Update (9/6): What I don’t like about white liberal social engineer types and their black counterparts is their unseemly compulsion to hand-wring and point fingers at nameless and faceless third parties when it comes to explaining the black-white academic achievement gap. No matter whose fault it is, parents and students themselves have more power than they think. But blacks have become accustomed to having white benefactors slam their own race as the great enemy of humanity. It’s a ready-made, pitiful excuse for failure.
The physical chains may be broken, but the mental chains are bound so tightly that some people can’t even think like reasonably intelligent human beings. It’s really disgusting.
Anyway, let’s get to the reason for the update: From Gene Expression:
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the article, though, a few words are in order on ST [stereotype threat]. First, psychologists have already pointed out that it is a non-starter for explaining the Black-White IQ gap: while being told that a task is an IQ test lowers performance among Black subjects on average (by hypothesis, because it induces greater stress), absence of this threat does not eliminate the Black-White IQ gap, which remains the same. Think of the effect of anti-depressant drugs — to the extent that they work at all, they bring the person to their “true” happiness level, rather than transform them into sprightly, sanguine souls.
Emphasis added. Perhaps one day people will follow the advice of conservative types and work on building, fortifying, and emphasizing strong, intact families and cultivating a love for learning. Absent these things, the black-white academic achievement gap will remain and continue to grow.
(Via Discriminations)
Related post: The Mission: Middle-Class vs. Lower-Class Families
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In an increasingly futile effort to blame something or someone besides parents of underperforming students and the students themselves for their underperformance, yet another group of researchers has released a study purporting to show that black students perform worse than their white counterparts because of stress associated with stereotypes of lower intelligence.
Unfortunately, the study is behind a subscription wall at Science magazine, but an article at Medical News Today probably summarizes it pretty well. Since there is nothing new under the sun on this or any topic, don’t expect to learn anything enlightening.
The study suggests, in a nutshell, that black students would do better in school if only people wouldn’t mention that they tend to score lower than white students. Strangely enough, their performance conforms to the stereotype. Imagine that!
The so-called self-affirmation test used in the study (reminiscent of Stuart Smalley’s “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggonit, people like me!” affirmation?) supposedly helped test subjects fight racial stereotypes and perform better. According to the study, the black students improved their end-of-term grades by three-tenths of a grade point.
Claude Steele, brother of Shelby Steele, postulated the stereotype threat theory years ago. (Also see his PBS interview)
So if the theory is true, blacks would perform as well as whites on the SAT and in the classroom if we all agreed not to mention low scores and grades ever again, because doing causes stress, which in turns causes low scores and grades. That’s a classic and irresolvable chicken-or-the-egg loop if I ever heard one.
Actually, one could argue that the stereotype threat theory is itself “racist.” What is it about blacks that cause them to break under pressure? Why would researchers want to prove that blacks are incapable of functioning normally in society, and more important, why do blacks allow them to do it? What happened to the idea of proving critics wrong and defying stereotypes? Are blacks really that weak-minded and helpless?
It depends on who you ask, a white liberal social engineer loaded down with “white guilt” or a normal person. 
(Photo: Atlantic Monthly)
Related posts:
- Are Government Schools ‘Hiding’ Blacks’ Test Scores?
- Welcome to the Jungle
- Prince George’s County: Grade F
- Acting White
- Turn Off That Idiot Box!
