1. Asians score higher than whites do on standardized tests. This testifies to one of two things: Asians are either harder-working than whites are, on average — or Asians are inherently more intelligent, on average, than whites. Right?
Most people seem to have no problem saying that.
OK, so are whites harder-working (or inherently more intelligent) than blacks?
2. It’s true that blacks are better at basketball than whites are, on average, correct?
Nobody seems to dispute that blacks excel at basketball.
Is there something that anyone can name that whites are better than blacks at?
Anyone?
3. Almost all interracial rape in this country comes about from blacks raping whites.
Is there a cultural problem specifically in the black community that needs addressed?
4. Nearly 70% of black babies are born out of wedlock. Homosexuality is practically taboo within black culture. And yet, black media glorifies the ‘pimp’ and ’street’ culture. Is there some sort of cultural problem pertaining to sex within the black community?
—
Phew! Too uncomfortable. Better just pretend these questions aren’t worth discussing.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I’m getting uncomfortable just reading this post.
Here’s what you’ll find on college campuses as to your first point: most people don’t have a problem with the “white” person serving as the inferior party in question….that’s why most people wouldn’t have a problem with the claim that Asians are more dilligent than whites.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I heard someone claim that if you go to a university library on Fri/Sat nights, you will see a larger proportion of Asian students studying. If so, it adds to the notion that Asian students try harder.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:12 pm
White guilt and liberal political correctness prevent an honest discussion about race.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
“Is there something that anyone can name that whites are better than blacks at?”
Yes, being elected Senator, President, and Governor. The data makes that uncontentious, hopefully.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:22 pm
#2: The library at University of Texas is called the Perry-Casteneda Library, or PCL. When I lived in Austin, it was popular to jokingly say the initials meant “People of China Library.”
#3: The same for discussions of any gender difference that does not indicate women are superior.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
There’s little genetic element to different outcomes between whites and Asians.
Asian children who are adopted by white couples do no better academically than white children adopted by white couples.
The critical factor is cultural. Most Asian cultures involved rice-based agriculture.
In rice-based agriculture, crop yield increases proportionally with effort to tend the paddies.
That cultural background causes Asian parents to emphasize hard work in academics (and in business).
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:37 pm
5 – Like when Larry Summers suggested that men are naturally better at math and science than women, and an offended feminist professor from MIT said she “felt like she was going to faint.” Irony, anyone?
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone say Asians are smarter than whites. It’s generally more along the lines of, “Asian parents make all the Asian kids get good grades.” Doug is right – the problem is cultural, rather than any genetic difference. They aren’t inherently harder working, but cultural norms provide more incentives to work harder.
Whites tend to be better than blacks at golf – which is why people get swept up in the Tiger Woods story. Whites also tend to dominate rowing, another sport more closely tied to the white cultural experience, especially the wealthy classes.
And yes, of course there are cultural problems, re: the last 2 questions. I don’t think I get your point – are you saying that people don’t want to talk about how people are influenced and created by their cultural environment? That’s what I got from your post, and it seems to be a pretty common rising school of thought in liberal academia.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
If we accept that blacks are better at basketball, then whites are better at hockey.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
AK has the highest incidence of rape in the country. California is now out of money, to process DNA to convict rapists.
What a wonderful place we live.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I really don’t want to get into the middle of this debate. But I’ll remind everyone that environment and cultural backgrounds play a primary role in how people develop. Whites are not “better” at golf, they just had more opportunities to learn how to play (lots of land, country club memberships, suburban schools with golf programs, etc). Blacks, generally speaking, grew up in the inner cities where golf wasn’t an option, but basketball could be played on any street corner and alley. Basketball also provided black children with heroes and role models to look up to (I’ll avoid the discussion about the benefits of athletes serving as role models) which they didn’t always have in other sports.
I suspect, at least in sports, that past cultural norms will be changing now that blacks are following Tiger’s example and whites are playing more and more bball. Here in Alaska, the best basketball players have recently been Alaska Native kids, with street games very popular in remote villages (probably for the same reasons it works in the inner cities).
