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2018-04-06 Home Front: Culture Wars

Genetics Is Undercutting the Case for Racial Quotas

[Townhall] "I am worried," writes Harvard geneticist David Reich in The New York Times, "that well-meaning people who deny the possibility of substantial biological differences among human populations are digging themselves into an indefensible position, one that will not survive the onslaught of science."

Reich was responding to anticipated resistance to his forthcoming book, "Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past." The "well-meaning people" Reich references are those who argue that race is a "social construct," that there are no significant genetic differences among people of different racial ancestry. Maybe there are differences in appearance and other physical traits, these people say, but there definitely aren't any in intelligence.

Such people responded with rage and fury to the publication in 1994 of Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's book, "The Bell Curve." That book, solidly based on the then available psychological research, explored differences among races in intelligence as measured by rigorous IQ tests.

Herrnstein and Murray's conclusion was that those differences are the result of both nature and nurture -- genes and environment -- in as yet unknown proportions. They predicted that research like Reich's would provide a clearer understanding of just how much is genetic.

Skipping down to the bottom line:

The justification for quotas is the assumption that in a fair society, we would find the same racial mix in every school, every occupation and every neighborhood. Any significant deviation from statistical equality, in this view, can be evidence of persistent racial discrimination.

This notion suffuses the behavior of leaders in colleges and universities, in large corporations, in government at all levels. Many such leaders regard enforcing quotas as a moral duty, even if they place people in positions for which they're unprepared. For these "well-meaning people," David Reich has a (probably unintentional) warning: Science is undermining the rationale for the work you're doing.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-04-06 01:16|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 Any significant deviation from statistical equality, in this view, can be evidence of persistent racial discrimination. This notion suffuses the behavior of leaders in colleges and universities, in large corporations, in government at all levels.

Who knew ?

[sarc off]

Posted by Besoeker 2018-04-06 01:26|| 2018-04-06 01:26|| Front Page Top

#2 ...one that will not survive the onslaught of science.

Didn't get the memo? The Party of Science(tm) now considers it all a social construct when it suits them.

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-04-06 08:35|| 2018-04-06 08:35|| Front Page Top

#3 So many of these "social constructs" are being recognized as a problem. Maybe "society" needs to be downgraded to a necessary evil.

Posted by M. Murcek 2018-04-06 08:54|| 2018-04-06 08:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Race isn't the issue, culture is the issue.

There is nothing in the genetics stopping a man from working hard to support his family, keeping that family together, and making sure the kids study their buts off. This is an ancient formula that a number of cultures adopted thousands of years ago to great success. Some cultures embrace it while others actively push against such a thing as selling out.

Emulating success usually leads to success, emulating failure usually leads to failure.

Posted by rjschwarz 2018-04-06 12:32|| 2018-04-06 12:32|| Front Page Top

#5 There is nothing in the genetics stopping a man from working hard to support his family, keeping that family together, and making sure the kids study their buts off.

Japanese culture is perhaps a pretty good example.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-04-06 12:35|| 2018-04-06 12:35|| Front Page Top

#6 ..but the Japanese government doesn't subsidize single female head of household (and the Japanese are pretty plain racist particularly among accepting new arrivals - to which they say "So what?" as shown in their future demographics).

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-04-06 17:53|| 2018-04-06 17:53|| Front Page Top

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