statistics are people with the tears wiped away”—Ruth Sidel
11:08 PM - 17 Jan 2016
 
Twitter
Jimmy McCluskey
‏@jimmyscovenant
“Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped away.” - Paul Brodeur
7:11 AM - 11 Feb 2016
 
Twitter
Deep End GP group
‏@deependgp Deep End GP group Retweeted Lynn Williams
“statistics are people with the tears wiped away” - Irving SelikoffDeep End GP group added,
Lynn Williams @Carer49
Looking forward to new @PTCScotland report due out next week - #namesnotnumberd - Solutions from people who truly understand real poverty.
4:18 PM - 24 Feb 2016