I do have to ask. . .what does this subject have to do with presidential politics?
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Can white men rap?
Can black men play hockey?
Can hispanics play ping pong?
Can Asians play football?
Can Bulgarians hit a baseball?
Can Jews break dance?
Can Swedes write a song that doesn’t suck?
What we are describing here is overwhelmingly cultural. What little role- if any- genetics plays is irrelevant. People are people, and we judge people as individuals, not as groups. What is the point?
Are we trying to resuscitate eugenics? Justify discrimination? Reinforce feelings of superiority or inferiority? Establish shortcuts to decide what people are capable of?
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:20 pm
12. . . Ping Pong?
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Yes, ping pong.
And Alaskans can’t surf.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Alaska,
Incidentally, have you ever noticed how dominant China is at ping pong in the Olympics?
Does this mean they are genetically disposed to slapping a little plastic ball over a net stretched across a table????????????
These are the questions Alex ponders.
And have you ever noticed how dominate Hungary is at fencing (seriously). Something about Hungarians must genetically predispose them towards swordplay.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Magyarország tovább!
(Hungarian for “Go Hungary!”)
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Can Swedes write a song that doesn’t suck?
THE SWEDES ARE AWESOME SONGWRITERS, SHUT UP
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Alex,
I have absolutely no doubt that you are a big fan of Abba.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
ABBA seemed to do ok…
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and Pink have all heavily relied on Swedish song writers.
You’ve also got ABBA, Ace of Base, the Cardigans as well as various death metal bands.
Do any decent songs come out of Sweden?
And the answer is no.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Doug Forrester is shockingly culturally savvy!
Max Martin, Dr. Luke, and the entire ex-Cherion/Maritone team are just brilliant, brilliant pop songwriters!
The same man — Max Martin — was behind “Baby One More Time,” “Since U Been Gone,” “So What,” and “I Kissed a Girl.”
Dr. Luke is behind “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne and “Circus” by Britney Spears. He also co-wrote “Since U Been Gone.”
Sweden is also home to Nightwish singer Anette Olzon!
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
…And yes, I love ABBA…
…
>_>
Anyone denying that “Gimme Gimme Gimme” is a great pop song is lying to himself. So many great songs from them! Knowing Me, Knowing You…Chiquitita…Waterloo…Lay All Your Love On Me…
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Actually, Scandanavia in general is the key exporter of metal!
Norway is home to the most famous black metal bands, especially Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Darkthrone, and Gorgoroth — and mainstream black metal like Dimmu Borgir. Norway, but also Sweden, Finland, and Denmark gave us the best of the world’s symphonic metal: Nightwish, Within Temptation, After Forever, Epica, Delain…
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Alex,
If you are asking why so many blacks have struggled academically, why so many are in prison, etc…. I would say the single largest reason is that 70% of black children are born out of wedlock. Not that I look to Ann Coulter often for stats, but she mentioned in a recent column that when you adjust for single parenting, the crime rate among blacks and whites essentially disappears. This is not genetics. The black family that survived slavery and Jim Crow disintegrated under the Great Society. A black friend of mine who grew up in Detroit (he’s in his 40s) told me about how when he was a kid, bureaucrats would sweep through government housing projects looking for any evidence that a man was living there. If there was (such as men’s shoes laying around) the welfare was cut. The system- intentionally or not- was destroying black families by design.
What a perverse system.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Alex,
P.S. You spend too much time listening to Scandanavian music. Get back to CS Lewis.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Can’t say that any of his other titles appeal to me in the least. I wish he’d written more on philosophy. It seems that the rest of his books were Christian apologetics.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
In my experience the military is key equalizer between the races.
There’s nothing else that will take a kid from the ghetto and inculcate a social ethos better than the US armed services.
