Are you saying native Americans are stupid? Qualify your statement.
They consistently rank at or near the bottom of almost every measure of physical health and socio-economic success in the U.S.
Reading the statement, there is no other interpretation.
The assertion is, it’s not the public schools, it’s the large American Indian population that is responsible for these terrible stats.
Now, the question is, is he correct? If so, why is it so?
If I may split the difference I think that the large Native American population may play a role in the underperformance of the state while at the same time not holding that Native Americans are inherently stupid. As with all group identities, the issue is one of culture.
Those who identify predominately with Native American culture identify themselves with people who were utterly and completely defeated and marginalized. In their defeat and surrender they were made dependent on the US government for their continued survival, a compound tragedy as the US government has let them down repeatedly.
Poverty, alcoholism, hopelessness, and general dysfunctionality follow from clinging to an identity that has been marginalized and is maladapted to modern society. Kids in that culture are offered very little hope of success, and much like intercity black kids, there is an element of rejection of the change that education would bring.
The same cultural conditions that hinder education also make them amenable to Democrat political positions. A group of people who are downtrodden, had their pride destroyed, lack hope for providing for their own future, are maladapted to success the modern world and have a history of dependency on the government are going to vote Democrat until they can be led to see that those policies are the source of their tragedy. There is a vicious circle of poor education leading to Democrat governments that leads to more poor education. Democrats feed off of poor education.
If I may jump in here, I’d like to make a distinction that is peripherally related to your comment in this particular instance. I can make no educated judgment as to the Native American population in New Mexico.
However in various discussions I come to see that people generally don’t make a distinction between the words stupid and ignorant. I had a discussion with a liberal online and I said you are ignorant of the facts, she went postal on me saying that I was calling her stupid. I pointed out that ignorance can be fixed by learning the facts. Stupid is just plain stupid. A very significant difference.
If one is ignorant and refuses to learn the facts, then one is stupid.