In what’s supposed to be a victory for black people, a federal judge has ruled that a 1995 Chicago firefighters entrance exam is biased because too many black applicants failed it. As a result, taxpayers may have to shell out $80 million in “damages.” The applicants may not have the cognitive abilities to fight fires (unlike blacks applicants who are able to meet the department’s requirements), but they’re smart enough to know that black skin and a sob story reap financial rewards:
A lawsuit filed by black applicants alleged the exam’s cutoff point for “well-qualified” applicants created a pool of 1,782 candidates that had five times more whites than blacks.U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall said in her ruling Tuesday that the city knew the cutoff point was meaningless and would disproportionately exclude blacks from the pool of candidates most likely to be hired. She said the test “could not distinguish between those who were qualified for the position of (firefighter) and those who were not.”
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that Chicago was “twice as likely to hire white applicants than black applicants.” Ironically, blacks are overrepresented in the EEOC by 625 percent, but I don’t think the bloated agency has to worry about being sued.
What sort of entrance exam the Chicago Fire Department requires these days, if any, I’m trying to find out. I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer is “None.”
Once again, I’m embarrassed and appalled that lowered standards based on skin color are cause for celebration.
Related post: Firehouse Diversity
Addendum: Another unanswered question – Why do black applicants consistently score lower on these tests anyway? That’s an important subject people are too PC to talk about.
Update: This post will probably incur the wrath of black liberals. When I write about my distaste for race preferences, they get angry at me for daring to complain. I must be made of different stuff because I don’t understand why they’re not angry at whites for even suggesting that standards should be lowered or tests eliminated or requirements dropped because blacks aren’t up to par. Where’s the outrage over that?
Update II (3/27): In a perverse way, it’s kind of cool that black liberals who hate me still read my blog even though I don’t read theirs. I guess that means I’m…important? Dangerous? Out of my mind? Whatever the reason, thanks for visiting. 
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I understood there would be no math questions.
Something like this happened in Boston a few years ago also.
The argument is actually not as simplistic as it sounds. It’s not that the test is biased because black people didn’t score high enough to get in. It’s that the cutoff point for being qualified is suspiciously right above the range where the number of black applicants who would be qualified would go way up. If they did set the bar there for that reason, that really is bad, especially given that they were accepting anyone in the lower standard group for years because they didn’t have enough people higher up.
Of course, it might well be as you say. I don’t think we have enough information to know at this point.
” The applicants may not have the cognitive abilities to fight fires”
the section of the article you quoted said that the test didn’t distinguish good firefighters from bad.
Maybe they should do like the military (used to do) and give them a high school proficiency type test first (all of them) to see where their reading level and other comprehension levels are. Maybe that would explain the low scores among some groups. Of course this would be called “biased”, “unfair” and even more racist (cause we really don’t want to know the reason for the low scores).
Welcome to my city. That’s why I never meet people like you, LB.
>>>”Once again, I’m embarrassed and appalled that lowered standards based on skin color is cause for celebration.”
When MLK said folks should be judged by their character not skin color, what part of that don’t you idiots understand? He would be APPALLED at what’s become of Liberals.
Will there be any record of how much of that award will go to the lawyers? There is a suspicious part of me that suspects that this could be a way of giving money to lawyers who will contribute part of it to the Democratic Party.
It seems to me that the proper place to direct anger of this situation would not be you, but the schools, teachers, and parents that allow children to go through the entire 12 years of school without learning enough to score well on tests. It’s fraud to give kids diplomas that don’t represent meaningful learning.
LaShawn,
I am over 60 and feel that these laws were
appropriate for the 1960’s. However, when did the laws cause the abuse that happens today? I cannot give a date, but it has long passed.
James M. Barber
Don’t worry LB. You’ll incur the wrath of white liberals, too.
There are two distinct, and mutually exclusive, verions of affirmative action. One mandated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was equality of opportunity. The current version mandated by the Supreme Court, in Griggs v. Duke Power (197?) is equality of outcome. I support equality of opportunity.
The measure of an employment test is not its demographic outcome, but how well it predicts the ability to do the job for which it purports to test.
DeputyHeadmistress has it nailed. I found this story link over at Power Line, and thought it was relevant.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=6&u=/ap/20050325/ap_on_re_us/math_guide_errors
If those responsible for educating our kids don’t have the basic skills that they are supposed to be teaching to said kids, is there any hope?
