How to reply to the stupids

At John Derbyshire’s new webpage that he set up on the recent incident he writes:

Here is a typical example of an extremely common response. (I took it from the comment thread on my April 12 TakiMag column, but there are dozens like it elsewhere—given the web-wide volume of commentary on this piece, quite likely hundreds.)

Please tell this black woman who is a devoted mother, professional woman, cat lover, and gardener, and Ivy league graduate about her inherent nature and intelligence. Do tell!

Now, it’s well known that I hate to give offense—ask anybody!—but the temptation to say the obvious thing here is so strong, I am just going to yield to it.

Ma’am: If you cannot distinguish between a statistical statement about a population (“On average, men are taller than women”) and a statement about some one particular member of that population (“Sally’s real tall”), then … how intelligent do you expect me to believe you are, actually?

And if a person who cannot make that elementary logical distinction truly does have an Ivy League degree, Affirmative Action is a greater evil than I thought.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 18, 2012 08:36 AM | Send