Toward a Unified Theory of Black America

New York Times ^ | March 20. 2005 | Stephen J. Dubner

[MortMan]

If only those chartreuse people would realize that each and every one of them is NOT unique - they belong to the same collective as every other chartreuse human being. There is NO individuality, there can be NO independent thought! /sarcasm

[BohDaThone]

"You can look at the black-white differential in out-of-wedlock births or infant mortality or life expectancy. Blacks are the worst-performing ethnic group on SAT's. Blacks earn less than whites. They are still just not doing well, period.''

This guy is not so smart. He left off the number one problem with the black community right now and that is the very high crime rate and resulting very high incarceration rate. It black crime rates could be made to be the same as white crime rates tomorrow, most of the problems of the black community would be solved.

Boy, you ARE peevish. The article's writer chooses to quote a perfectly correct statement by Fryer, and you are all over FRYER for not following it with your (partly reasonable) suggested solution!

[FreedomPoster]

>>I am soooo confoosed.

That's the whole point with changing acceptable terms. Once you understand that, just stick with one you like, and tell the PC fools to kiss off.

[BohDaThone]

"As soon as you say something like, 'Well, could the black-white test-score gap be genetics?' everybody gets tensed up. But why shouldn't that be on the table?''"

Again not very smart, since the answer as to why liberals and blacks get all worked up over the possibility that black-white test-score gap (in reality, the difference in average intelligence) is due to genetics is because if the cause is genetic, then it cannot be blamed on white Americans and therefore, white Americans cannot be expected to be pay for the elimination of the gap.

Again awfully peevish. The writer quotes another reasonable statment, out of who knows home many hours of talk, and you're on his case for not being quoted with your (quite reasonable) solution. If you want HIS take on deep subjects, look at his papers.

[BohDaThone]

The point of the article is largely human interest - here is an interesting guy. Second point is that author is an academic collaborator, and seems to want to say "Here's a good guy, watch what he has to say." It succeeds at that -- I want to read some of his stuff, in his own words, not an NYT summary.

Maybe he's good, maybe he's not -- but the article made me want to find out.

[TexasCajun]

What's up with "black America", anyhow?
I thought this was "African-American America". I am soooo confoosed.

Maybe because African-Americans have little or no concern with the sorry state of their homeland?

[Wonder Warthog]

"I must be inhaling that Stupid Gas the pulp mill here puts out ( inside joke betwixt me & wifey... ) because if this writer has a point, or theme, I can't find it anywhere."

It's a BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH--the only point of which is to describe the life of the person under discussion, which I think was well done. And surprisingly, for an article from the grossly liberal NYT, it has done so without any liberal spin. It appears to be exactly what journalism "ought" to be----an exposition of the facts. Would that more reportage was this well done.

That you "look for a theme" I think illustrates just how badly the MSM IS biased---you automatically "look for the spin" that the reporter or editor usually puts on "the story".

[ken21]

i read this this morning while i was sitting on the toilet.

disappointing read.

i thought his ideas would reach some fruition, and i awaited anxiously, completing the article, ... not.

[backhoe]

Thanks- that does clarify it better. Still feel stupid... going outside to look towards the "pup mill..."

[Popman]

Toward a Unified Theory of Black America

That title certainly caught my eye.

I thought, silly me, it might be a article on substance rather than a fluff piece.

[Thommas]

In any event, this guy did not die young or go to prison, so his success shows that one can overcome either one's genetics or one's environment.

It seems that the article attributed Fryer's lack of prison time on luck. He was supposed to be at the family residence, but was absent, when the bust was made. Then, he would have been a part of the 9/10 family members that had done time.

Hmmm... That could lead one to speculate that genetics, culture of family, and dumb luck contribute to one's life experiences.. I now have the blueprint for my doctoral thesis - can I get a Fellowship at Harvard?

[BohDaThone]

"The Harvard economics department told Fryer to take its offer anyway; he could have an office and defer his teaching obligation until the fellowship was done."

Affirmative action in action.

sorry, missed this peevish one on my first read. The Society of Fellows is THE premier academic grad honor at Harvard. It is for youngish scholars, who get to do pretty much anything they want to. I've known a couple, and the quality is amazingly high. I have no idea if he should have been chosen as a Fellow or not. BUT -- having been chosen, there is NOTHING at all out of the ordinary in the departments being willing to cut you any kind of favorable deal to have you around.