After reading the Sun Times article La Shawn links to, I have some questions.
Judge: “The exam’s cutoff point for “well-qualified” applicants created a pool of 1,782 candidates that had five times more whites than blacks.”
Is the population in Chicago five times more white than black, like it is in the rest of the country? If it is not, and more like say only two times more white, then the selection process is at least suspicious for these reasons:
Isn’t physical ability a more important factor in firefighting than education level, and did the written test unfairly exclude applicants with more physical ability? Hasn’t there been a legacy of father to son generations in the firefighting and policing professions, implying insider bias? Were not voting ‘tests’ used to stop black voting in the south long ago and did the judge see some of that legacy existing here?
Everyone just wants fairness and equality and the differences we argue about is to what degree we believe fairness and equality has been achieved in a society with a long and ugly legacy of racial bias and discrimination, ‘especially’ in local firefighting and policing father to son jobs. My experience leads me to believe job fairness and equality has been achieved in most segments of our economy, with many companies actively seeking qualified blacks.
But does bias still exist in certain segments like local pseudo-political jobs like fire and police? I don’t find enough information in the Sun Times article to know if the judge’s decision was valid in this case, so I will have to defer to the one that had all the information, the judge.
DeputyHeadmistress
Michael Medved said on his program that the disparity between black and white students disappears when both are home schooled. Do you suppose that it is the involvement of the parents that makes the difference?
Fire fighting today isn’t just pointing firehoses at fires, a job even the dumbest guy can do if he he has muscles. Industrial fires are more likely to include dangerous chemicals that can destroy entire neighborhoods, Terrorists may mount sophisticated attacks where reaction must be quick and smart or thousands will die. Plans for responding to bioterrorism require firefighters to understand medicine.
Being prepared for those sorts of things requires the ability to read and master the knowledge in books. Anyone too stupid or lazy to pass a firefighting entrance exam has no place in modern firefighting, whatever his race, color or creed. He has no right to put thousands of lives in danger. This isn’t a bad decision. It’s a criminally irresponsible one, one roughly akin to placing incompetent physicians in a hospital emergency room.
I know. I work as a volunteer in disaster response. Well-trained firefighers are our first line of defense against disasters of all sorts. Stupid ones are worse than useless. They add more confusion to situations that are already confusing enough.
I never had an issue with standardized testing of any kind, so I have never studied the issue in depth. I DO know this: some folks just do not test well. Why this is I don’t know. I don’t know if it is ‘test-taking anxiety’ or cultural bias. I just know that simple reading, writing and arithmetic worked for me. I had parents that insisted that I learn my lessons in school. I was also blessed with a desire to learn. I figure if you want to be a firefighter, you take the time to learn some of what the job actually entails and prepare yourself (physically and academically) accordingly. Sounds simple to me, regardless of whether you are conservative, liberal or of no particular political or philosophical persuasion. However, if there is a demonstrated racial bias–this is the U. S., you know–then it should be addressed and remedied. Given the history of this country, nothing less is required. I just thank my God that I will never need such a remedy.
I don’t think that the ability to test well or not is a relevant question. The measure of a performance test is its ability, or lack of, to predict job performance. If a question is relevant, answering the question correctly means the candidate is more likely to succeed in the job than a candidate who does not.
Is it fair to the person who “does not test well?” Likely not. Yet till some genius can find a way to distinguish ‘those who do not test well’ from merely not smart, or educated, a test will have to do.
Funny, my personal experience was that the better I knew the material, the better I did the test.
Remember, a fire department tests applicant to find find fire fighters, not solve all the community’s social woes.
“Another unanswered question – Why do black applicants consistently score lower on these tests anyway? That’s an important subject people are too PC to talk about.”
Blacks consistently score lower on all sorts of standardized tests compared to white people, who consistently score lower (though not as much lower) on many standardized tests compared to some East Asian groups and Ashkenazi Jews. Personally, I think it is probably a combination of environment/culture and, yes, genes.
We all want to believe so badly that all ethnic and racial groups are fundamentally equal, and it’s a very attractive belief. Things would be so much easier if this were the case. But it stretches credulity to believe that different racial groups evolving in relative isolation for literally tens of thousands of years would all turn out… exactly the same. As though evolution would defer to our convenient paradigms!
