The problem of racial differences, again
Mark A. writes:
I wonder if affirmative action helped kill Michael Jackson? (note photo):
AP Source: Jackson suffered a heart attack
LOS ANGELES—Michael Jackson, who was with a cardiologist when he collapsed at his rented home in Los Angeles, appeared to have suffered a heart attack, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.
Dr. Conrad Murray
LA replies:
I don’t like to say this, because, while on one hand I accept the reality of racial differences in ability, on the other hand, at this moment, as I think about black doctors, it suddenly bothers me deeply and seems a terrible dilemma for humanity that an entire race of people are so much less possessed of the higher abilities needed for a high level of society, but I can’t imagine ever using a black doctor. Given the ubiquity of race preference systems for minorities in medical schools admissions, under which blacks are admitted with scores which result in the automatic rejection of white applicants, imagine the hoops any black doctor would have to jump through before I was convinced he wasn’t a product of affirmative action!
If God were aware of such mundane human dilemmas, what would God want us to do? How does it fit in God’s scheme that a major race is manifestly less endowed with civilizational abilities than the other races? This would not be a terribly acute problem if we were still in a simpler world. But once the world has become modernized and globalized, and a certain amount of IQ is needed in any society for it to function at the modern, technical level, then it becomes a big problem.
Here’s a tentative answer, and I’ve said the same before. When it comes to white majority Western countries, all lowering of standards for the sake of bringing blacks into the professions and equalizing racial representation in various fields should be terminated, period. If that means only a fraction of the number of blacks in elite professional schools and a fraction of the number of black doctors that we have now, then so be it. Blacks don’t have to have black doctors. Or black doctors could focus on the kind of lower-skill family care practice where the empathy that comes from common racial background is more needed. The bottom line is, putting unqualified and lesser qualified people in positions because of their race is wrong in every way, and should never be done. So stop worrying about racial outcome, and let the chips fall where they may. Ward Connerly is the only black person I know who takes this position.
But what about Africa? Is Africa destined to be forever behind the other continents? In a word, yes. But that doesn’t mean that black Africans are worthless or less than human—which is the way the liberals see such an acceptance of difference. It means that a different type of society is appropriate for blacks compared to other races. Blacks have their own qualities, their own way of being. As long as there is the refusal to recognize racial differences, it will remain impossible to organize life in Africa in a way suited to the abilities of its people.
I believe that man is created in the image of God, and that includes blacks. But that doesn’t mean that all peoples have the same abilities. We are all one, in that we are all human. But we are different, in that we belong to different nations, cultures, races with very different qualities. True diversity means accepting the diversity of the human race.
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Mark A. writes:
I understand you. I empathize with you. I have had almost the exact same thoughts about the issue. I recall an editorial written by a West African economist a couple of years ago—he urged the West not to donate clothes. He said that whenever a Westerner makes a clothing donation, an organization “dumps” the product onto the African economy for pennies on the pound. He said it put all of the African tailors out of business and encouraged laziness on the part of Africans. He essentially told the West: stop your charity! I think blacks will one day make it, despite their short-comings. But the length of time that this takes is for God to decide. We do not do blacks any favors by economically supporting the worst elements of their race.
Shrewsbury writes:
Is Africa destined to be forever behind the other continents? In a word, yes. But that doesn’t mean that black Africans are worthless or less than human—which is the way the liberals see such an acceptance of difference.
Yes, and that’s precisely the way they see lower-class white people. They regard any white person without the proper degrees as contemptible. Their obsession with racial equality is somehow tangled up psychologically with this obsession with their own elitism. But I’m damned if I can straighten it out….
Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 26, 2009 07:27 PM | Send