Should a Renewed “Conversation About Race” in the US Be Allowed to Touch on the Race-IQ Debate?
Donald Trump has recently been trying to talk about the social disadvantage of African Americans. He is, given his background and to say the least, far from an ideal vehicle to encourage a productive discourse on this issue. The fact that some white nationalists who traffic in racist rhetoric support him doesn’t help. One of these nationalists is Jared Taylor — notorious for his advocacy of the position that blacks are intellectually inferior to whites, and that this explains the poor socio-economic position of African Americans. Taylor supports Trump, of course…
As it happens, I ran into Jared Taylor at a Manhattan Institute event in DC some months ago. I was on a panel dealing with race and poverty; he was in the audience. True to form, he stood during the Q&A and asked me the “Bell Curve” question: doesn’t the genetic IQ gap account for black poverty? And, isn’t there a taboo on talking about this? (CSPAN recorded the event, but I can’t find the link now.)
With all the talk about “free speech” and political correctness now in the air, and with the problems of struggling black communities in America getting renewed attention, I think it is important to share publicly how I dealt with that question.
I responded to Jared Taylor directly, immediately and (I’m told) artfully, to the effect that:
1) There IS a racial gap in the US in measured IQ;
2) There IS strong evidence of the partial heritability of measured IQ;
3) There is weaker supportive, and much contradictory evidence that this racial gap is due to genetic inheritance;
4) There is overwhelming evidence that measured IQ is also powerfully influenced by environmental factors;
5) The clear burden of the evidence (Flynn effect, e.g.) supports the view that, over time, environmental effects on measured IQ in human populations (like those in the United States) are more than large enough to account for currently observed racial differences;
6) The evidence of IQ’s independent causal impact on relevant social outcomes (earnings; anti-social behavior; health and wellbeing, etc.) is not that strong, with environmental influences apparently more important;
7) While policy interventions intended to raise IQ directly have not been shown to be particularly effective, many other interventions (e.g., early childhood education; nurse home visitation; etc.) have been shown to produce beneficial results, and such beneficial effects are of a magnitude that swamps the observed IQ effect in accounting for racial differences in these relevant socio-economic outcomes…
In short, I concluded that what I presume to be Herrnstein’s psychometric chapters in TBC, though not beyond criticism, stood on firmer ground than did what I presumed to be Murray’s socio-economic policy chapters, but that the narrative — “blacks are inherently less intelligent so there’s no point in trying to narrow the racial income/wealth/employment gap through social policy” — is just plain wrong. (I didn’t call that narrative “racist” — but only because I didn’t want to distract attention from a reasoned engagement with the question based on evidence…)
I acknowledged to Taylor that this issue has been shrouded in PC taboos, and I agreed with him that this is an issue that should NOT be beyond debating in respectable policy-intellectual circles. I declared that the standard in such debates should be reason and evidence, and I insisted that I had absolutely no reluctance to meet him, and all other comers, on those terms…
Here’s my bottom line: this race-IQ debate, too, is a “conversation about race” that I am ready to engage in. As we used to say back on the mean streets of Chicago’s South Side where I was raised: “You know where to find me. I ain’t runnin’ and I ain’t hidin’.”
Indeed, I regard the popular alternative (avoiding and denouncing any such race-IQ discourse, attempting to preempt such discussion by labeling it as presumptively “racist”) to be a mistake for black folks and for the country: it just invites an underground, whispered discourse of innuendo, and racist contempt that is precisely what Jared Taylor and his ilk would welcome…
Reprinted from Glenn Loury’s Facebook postings.
Glenn Loury’s homepage and videoblog.
Glenn C. Loury, Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences, Brown University
Trending Now on Affluent Christian Investor
Sorry. No data so far.
The Affluent Mix
Biden Oblivious To Illegal Immigration Issues... August 2, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Rob Arnott On Bubbles, Inflation, And Once-In-A-Generation Investment Opportunit... August 2, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

The Federal Reserve’s Massive Theft Of Stability... August 2, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

What To Do About This Difficult Market? August 2, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Letter On The Politicization Of Corporations... July 26, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Peak Of The Fake Bull Market July 26, 2021 | Michael Pento

Woodrow Wilson’s Administrative State vs. Gold... July 26, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

Dividends, Energy, And Crypto July 26, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Whose Side Are You On? July 26, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Media, Left Ignore These Dangers July 19, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Mark Skousen On FreedomFest And How To Measure The Whole Economy... July 19, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Quantifying The Quantitative, Or Making Easy The Easing... July 19, 2021 | David Bahnsen

The Gold Standard Means A Rising Standard Of Living... July 19, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

Book Review: Brian Domitrovic Reveals The Monetary Genius Of Arthur Laffer... July 19, 2021 | John Tamny

Steve Forbes: Time To Worry About Inflation, Not Hyperinflation... July 12, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

UFOs Rescue Biden July 12, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Read This Classical Economist’s 200 Year Old Warning About Paper Money... July 12, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

How Central Banks Murdered The Markets July 12, 2021 | Michael Pento

Everything There Is To Know About The Stock Market... July 12, 2021 | David Bahnsen

AT&T CEO: We’re Ill Equipped For Politics, And We’re Spending A Lot Of ... July 6, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Internet Bias Distorts National Conversation... July 6, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

The Halfway Point Of 2021 July 6, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.