There is no doubt in my mind that much black underacheivement is the result of a subculture that is hostile to success and education. Nor is this just a black phenomenon. In Britain, there is a growing white underclass that adopts the same thuggish lifestyle. Still, all the evidence I have seen suggests that even when we correct for environmental influences as best we can (studies that focus on interracial adoption are useful in this regard), there is still a significance performance gap on many standardized tests between blacks and whites, as there is between whites and northeast Asians, and between gentile whites and Ashkenazi Jews.
It is difficult to come to terms with the idea that different racial and ethnic groups may have innately different strengths and weaknesses, but I believe it is so. At the very least, such a possibility ought to be discussed rationally without the knee-jerk cries of “Racist!” that so often accompany such debates from both the right and the left.
Instead of those Black applicants banding together to form study groups to help each other pass the exam, they decided to band together to banish the exam.
It does nothing to change the fact that they are lacking in a test of aptitude. Regardless of what the test may have had on it!
Everyone had to take the test and those who met the required score were accepted. So long as some Blacks run from criteria like this those Blacks will never perform better on the given exam. Meaning they will continue to lack in an area that others can do better than them in.
The goal should be to do better on the exam or any bar raised so long as everyone must jump over the bar!
Stop asking for lower bars Black people! If we Blacks are equal men/women to those of other races we should look at any challenge we all must pass and work to pass it. Not run away from it or have it banished!
How long until we hear some movie star or rapper say that the black people who PASSED that exam aren’t really black…..? They’re sold out, they’re Uncles, they’re acting WHITE.
THe ability to pass an exam does, after all, indicate a certain degree of personal accomplishment and self-motivation. Things which are, sadly, anathema to black liberals and to the white liberals who so desperately need that vote.
Still, all the evidence I have seen suggests that even when we correct for environmental influences as best we can (studies that focus on interracial adoption are useful in this regard), there is still a significance performance gap on many standardized tests between blacks and whites, as there is between whites and northeast Asians, and between gentile whites and Ashkenazi Jews.
Could you please provide evidence for this assertion?
Are you aware of the high scores attained by many foreign blacks on these tests? And this is without the interracial adoption you speak of.
But, I am open to seeing to being converted by facts. But, first, let’s see them.
GayLikeAFox said__”At the very least, such a possibility ought to be discussed rationally without the knee-jerk cries of “Racist!” that so often accompany such debates from both the right and the left”…
I’m struggling to recall a time in recent American political history when the “racist” cry was made by anyone on the right.. I can imagine that it may have been used a time or two as a way to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the left’s eagerness to fall back on that term when their arguments collapse (as they usually do), but other than that, it just doesn’t happen.
The most dangerous and damaging racists today, in the year 2005, are white liberals suffering from a chimerical guilt complex.
From my own experience growing up in a poor neighborhood of laborers and factory workers, I know the environment you grow up in has everything to do with scholastic achievement (testing scores).
I was the first out of six children to get past the eight grade and graduate from high school, by the skin of my teeth BTW. My older brothers and sisters dropped out to work in factories because that is just what you did in the early 60’s when your parent(s) income was low, you were not going to college, factory jobs were plentiful, and all your neighborhood family and friends dropped out too.
The only reason I happened to hang around for graduation is my best friend’s family expected him to, so I did, more for social reasons than the education. You see, the problem is if you have no family history and associated expectation of a higher education, and the financial and social pressures at a young age points you to an early income from manual labor, it is unusual for a young person to break with their neighborhood/family/friends expectations and adopt another’s.
If it were not for the draft in the Vietnam era, military electronics school, GI bill financial help after, and the high school diploma stepping stone, I would not have gotten above high school myself.
Sorry for the life story, but it is important for those who have had a different one to understand the difficulty young people in a poor environment have in seeing themselves as scholastic achievers when everything around them is saying the opposite. Therefore, don’t be so hard on, and seek some sort of genetic reason, why people of different colors or ethnic backgrounds consistently score lower on tests.
For every pea of a genetic difference one may find in the races to explain testing differences(and ask any researcher, if you set out to find one…you will), you will find a pound size difference in people within a race and a 10 pound difference in the economic level of the country/neighborhood they grew up in.
Does anyone remember the “black farmer-bad credit” payoff a few years ago? I’ll admit I don’t know all the details but the gist of it was that some group did some “study” and determined that many black farmers in the US didn’t have decent credit and were consequently denied bank loans. Then, some “court” decided that this could only be explained as prejudice and discrimination? White farmers’ ability to borrow was predicated on their credit history. But black farmers, thanks to another “court” are given HUGE CASH SETTLEMENTS! Why? Because as a group their credit rating was worthless.
