Charles Murray’s Wake Up Call on Race Problems

April 16, 2022 By John Dale Dunn 

Charles Murray just can’t help himself; he’s been a social scientist and prolific author for almost 40 years, writing books on the American experience and societal issues. Now he is back in the mix with a book, Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race in America (Encounter Books 2021), that follows up on the book he wrote with Richard Herrnstein, The Bell Curve (1994).  That magnificent work blew the top off of racial debates in America with its in-depth analysis of racial cognitive ability (IQ) differences and socio-economic mobility of Americans and factors that are associated with success in life.

IQ

The 79-year-old scholar and warrior at the American Enterprise Institute is back at it, trying to substitute facts and analysis for the sloppy thinking and emotions that pervade academia and politics in America.  While the chattering class and media focus on inequities and claims of social injustice, Dr. Murray (Ph.D. MIT) points out that although there is certainly racism in every society and in America, the reality is that the inequities of socioeconomic status are more the result of cognitive ability and criminal activity.

The majority of the relatively short but powerful and scholarly book, Facing Reality, is focused on data and evidence. Murray repeatedly reminds us that all social science research must always be careful to consider contributing factors.

Murray disputes the fashionable assumption that racial discrimination creates social inequities.  The reality, says Murray, is that racial inequalities in America between European- and African-heritage people in health, wealth, position, status, and income can be traced to a significant disparity in African Americans’ cognitive ability and criminal behavior.  The inequalities are also present to a lesser degree for Latin-heritage people.

The reverse is true for Asians, who have higher IQs and socioeconomic success than Europeans.  Murray holds to the conviction that American society is not pervasively and irredeemably riddled with racism and that meritocratic America is egalitarian and emphasizes individual opportunity, rewards, and accountability.  As Murray points out, if the pipeline to particularly high achievement is considered, the number of high IQ persons in that pipeline is colorblind. 

Murray’s view of the disparate higher rate of criminality in the African and Latin communities is a separate analysis that has to do with how members of a group fit into the society as good citizens.  If your group has a violent crime rate 2 or 3 times or more than the rate of the Europeans and Asians, that produces less assimilation and less success. 

Murray aims to revive what he calls the “American creed,” a set of ideal commitments to foundational freedoms, human dignity, individualism, equality under the law, and the use of neutral, colorblind measures of individual talent and competence to assign economic and social roles. Central to this code, still supported by Americans, is a meritocratic and impartial standard for all.  Murray condemns the distortion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by the government, judiciary, and political class to create reverse discrimination, quotas, and set-aside racial preferences, impacting employment and academic choices. 

Critical Race Theory and its associated concepts have created an environment that repudiates the principles of the founding and created counterproductive and polarizing abandonment of the American principle of a meritocracy and treatment of citizens as individuals, not members of a race, ethnic group, or tribe.

In the cognitive function section of the book, Murray makes the case that widely used and properly developed tests in academia, business settings, and the military do measure cognitive ability and IQ (also called g) and there is no evidence that the tests fail to measure the potential for academic success.  

Murray is assiduous in his use of statistics and research methods.  His population studies information show traits usually fall quantitatively in a bell-shaped pattern with the big bulk of the population in the middle and tails on the low and high sides.  That shape amplifies differences on the tails. For example, Murray estimates that of the 23 million Americans who are in their late twenties, there are currently about 228,000 with I.Q.s in excess of 135. That pool contains only about 2,800 Africans and 9,500 Latins, compared to 50,000 Asians and 160,000 Europeans.  Africans are about 14% of the population but represent only slightly more than 1% of the 135 IQ plus pool -- or about 1 in every 100 people headed for high-level jobs or professions.  So the pipeline to high achievement is dominated by Asians and Europeans (whites).  Such realities create inequities that have nothing to do with racism.

Murray’s opponents continue to cling to the theory that racism creates inequities, and demand a war on structural racism and systematic racism. But Murray is skeptical about the chances to change the fundamental reason for the inequities: cognitive differences.  There is no known way to raise IQs and reduce inequalities in cognition, but Murray points out that genetic determination of IQ is somewhere between 40 and 80%.

 Crime rates ...........To Read More....

My Take - First, it's clear IQ plays a role in how people respond to reality. But, it's my view IQ is highly overrated. Jane Mansfield had an IQ over 160, actually higher than world famous physicist Stephen Hawking.

For years I've kept hearing how brilliant this man was so I started paying attention to his "pronouncements" from on high.  He might be brilliant in some way in his particular brand of science, which I'm more than happy to admit I don't understand, but it seems to me he's like a lot of smart people who need to stay in his little world and leave pronouncements on history, logic, facts, geopolitics, culture and reality to people who actually know about those things.  Personally, outside his area of expertise - I didn't think he was all that bright.

Here's the reality about IQ.  It doesn't guarantee a successful life, it just makes it easier, if applied.  Values, and the commitment to those values are what create a successful life and a successful culture.  One of my favorite quotes is by the most underrated President in American history, Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” 

 

One last thing, my opening comments are not meant to besmirch Jane Mansfield.  She died early in a car crash and her career was declining, but she must have understood what she had to offer Hollywood wasn't going to last.  I once read where she was interviewed and said no matter what happened to her, her children would be taken care of financially.  She may not have been a physicist, but she understood reality seeing farther down the road and preparing for it.  That was a value judgement.  Mariska Hargitay is her daughter.

 

No culture can be fixed, it has to fix itself.  Please view my