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When it comes to race differences in intelligence and conservatives’ obscurantism on same, nothing has changed
The most recent National Assessment of Education Progress, discussed by Stephen Thernstrom at the Manhattan Institute’s website Minding the Campus, shows that black 17 year olds are on average four years behind white 17 year olds in reading ability and math ability. What this means is that the average black 17 year old reads and does math as well as the average white 13 year old. Yet Walter Williams—accompanied by Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom and ALL establishment conservatives—thinks the reason for this huge difference in intellectual abilities is “bad education.” If these people won’t start with the most obvious and telling truth in this area, which is that BLACKS ON AVERAGE ARE SIGNIFICANTLY LESS INTELLIGENT THAN WHITES, how can we take seriously anything they say about educational problems and solutions? Indeed, nothing has changed since 2003, when the Thernstroms in their book No Excuses discussed at length the same four year chasm between white and black reading abilities and, backed by the entire conservative establishment, absurdly argued that it could be eliminated by charter schools.
Here’s another VFR item from 2003 dealing with the Thernstroms’ escapism on race differences and the conservatives’ amen choir, with the whole crew blaming liberals for low black intelligence and urging that better education will make the races equal. When it comes to race and intelligence, “conservatives” (i.e., right-liberals) are more utopian than liberals (i.e., left-liberals). It’s no coincidence that these are the same people who believed that Iraq could be made into a democratic, Western-style country. Email entry |