This is the basis of the REAL racism in America. Betting on the fact that most folks find these facts distasteful, and don’t want to look at the REAL problem. A whole generation of black Americans have been sold out by “leaders” like Jessie Jackson, Ted Kenedy, Kwazi Mnfume?, and these other con-men and women. Why value discipline and sacrifice when all one has to do is cry, “RACISM” to “win” big in the fuzzy logic world of race-baiters.
Dave,
I don’t know about cries of racism, but more Republicans signed the Civil Rights Act than did Democrats. Similarly, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation acknowledged unfair treatment of black Americans. I think “the right” is generally less inclined to scream anything as well as protest as well as rebel rouse. We’re generally more inclined to try to solve the problem than shout about it. But that may be my bias coming through.
Further, if it wasn’t un-PC, I bet there are quite a few on the right who see reverse discrimination as racism.
I think black liberals read your blog because we believe that people are important and not just people we agree with. About 99% of the things you say, I totally disagree with, but we share faiths, a skin color and gender…so I’d like to know what the other sides are thinking because I think it’s important. Reason is never on just one side. What’s right isn’t either.
This separates liberals from most Neo-cons and some conservatives. The liberals in my circle are more inclined to listen to all sides of the argument. I watch and read all forms of media no matter the political lean.
And just for the record, I personally don’t hate you. Hate is a wasteful emotion. I disagree with you. I disagree with how you view the world. I think you are misguided on some things, but who am I to hate you for it?
Jim R,
I really appreciate your post.
pamajazon,
You’re coming close to slandering a whole lot of black Americans by saying that their generation has been sold a bill of goods. I don’t disagree with you very much on your evaluation of some of the “con- men” but I can assure you that the biggest majority of black Americans are hard-working folks, who love their spouses and kids and are trying to move ahead like all the rest of us. The problem in these race discussions is that those farthest to the left and those farthest to the right use over-blown rhetoric to argue their points. The truth is always more to the middle. There are many, many whites who want handouts, too. It’s not primarily a black or Mexican problem. The black “problem” started in the years after WWll, when mechanization of the cotton fields and job opportunities in the factories, especially auto and related, saw nearly 5 million blacks move off the land to the northern and western cities. This was one of the biggest movements off the land in the history of the world. Previous to this, the black family had survived for 300+ years in spite of brutal oppression, which included forced separation of families, massive rape of slave women by white masters, the injustices of reconstruction and the humiliation and discrimination of Jim Crow. The fathers found jobs in the factories, but many of the sons did not. And discrimination in the North surprised many, who thought whites in the North would be more welcoming. It was in this context that the Civil Rights movement began in the 50s, although there had been strenuous efforts on the parts of blacks and a few whites in this area since at least the American Revolution. We saw the effects of unemployed young black males in the riots of the 60s. Since the passage of the Civil Rights legislation in the mid-60s, we have seen many efforts, many successful, some not, to right the wrongs and level the playing field. It was and is one of the most noble efforts in U.S. history. Blacks themselves fought the fight along with a few whites, especially Hubert Humphrey of MN. Some white complaints are legitimate, many are not. At least whites should have the good sense to see now what it feels like to be discriminated against and discrimination toward blacks lasted nearly 350 years. Think about it.
Stan.
You are reading too much into my mention af a specific legal settlement. I’ve come nowhere near slandering anyone. Who said anything about “the majority?”
As for the next thousand words……And your point is?
And as for”having the good sense to see what it feels like to be discriminated against”- I see a Supreme Court that says its OK to discriminate against whites to achieve invisible constitutional mandates for “diversity.” This is one concrete example that is spread to many colleges and universities all around the country. For all the blather we hear about today’s racism it’s hard to find such concrete examples of any! That’s how the theory-or scam -called “institutional racism” came about. No one can find any real examples of what President Clinton called, ” the biggest problem in the Nation today!” So the Con-men came up with something fuzzier. Think about it.
pajamazon,
I don’t agree with Clinton that racism is the biggest problem in the nation today but it used to be. But I’ll stand by everything else I said.
doverspa,
The Democrats that voted against Civil Rights legislation are now card-carrying Republicans after being courted by Nixon and Reagan as part of the “southern strategy”. The Republicans that voted for it were moderates in the North, Midwest and West. For conservative Republicans to now claim that they were responsible for passing the Civil Rights legislation and that they now carry the mantle of Martin Luther King is akin to the Egyptian Pharaoh taking credit for helping the Israelites to cross the Red Sea.
