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Thinking About Race and IQ
Real Clear Politics ^ | 22 Sep, 2021 | J. Peder Zane

Posted on 09/22/2021 1:04:27 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Charles Murray is once again throwing kerosene on the tinderbox of American race relations.

Reviving the explosive argument he made in his 1994 book, “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” the noted scholar is once again highlighting data showing that African Americans score lower on IQ tests than other groups in the United States.

Given the current climate, it is not surprising that his new book, “Facing Reality,” has been largely ignored by almost every major newspaper and magazine. But this dismissal is, ironically, a validation of his premise.

If his numbers were easily debunked, legions of journalists and social commentators would be lining up to do so. If the problem he identifies were easy to fix, they would be telling us how. Their unwillingness to engage Murray (pictured) is tantamount to an acceptance of racial determinism.

Make no mistake, “Facing Reality” – which also addresses connections between crime and race – is inflammatory. Murray not only reports that test cores suggest that African Americans, as a group, do have lower cognitive abilities than whites, Asians and Latinos, but he concludes that the problem is “intractable.”

Reviving the explosive argument he made in his 1994 book, “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” the noted scholar is once again highlighting data showing that African Americans score lower on IQ tests than other groups in the United States.

Given the current climate, it is not surprising that his new book, “Facing Reality,” has been largely ignored by almost every major newspaper and magazine. But this dismissal is, ironically, a validation of his premise.

If his numbers were easily debunked, legions of journalists and social commentators would be lining up to do so.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: equality; equity; wtf
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To: Harpotoo

Jews have valued literacy and education generation after generation, and it continues to pay dividends (well, not the voting for Democrats part). Different Asian ethnic groups are the same. The groups that are lagging behind in the IQ department should take note.


81 posted on 09/22/2021 4:59:03 PM PDT by Cecily
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To: MtnClimber

3 IQ points sounds within the margin of error. Is there a published MOE?


82 posted on 09/22/2021 5:04:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: MtnClimber

Gee, I can’t imagine why so many black people think Republicans are racist after reading threads like this one. /sarcasm

I wonder how many people here are Democrat trolls here to make the forum look bad.

Some of you go on and on about race. You’re not conservatives. You’re socialists.

All the Haitians I ever came across were smart, hardworking people.

Why do you all care so much about IQ tests, anyway? I knew one Mensa member, and she was an alcoholic with a messed-up life.

The Haitians should not be sent to Haiti while the other immigrants who crossed the border illegally get to stay here.

Any adult who comes here illegally should be imprisoned and then sent back. If you’re not going to return all the other immigrants, then you shouldn’t return the Haitians.


83 posted on 09/22/2021 5:07:45 PM PDT by Tired of Taxes
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To: Still Thinking

For decades, we have had people saying that any statistical variation in hiring, college admissions, or pay which negatively affected blacks was proof of racial discrimination.


84 posted on 09/22/2021 5:14:57 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
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To: MtnClimber

I would venture the differentiator is whether or not a child is read to by a loving parent throughout early childhood.


85 posted on 09/22/2021 5:19:12 PM PDT by P.O.E.
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To: Think free or die
I taught sixth grade in Fairfax county, Virginia for a while. One year I had one black girl in the class. There was good integration socially with the other girls and when she was having trouble with a subject, her father -a janitor in DC office bldg- would help her and she would excel for a while, then hit another road block.

I believe Angela's roadblocks came up where her acculturation ran head long into more sophisticated things, but she adjusted beautifully. I got to meet her Dad one PTA evening. He was a high school graduate who played high school sports. He was such a gentle and caring man! He loved his daughter and wanted her to go to college. He was saving for her to go. That child still holds a place in my heart and memories.

86 posted on 09/22/2021 5:48:01 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: Think free or die

I left one thing out that I believe was possibly the most impactful aspect of that family, the father was a Christian man and was raising his daughter to be a solid Christian. That was a year before I got born again. I look forward to meeting the entire family again in the clouds. Maranatha


87 posted on 09/22/2021 5:50:21 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: P.O.E.