[Shisan]

The article promotes tokenism and racial favoritism in a shameless way. It is obvious from the text that all of his perks are because he is black. What is painful is that he seems unaware of this.
He may be a great scientist just like Einstein but it will take a while to find out.

[garbanzo]

As soon as you say something like, 'Well, could the black-white test-score gap be genetics?' everybody gets tensed up. But why shouldn't that be on the table?''

This is the only quibble I have with an otherwise excellent article. When hasn't this been on the table? It wasn't like back before the Civil War people were saying, "Look at those intelligent and hardworking slaves, who are every bit my intellectual equals!"

A certain part of white America is secretely hoping to establish that the problems of black America are genetic simply because then the problem of race and racial inequity goes away. But this simply a false dichotomy - a failure of imagination on how to deal with race, i.e. racial problems are either genetic or expansive affirmative actions programs are needed. I think Fryer is to be commended for attempting to find a "third way" on issues of race.

[TheGeezer]

What is a pure technical economic theorist? Are these the guys who believe that economics is a pure science and try to prove their theories through calculus?

At a Communist symposium thirty years ago (when dialectical materialism was still vibrant), the keynote speaker told a joke to begin his speech. He said, "A doctor and an economist were arguing about which science was the first to be created by God.

"The doctor asserted, 'God first created medicine, because he surgically removed a rib from Adam to make Eve.'

"The economist said, 'But economics existed long before that, because, if you recall...before God made anything, there was Chaos!'"

Naturally, the opening joke led to the point that through central control and with application of principles of dialectical materialism, chaos can be removed from economic systems. We now know, through the miracle of applied truth, that Communism was all doo-doo and that economics is not, as you stated, empirical.

All theoretical science loses exactness in application, due mainly, I think, to uncompensated variables. Social sciences are the worst, probably because they involve pesky, hypervariable humans. Yet this man seems willing to question the wisdom of the domain of ragingly fashionable black studies, and that is certainly a good thing.

[BohDaThone]

"One paper that Fryer and Levitt wrote suggested that the gap in early test scores between black and white schoolchildren is largely caused by the fact that most black children attend worse schools."

I found a blog reference to apparently this paper, which contradicts what the article says is its message:

"Economists Roland Fryer and Steven Levitt have made some interesting findings about the black-white test score gap:

This paper describes basic facts regarding the black-white test score gap over the first four years of school. Black children enter school substantially behind their white counterparts in reading and math, but including a small number of covariates erases the gap. Over the first four years of school, however, blacks lose substantial ground relative to other races; averaging .10 standard deviations per school year. By the end of third grade there is a large Black-White test score gap that cannot be explained by observable characteristics. Blacks are falling behind in virtually all categories of skills tested, except the most basic. None of the explanations we examine, including systematic differences in school quality across races, convincingly explain the divergent academic trajectory of Black students.

To try to dejargonize...black and white students with similar characteristics enter school at the same level, but by the end of third grade, the black kids have fallen behind. No characteristics that the researchers can observe, including school quality, can explain this trend."

The "money quote" in the middle is direct from the Abstract. The surrounding material is from

http://aconstrainedvision.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_aconstrainedvision_archive.html

An interesting political-economic blog, of a conservative bent (The title is from Sowell's work).

[BohDaThone]

The article promotes tokenism and racial favoritism in a shameless way. It is obvious from the text that all of his perks are because he is black. What is painful is that he seems unaware of this.

What a crock! The article shows that he has some intereting ideas and, other than an unconventional path (UT-Arlington-Penn State-Harvard rather than Harvard-Harvard-Harvard) it shows nothing about any favoritism. James Buchanan, the Nobel Prize winning conservative economist, started out in Tennessee schools -- so what!

The Society of Fellows takes only 5-10 folks a year -- I am sure there are plenty of wanna-be affirmative actioopn applicants, and they (by my observation) usually have 0-1 blacks in any year. So, there is no basis for saying affirmative action had anything to do with it and, at worst, he beat out a lot of others. A quick poke aorund the web looking at his work looks quite interesting. If you've read Thomas Sowell's biography, it has certain similarities -- and what Sowell has achieved is certainly not due to AA. Let's watch this guy's stuff and judge him on that.