Stan has just explained the problem. Like the students in Shaker Heights, Ohio, he has given us the dogma of African American culture. The late professor Ogbu’s study of the performance problem concluded, African American culture is not conducive to excellence in education. Stan is well versed in the history of other people, but he has not indicated what responsibility he has for his own future. Education can not be bought, it must be earned by the individual. My mother was discriminated against because of her gender, it was unfair and wrong, but my wife faces no such discrimination, and our daughter has a future to work towards, not her grandmother’s history to use as a cop-out. The only chip I want on my daughter’s shoulder about men, they are sexual predators. Mastering the history of the African American experience in the US is not a desired skill set for prosperity in the US economy or the Chicago Fire Department.
Stan – I always ask this of people who claim that the Democrats who voted against the legislation are now “card-carrying” Republicans. After he left the Dixiecrats and most of his fiery rhetoric behind, Strom Thurmond joined the Republican party. Who are the others that joined the party en masse?
Stan is the man. He has that “Southern Strategy” conspiracy down pat. Never-mind that hundreds of billions in investment capital poured into the South after the loss of power by Democrat segregationists, it is the tribe of the Democratic Party that he belongs to lost power, so it must be the Republican’s that were the racists. If blacks were to vote for Republicans by a 40% margin, the exact same benefit of the Southern Strategy would occur. The only Party that benefits from the status quo, Democrats. There is no economic interest for Republicans to have the current gaps in education and employment.
Fritz,
Not sure what your issue is…I made no comments about black culture. I made no comments about black test scores. I just tried to fit everything into a historical context. And, I have not been a Democrat since 1968. And, the “southern strategy” was not a conspiracy, it was a “strategy”. And, higher education is ALWAYS bought and most of the time earned.
La Shawn,
It sure wasn’t Sen Byrd
Instead of lamenting about these gentlemen who did not make the cut and then changing the standard, maybe we should be focusing our energies on the real problem. Many of the students I teach cannot right sentences with correct grammar. They are 15, 16 years old. What have they been doing the previous 10, 11 years? You fix the problem at the source, then the problem goes away. Not immediately, but over time. That is a far better payoff than a quick fix.
One other point. The socio-economic factor and pressure cannot be overlooked. We must find ways to combat the pressure put on kids in desparate circumstances to quit school and engage in negative behaviors. It can’t be in handouts and lowered standards either. That is another important area in which we are failing. We struggle on my campus just to get the kids to go to class on time. Many of today’s students from lower socio-economic backgrounds view standards and accountability as punishments. The difficult job is convincing them that getting to class on time and doing their work is what makes them successful. Especially when other students that have dropped out and live at home with everything in “momma’s name” spend all their job earnings on $150 Nike’s and new cell phones. If we can solve the problem there, then the excuses for lowering standards will no longer exist.
La Shawn,
How many Dixiecrats are left? Maybe Zell Miller, although he is much more moderate than they were. The fact that Strom Thurmond found a home in the Republican Party proves my point and is symbolic. Why do you think that there was a fairly significant move to the Republican Party in the South, starting in 1968 that has lasted to this day. George Wallace made an overt play for southern Democrats, who eventually went to the Republican Party. Where did all these white southern Republicans come from and what was it that appealed to them and caused them to switch?
Re: Strom Thurmond… He may have abandoned some of his rhetoric but was it just rhetoric or was it the ingrained beliefs of the Democratic Party in the Old South? Was he a Democrat or Republican when he first saw the light?
Just as I thought. Besides Thurmond, 0.
Chris,
The ability to read and write well is the biggest guarantor of future success, isn’t it? And what to do with the parents…it’s a monstrous problem.
Well Chris,
You do point out the root of of the problem. I have two relatives that teach in Philadelphia and they both have complained of parent involvement (among the many problems). Is that a problem you see also?
They are currenlty working on a project to get some of the parents more involved (go so far as to actually working on their education also because some of the parents skills are lower than the childrens).
