The New York Times and apparently all of polite society was in a tizzy late last month after learning that “fringe” researchers had “gained access” to National Institutes of Health data from thousands of children and, according to reporter Mike McIntire, “used it to produce at least 16 papers purporting to find biological evidence for differences in intelligence between races, ranking ethnicities by I.Q. scores and suggesting Black people earn less because they are not very smart.”
As has been the case with the ‘IQ question’ for decades, the approach used by the media and political establishment, and the NYT here, is to, without offering a shred of reasoning or evidence, simply malign and dismiss research into the topic as “biased and unscientific” and not approved by “mainstream geneticists.” Yet, it was obvious the outlet was disturbed by the “fringe” researchers’ reliance on the “prominent” Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study because it “gave their theories an air of analytical rigor.” Oh, the horror!
Sadly for these effeminate hand-wringers, the Overton Window, or the range of allowable discussion, has shifted much further to the right, and the truth, since co-DNA discoverer and Nobel Prize winner James Watson was cancelled in 2007 for daring to speak frankly about race and intelligence. Now, in no small part thanks to Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the topic is widely discussed and debated, and race realists like Jared Taylor, Steve Sailer, and others who barely had a platform three years ago are winning and growing massive audiences because they have the facts on their side and they don’t come across as ignorant hatemongers (because they aren’t).
Now, everyone on the left and even many on the right will push back on this, and maybe you are one of those. To them, there is no value and in fact great harm in conducting “stigmatizing research” on race. Sure, black people can, on average, be more athletic or musically creative or quick on their feet when it comes to witty comebacks, but any difference between races always stops at the flattering stuff and cannot possibly extend to brain capacity or impulse control. Because, you know, hurt feelings or something.
Anyone with half a brain should know better, but for most, the desire to fit in and be accepted by the group is infinitely stronger than the willingness to entertain a non-politically correct opinion. They fall for the leftist canard that feelings, especially the feelings of ‘minorities’ or ‘marginalized’ people, must be preserved at all costs, even the cost of the truth. To them, it’s better not to conduct research at all than to conduct research that leads to the ‘wrong’ conclusion.
Can politically incorrect research on race be used to the wrong ends? Absolutely, and we should all be aware of that. There should never be an excuse for any sort of persecution or for not treating humans of every race as individuals. Yes, the racial differences in IQ are likely more hereditary than environmental (though environment certainly plays a role), but that doesn’t mean an individual black person you encounter won’t be smarter than you. (When I played tournament chess back in the day, one of my ugliest losses was to a black guy I did NOT underestimate.) Nor does it mean an Asian I encounter will automatically be smarter than me. (Yep, contrary to actual white supremacist thought, whites are NOT at the top of the IQ food chain.)
But, you may ask, why bring it up at all? What’s the point? I would argue that the point is critical and far from the desire to feel superior or to ‘lord it over’ people. In fact, a dab of race realism in the overall zeitgeist would actually save countless lives and improve race relations a hundredfold. It’s that important.
Why? Consider this thought experiment: Imagine a world where airline pilots are mostly white males. To the leftist whose core belief is that all humans and people groups are blank slates capable of the exact same intelligence and accomplishments, this is a problem to be rectified. Obviously, some sort of discrimination or other nefarious goings-on causes white males to dominate the ranks of airline pilots. The fix? Bring in as many minorities and women as possible, and if not enough minorities and women pass the testing, alter the testing difficulty so that more qualify.
This is, of course, an all-too-real scenario, and real lives have been lost because of it. The leftist never cares about those lives, though, only the feelings of those who get offended at the thought of too many white men in a prominent role. It’s absurd, but it’s the deadly truth nonetheless.
The lack of racial realism also lies at the root of much of the resentment minorities have towards white people. If the average black person looks around at the poverty in his or her community and notices the lack of black high-income earners and the preponderance of blacks in jails and prisons, it’s human nature to wonder at the reasons for those things. And if they fall for the leftist lie that it’s all whitey’s fault, it will inevitably cause race hate. So ironically, the race hate leftists think they are avoiding by suppressing race realism actually causes race hate in the other direction. If you don’t think white people have been killed because of this, you need to consider the staggering amount of black-on-white crime.
In an orderly society based on truth, people groups wouldn’t be envious of one another, but would seek to police their own and be the absolute best they can be within their God-given abilities, always treating everyone inside and outside their group as individuals in the process. Putting one’s head in the sand and pretending racial differences don’t exist is the opposite of that, and over the long haul leads to more harmful consequences than leftists think their ‘noble lies’ prevent.
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