Parochial schools are perhaps second in giving disadvantaged kids a better ethos. My denomination has the most parochial schools per church of any large religious group in America. I’ve noticed the advantages in every church I was a member of.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Now Finns in particular are very good at ski jumping. Is this genetic?
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 pm
15. . .
“Incidentally, have you ever noticed how dominant China is at ping pong in the Olympics? Does this mean they are genetically disposed to slapping a little plastic ball over a net stretched across a table????????????”
No I think it’s actually a communist plot to take over the world. There are listening devices inside those little white balls.
18. . . Thanks. Now I have “Fernando” stuck in my head.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Doug,
I’m sincerely glad that your church has done such good work in its schools, but no church or school system has done more good for inner city kids- whether Irish, Italian, Hispanic, or black, over the past century than my beloved Catholic Church.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
#26 Lewis’s ‘Till We Have Faces’ contains religious concepts but is entirely pagan in setting. I greatly appreciate it.
The Dark Tower is likewise devoid of Christian content.
His ‘Allegory of Love’ is also not a work of apologetics.
You may not be up to speed on the cultural background to appreciate these works though, Alex.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Here’s another racial difference I’ve noticed…..
White Minnesotans are great at hockey, but awful at country music. On the other hand, white Alabamans are horrible are hockey, but quite good at country music, according to those who appreciate the genre.
Clearly, the races of Minnesotan and Alabaman are quite different.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 pm
#30 Well there are 30 times as many Catholics in America as those of my church in America. So that we manage to educate 300,000 students to Catholicisms’ 2.4 million students isn’t too shabby.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Doug,
We have Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.
BTW, Ted Kennedy doesn’t count……….
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Doug,
I can’t believe you’d diss The Final Countdown that way.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:51 pm
#35 I actually find this slightly more tolerable to listen to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZThquH5t0ow
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Sanford risks being odd man out in 2012
Is the straight-laced Republican base ready for a candidate whose idea of relaxation is leaving his wife and kids on Father’s Day weekend to commune with nature?
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=0F82C123-18FE-70B2-A89F9B981258AB01
WYFF News 4 Video: Where is Governor Sanford?
http://www.wyff4.com/video/19840565/
Sources Question Governor’s Story
Gov. Mark Sanford Says He Disappeared To Go Hiking
http://www.wyff4.com/news/19837234/detail.html
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Why is it anyone’s business if Sanford goes on walkabout?
If Clinton can molest interns and commit felonies to hide it, why would we be concerned at guy going off and doing his own thing?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Swedish song writers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPnGPIMUnus
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Republicans are morons. This was a Sanford set-up, with a large roled played by the East Coast media.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Burning Issue
President Obama questioned about his efforts to stop smoking
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=6238422&referralPlaylistId=949437d0db05ed5f5b9954dc049d70b0c12f2749
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Kris,
#39.
Thank you. I have not laughed that hard in quite a while. I was practically in tears. It helped me recover from what was personally a rather bizarre night.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 pm
It stretches credibility to think a nation can produce Victor Sjöström, Ingmar Bergman and such a volume of frighteningly pathetic music.
Perhaps something about a democratic-socialist worker’s paradise stifles good music.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:54 pm
There is some interesting peopl on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESmVYWN1nGc
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Doug, Sweden also produces some great military technology.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-3MACYJ5AI
June 24th, 2009 at 7:58 am
The fact that we spent half the comments on this thread talking about “Swedish musicians” when it is supposed to be a discussion on race is indiciative of the fact that we CANNOT have such a discussion because of the PC atmosphere and we will quickly change the subject to more “enjoyable” or “comfortable” subjects, like Swedish musicians.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:46 am
1. Asians score higher than whites do on standardized tests. This testifies to one of two
things: Asians are either harder-working than whites are, on average — or Asians are
inherently more intelligent, on average, than whites. Right?
Most people seem to have no problem saying that.
OK, so are whites harder-working (or inherently more intelligent) than blacks?