Other than that, well… as long as “man” looks to “man” to fix his own problems, with no goal in mind except to satisfy self…
we will always have the problem (Interesting how all these problems seemed to magnify on a continuing bases the more we took God out equation… could there possibly be a correlation?)
La Shawn,
I understand why Southerners have abandoned the Democratic Party recently and who could blame them. But that is not why the trend started in the first place in the 60s. The language that Wallace used was not subtle but the language of the Nixon and Reagan administration was. But southern whites knew what they were saying. They found comfort in the Republican Party because of their own hatred for Northern and Western Dems, who were pushing civil rights. You were not born when the civil rights movement started in earnest. I watched all these folks on TV and read about them in the magazines and newspapers. The fact that the Republican Party gave them aid and comfort was the main reason I departed from the party in which I was raised and have yet to come back. Northern and Western Republicans were helpful in enacting legislation, not Southerners of any ilk.
Renee,
Byrd is one who didn’t switch. Where are the others?
Stan, since you’re the one who raised the issue, the onus is on you to tell us who they are, not on Renee to tell who they aren’t. – Admin
La Shawn,
“Just like I thought…” How does that help? All those Republicans in the South had to come from somewhere didn’t they? They came from southern Democrats switching to the Republican Party in presidential elections. They were still happy to be represented by Dixiecrats at the local level because their views were still being represented…that has begun to change in the last 15-20 years.
stan, I am extremely aware that Byrd didn’t switch, hence why the argument about Strom holds no water.
La Shawn,
If you read my post carefully, I said that the southern Democrats started changing to the Republican Party. I did NOT say that their Senators and Reps. changed. The underlying racist sentiments stayed the same and found a haven in the Republican Party. I’m not sure why you’re having a beef with me on this…this is all historical fact and part of political strategy. All parties do it. Southern whites became a “special interest” group for the Republican Party just as blacks and Hispanics have for the Dems. Thurmond was a precursor to this movement.
I’m northern born and raised, and I’m proud of that part of the country, but I do tire of the simplistic hyperbole about virtuous and tolerant northerners vs. ignorant southern bigots. Shall we look up the ugly history of northerners throwing bricks and bottles to fight integration in Pontiac, Michigan and south Boston, Massachusetts? Stones, glass houses, etc.
RedBeard,
You’re right…northerners had major bigotry problems, some of it caused by the massive influx of blacks after WWll. The blacks brought competition for jobs and would work for less money. Sound familiar? The biggest racist I ever knew was my Uncle Fred. He was a meat-cutter in Gary, Indiana starting after the war. But he was an equal opportunity hater. He hated Jews, too, and called me a “n….r lover.” It wasn’t the first time I’d been called that but his was special and I’ve worn that appelation with pride for 40 years.
The ability to read and write lowers the potential for violent behavior in some cases 60% or more. It is an amazing correlation.
I see just as much a problem with teachers who do not engage the parents as parents who aren’t involved. In Irving (home of the Dallas Cowboys), the students have started an initiative to get the parents involved.
Only by attacking the source of the weed will a weed truly die. You pull off the top of the weed, it will grow right back. Right now we’re pulling the top of the weeds, not getting to the root. It is short-sighted, self-serving idiocy that does not help future generations.
“Could you please provide evidence for this assertion?
Are you aware of the high scores attained by many foreign blacks on these tests? And this is without the interracial adoption you speak of.
But, I am open to seeing to being converted by facts. But, first, let’s see them. ”
I am well aware of the high test scores that some African blacks acheive. But I am also aware that African immigrants are generally high-IQ, self-selected types. Go to http://www.allafrica.com, a news website for Africans, by Africans, and search the term “brain drain” and you will see that Africa, like much of the third world, has a big problem with the high-IQ segment of its societies leaving for greener pastures in the West.
I am also aware that black africans, on average, score 75 on culturally fair IQ tests, whereas Europeans score 100 and northeast Asians score around 105. If this is due to cultural bias as is commonly alleged, then why do northeast Asians score so high on a test that is supposedly biased towards its white creators? Read the book “IQ and the Wealth of Nations”- though the data isn’t entirely complete, it is the most comprehensive study of IQ in ethnic and racial groups worldwide that we have, and its findings are as I have posted here.
Black Americans score an average of 85 on an IQ test, which suggests, as steve sailer has pointed out, that nutrition and other environmental influences are shaving 15 points of black Africans mean IQ. Still, there remains a 15 point IQ gap between blacks and whites which stubbornly remains in cases of interracial adoption. (In other words, blacks adopted by whites still have IQs about 15 points lower than their white peers).
