It's quite important. I don't like people being ridiculed, lambasted, or mocked for what ultimately proves to be no good reason. Further, I don't like looking like a complete ass in the process. I also don't like horribly losing arguments to racists just because I couldn't keep my cool.
As an example, let's say I had an "emotional response" to this story, and was discussing it with someone who is implicitly racist/authoritarian. He keeps insisting that we wait for all the facts*, but I won't abide that answer and try to push him around with the emotional force of my argument.
Then the truth comes out and it becomes clear that he was right; we didn't have all the facts of the case and the woman was lying. Now he wins the argument and I look like a jerk, which could have been completely avoided if I'd remained calm and not relied on emotional arguments. If I had instead simply said, "you're right, you can never know all the facts in any specific case, but the large scale aggregate data makes it quite clear that institutional racism exists," I could have avoided all of those problems. First, I wouldn't have been wrong when the truth came out; I had already established that you cannot know in any specific instance. Second, I don't look like a jerk who bullied someone who was ultimately right. Third, I don't lose the argument because my argument never relied on this specific woman's case in the first place; I rely on large scale data.
*Just to be clear, I am not saying that anyone who wants to "wait for all the facts" must be a racist. I'm saying that someone with a moderate authoritarian lean would default to this position, but not all people who take this position are authoritarian. It's a syllogism.