Neither. There is a great deal of family support for education in the Asian and white communities.
Additionally, much of intelligence is not natural aptitude but opperant conditioning. In other
words, there are many in the black community – mostly those in the welfare system – who
have been conditined by bad schools and the breakup of the family (because of “no men in
the household” rules) to fail academically. That much deliberate sabotage takes time to
correct. The first step would be good mandatory remedial education as a condition for
receiving benefits – and providing these benefits to both parents – with a repeal of the
“no men in the household” rule. Also, quit using the drug laws to go after black men, especially
since most drug users are white – they just get sent to rehab rather than jail.
2. It’s true that blacks are better at basketball than whites are, on average, correct?
Nobody seems to dispute that blacks excel at basketball. Is there something that anyone
can name that whites are better than blacks at? Anyone?
I would say that white evangelical preachers are better at using the prosperity gospel
to enrich themselves – but black evangelical preacherss seem to be catching up quite nicely.
I can’t say running for President.
Maybe stealing and not getting caught? Insider trading? Colonialism comes to mind.
We do really good at that, or at least did.
George Washington Carver proved that achievement is about environment, not inheritance.
As long as someone is not in a toxic environment they have a chance.
3. Almost all interracial rape in this country comes about from blacks raping whites. Is
there a cultural problem specifically in the black community that needs addressed?
You have a short memory and a limited database. White on black rape and sexual harrassment
are alive and well in America – and is certainly more the historical norm all through both
slavery and the days of Jim Crow (you know where the term “Honky” comes from? – for the young
and naive I will spill the beans – it comes from white men “honking” to have black women come
out and service them sexually in their cars).
Perhaps the reason there is great fear of black on white rape has to do with a collective
guilty conscience.
4. Nearly 70% of black babies are born out of wedlock. Homosexuality is practically taboo within black culture. And yet, black media glorifies the ‘pimp’ and ’street’ culture. Is there some sort of cultural problem pertaining to sex within the black community?
See prior comments about the deliberate efforts to break up the black family. As for homosexuality,
that is an effect of the black church. They are no different than most evangelical and Catholic
traditionalists. They will come around.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:51 am
12, Yes. there was a black player on the ice at the Cup Finals.
I think he was a Red Wing. If he was on the squad last year, his name
is on Lord Stanley’s cup already. If he was a Penguin, even now his name
is being etched on the cup.
The odder question is, can short Irishmen play hockey. The answer is yes.
My former house mate was the GMU hockey coach and before that was a player
in a few intermural leagues here and in New Hampshire.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I can just see this post popping up again in 10 years when alex runs for office.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
LOL.
I have no interest in running for office, actually. I want to be a controversial political commentator!
June 24th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Alex,
“I want to be a controversial political commentator!”
Good, ’cause those are the only kind that get paid.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Big Money$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$
$$
$$$$$$$$$$
June 25th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
1. Yes, white people as a group tend to work harder than black people as a group, and yes, white people as a group tend to be more intelligent than black people as a group. It’s widely documented, indisputable, empirical fact.
2. White people as a group tend to be better than black people as a group at logical/analytical sciences, esp. mathematics and natural sciences.
3. Yes, black culture tends to promote rape (or perhaps oppose it less fervently) than white culture tends to.
4. And, yes, black culture tends to have a more unhealthy view of sexuality than white culture.
I don’t see why it’s so hard for people to state simple empirical facts. It’s not like any person or group of people have more inherent value than another person or group of people. Value is entirely subjective. Black individuals and white individuals alike are only as valuable as they value themselves.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Blacks are just as good as whites as forming racist, moronic organizatons (e.g., Black Muslims and the GOP).
Whites are better at posting ignorant, redneck racist shit on the internet (see this site above).
June 27th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Yea it must all be about race, not the opportunity for some, and slavery for others. Which are then followed by jim crow laws, & poverty…
Most serial killers are white, most prejudice people are white… How easy it is to slander degenerate limbs of another race.