The best database for all this info on the net is at Gene Expression, which is at http://www.gnxp.com. Go there and do the relevant search and you will find all the info you need, laid out far better and far more comprehensively than I ever could. Also, the site is run by South Asians, East Asians, whites and Jews, so no worries about it being a closeted White Supremacist site.
Please understand that there is no triumphalism in this post. Yes I’m white but I don’t lord it over blacks when whites do better any more than I get angry at Asians when they do better than whites. What matters in a free society is the individual, and there are plenty of brilliant blacks and stupid whites. Regardless, such research is relevant when discussing group differences and it needs to be put out there.
Then, some “court” decided that this could only be explained as prejudice and discrimination? White farmers’ ability to borrow was predicated on their credit history. But black farmers, thanks to another “court” are given HUGE CASH SETTLEMENTS! Why? Because as a group their credit rating was worthless.
Wrong facts. Black farmers got the settlements after proving racial discrimination in lending practices of the USDA. Credit rating had nothing to do with it.
but more Republicans signed the Civil Rights Act than did Democrats.
More Dems. signed than Republicans. Republicans signed in a higer percentage.
Similarly, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
Only freed slaves in the “rebellious states”.
Like the students in Shaker Heights, Ohio, he has given us the dogma of African American culture. The late professor Ogbu’s study of the performance problem concluded, African American culture is not conducive to excellence in education.
http://www.mdcbowen.org/p2/rm/debunk/dDSouza01.htm
Emerge January 1997
page 65
As a final illustration of the weak factual basis for the arguments in D’Souza’s book, consider his claims that Black students and their parents are alienated from the education process and that peer groups among African-American youngsters systematically ridicule those blacks who seem interested in academics, accusing them of “acting White.” His evidence is almost entirely anecdotal: In once case he cites a 10 year old anthropological study, based on a single high school, and in another instance, he refers to a magazine article published in 1985 by two people, neither of whom claim to be scholars. Better sources than these do not support D’Souza’s claims.
Duke University researcher Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, recently have analyzed the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, a large national 1990 survey of high school students, in search of systematic evidence of black alienation from the educational process. They found Black students as likely as Whites to predict that they will obtain a college degree; found no racial difference in the dropout rate, once one controls for family circumstances; found that black highschool students cut classes and miss school days no more frequently than White students, and observed that Black parents participate in meetings and ask teachers about their children’s progress with roughly the same frequency as Whites.
Moreover, Black students who achieve an A in math courses or who are invited to join their high school honor societies, did not report feeling themselves to be any less popular as a result. This research, employing a nationally representative sample to investigate (and reject) one of the racial stereotypes around with D’Souza builds so much of his case, shows graphically why we should not unquestioningly rely on sensational, journalistic accounts when discussing purported racial disparities in American society.
Weighing the “Burden of `Acting White’”: Are There Race Differences in Attitudes Towards Education?
Darkstar.
And how was it proven? Just like the firefighters case this thread is about. Discrimination was “proven” by the results. Whites got more loans than blacks therfore it HAD to be discrimination! “Credit had nothing to do with it.” This is ABSURD! What the black applicants all had in common is the fact that they were denied credit at some point. They were denied cerdit based on INDIVIDUAL decisions. NOT because of their skin color. The fact that some trial lawyer conned some jury is nothing new. Especially when the government is the one being sued. John Edwards vs. some kid fresh out of law school. It’s not too hard to guess the outcome.
President Regan’s decision to compensate Japanese for their detention during WWII was another example of this bogus “racism.” Michelle Malkins book on this subject is spot on! Huge payments to spys and the families of spys. No payment for the internment of non-Japanese! Yes Darkstar, discrimination was “proven” in this case as well. It was proven by “some court!”
Cheers to Chris, Gay…fox and DarkStar for excellent work! A Bronx cheer to pajamazon for endorsing Michelle Malkin’s racist polemic against the Japanese-American CITIZENS! Why weren’t all the citizens of German or Italian ancestry thrown into internment camps?
What the black applicants all had in common is the fact that they were denied credit at some point. They were denied cerdit based on INDIVIDUAL decisions. NOT because of their skin color.
That’s not true. In fact many of the Black farmers showed proof that their worthiness for loans were equal to those of white farmers.
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