Solving the Problems of Race in America

Following the brouhaha over Ron Paul's old newsletters, I want to clarify my position on some points and make some tentative suggestions for improving racial disparities in America.

1.  Races do vary in many ways.  Some of us are better at higher math, some of us are better at sinking three-pointers outside the line.  There is no harm or foul in acknowledging these differences, as long as we understand these are tendencies, not universal laws.  Everyone is an individual and should be judged by his own abilities and attitudes.  Everyone should be allowed to pursue his goals and achieve as much as his talents and ambition will allow.  On the other hand, no one should be given a free pass or supplied with a standing excuse for destructive behavior.

2.  IQ is an important factor in higher SAT scores and academic achievement.  Research shows that blacks, as a group, have the lowest average IQ of all racial groups:  85, compared to 95 for hispanics, 100 for whites and 105 for Asians.  This, more than any other factor, explains the failure of blacks to achieve SAT scores as high as whites or Asians.  It explains the lack of blacks in higher math, physics and other demanding disciplines.  It is no one's fault, it just is.  However, some pertinent observations:

• By acknowledging this reality, I take no joy or pleasure in it, nor do I wish to use it as an excuse to bring back segregation or to assign an inferior citizenship status to blacks or anyone else, or to engender hostility towards blacks or anyone else.
• I WISH this IQ business weren't true.  I WISH blacks could enjoy the same level of achievement, productivity, success, prosperity and happiness as any other racial group.  I would be DELIGHTED if someone could find a solution to the problem by sometime tomorrow.  However, reality is something of an ass, as it doesn't care a damn about my preferences...or yours.  It just keeps on being reality.  It's a lot like the IRS, if you want to know the truth.
• I do not believe that DENIAL will have any bearing on the problem of IQ disparities by race.  I do believe that honest discussion could lead to possible solutions.  Is there any way to improve the IQ of blacks?  If not, is there any way to work around the problem, by offering trade school education to those for whom college is not an option?  How high an IQ is needed for (1) graduating high school, (2) graduating college, (3) becoming a doctor, lawyer, accountant, computer programmer, auto mechanic, fry cook, musician, etc?  The idea is to find the optimum training and employment that will maximize an individual's earning potential and give him or her the best chance for a successful life.  The forceful introduction of individuals into careers for which they are not suited (i.e., affirmative action, racial norming, racial quotas) harms both the unqualified (by setting them up for failure) as well as the qualified persons forcibly replaced (by denying them opportunity).
• Another training point would be to (1) recognize potential trouble before it happens and (2) take steps to prevent it.  Things to avoid:  drugs, drop-outs, gangs, crime and unwed pregnancy, resisting sudden impulses that lead to trouble.  How people fall into these traps, how to plan your life to avoid them.
• I believe that we should acknowledge black dysfunction, e.g. fatherless households, illegitimacy, school drop-outs, unemployment, alcoholism and drug use, crime and in general, a really bad attitude.  Next, we should find ways to alleviate this dysfunction, possibly by (1) the shame factor, assigning blame where it belongs, on blacks themselves, for making bad life choices, (2) providing some kind of training or schools that teach civilizational skills, e.g. working cooperatively with others, social skills such as manners, personal space, tact; employment skills such as arriving at work on time, getting out of bed when you'd rather not (per Woody Allen's dictum that "85% of success in life is in just showing up.")  Also, we should stress the importance of delayed gratification, the necessity of patience and persistence while learning the skills one needs to achieve a better life.   What we should NOT do is provide blacks with the ready-made excuse of "white racism" as the source of their problems, since that excuse is neither true nor useful in solving the problem.

Those are my thoughts on the thorny problem of racial stress in America.

Update:  Ron Paul's assertion that "blacks perpetrate crime all out of proportion to their numbers" has again been proven true.  Heather McDonald, writing in the New York Post three days ago, in an article called "The Real Outrage," noted:

Nearly every day, the police experience a reality that is kept assiduously out of public awareness: the overwhelming disproportion in crime. In 2009, for example, blacks, who are 23 percent of the city’s population, committed 80 percent of all shootings, according to reports filed by the victims and witnesses. Whites, who are 35 percent of the population, committed 1.4 percent of all shootings.

 It is time to openly discuss the problem of black crime and to seek solutions.  Self-censorship accomplishes nothing.  It is time to tell the truth.


Update:  Lawrence Auster of View From the Right discussed IQ and cultural influences back in 2008.  That article has a lot of bearing on my post above.  Auster points out a highly pertinent interview with Arthur Jensen, who discussed intelligence testing in a two-part interview in American Renaissance in 1992, here and here.