The nurture part would be parents, family and others involved in a child’s early life doing everything possible to stimulate and facilitate proper development of the brain. The early childhood years are very important. Prenatal care (good nutrition and no alcohol, drugs or smoking for the mother) is also important.


88 posted on 09/22/2021 5:51:08 PM PDT by Cecily
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To: MtnClimber; Pelham

Too much fun

Somebody ping me when the virtue signalers reach full apoplexy

I’ll be binge watching old westerns

Just watched Burt Lancaster in Lawman....damn what a good anti western

And Sheree North....lord she was always cute as the soiled dove


89 posted on 09/22/2021 6:34:28 PM PDT by wardaddy (Fear Republic land of grumps and scolds peppered with good folks )
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To: Jim Noble

State Legislatures in their wisdom require Algebra II.
***What? Where?


90 posted on 09/22/2021 6:46:46 PM PDT by Kevmo (I’m immune from Covid since I don’t watch TV.🤗)
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To: MtnClimber; All


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91 posted on 09/22/2021 6:47:11 PM PDT by musicman (The future is just a collection of successive nows.)
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To: Chickensoup; be-baw

a Charles Murray bibliography:

A Behavioral Study of Rural Modernization, 1977

Beyond Probation, 1979

Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1984

In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government, 1989

Apollo: The Race to the Moon, 1989

The Bell Curve, 1994

What It Means to Be a Libertarian, 1997

Income Inequality and IQ, 1998

The Underclass Revisited, 1999

Human Accomplishment, 2003

In Our Hands, 2006

Real Education, 2008

Coming Apart, 2012

The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead, 2014

By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission, 2015

Human Diversity, 2020

Facing Reality, 2021


92 posted on 09/22/2021 9:16:26 PM PDT by Pelham (No more words, now we fight)
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To: z3n

My line of thinking was the same. It isn’t likely to be race that causes this demographic to score lower overall on IQ tests, but rather the climate in inner-cities and their schools, not to mention homes. Living in Chicagoland, I can’t imagine the gangbangers which own the streets in most of this city have a particularly high IQ.

Of course, the way leftists react to the book title has more to do with them than the author.


93 posted on 09/22/2021 9:26:45 PM PDT by Tacrolimus1mg (Do no harm, but take no sh!t.)
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To: SauronOfMordor

Yup, which is also idiotic.


94 posted on 09/22/2021 9:41:13 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Harpotoo

I had a Jewish room mate in college who was dumb as a stump. Generalities don’t fit the individual. Do the Ashkenazics have high averages? Sure. They also have exceptionally long lifespans. Are there ones as dumb as a stump or die from a heart attack at 45? Yep.

Does the non Ashkenazic Jewish curve fall to the right much? Nope, but at least the ones I deal with seem to think all Jews are above average. Minor, and I mean very minor shift to the right for the tribe in general. There is a definite Dunning-Kruger thing going on. That D-K effect is why so many vote Dim.


95 posted on 09/22/2021 9:56:27 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
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To: MHGinTN
Some chimpanzees are smarter than the average chimp, etc.

Duh. But the Bell Curve is about the average, not the exception.

96 posted on 09/22/2021 10:27:47 PM PDT by MileHi ((Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: MtnClimber
which also addresses connections between crime and race

The elephant in the room. This is why we have to talk about "gun crime".

97 posted on 09/22/2021 10:36:21 PM PDT by MileHi ((Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: MtnClimber

Don’t conflate IQ with knowledge. Or wisdom.


98 posted on 09/22/2021 11:48:43 PM PDT by Mr. Blond
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To: Mariner

I guess I am lucky and my family, I had a hard working and intelligent parents, also I work in the IT field and plan to get into Cyber Security, was academically lazy in school but seems not to have stopped me, oh well /sarc.


99 posted on 09/23/2021 2:48:10 AM PDT by the_individual2014
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To: Still Thinking

The purpose of talking about race and IQ, is to point out that the cause of any statistical disparity in success is primarily caused by intelligence and behavior of the underperforming group, and not a vast conspiracy of white supremacists. Thus, racial quota systems should be abolished.

This is very upsetting to the people whose livelihoods depend on those quota systems.


100 posted on 09/23/2021 3:54:52 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
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