just a note

I have an emailer who I've been keeping up a more-or-less weekly email conversation with since, I think, the second month I ever wrote this blog, with occasional breaks when we really piss each other off. (He's a conservative, by the way.) This morning he sent me a request to make the anti- "scientific racial inferiority" argument myself, rather than lecture others about how to do it. And, you know, he's right.

I have made the argument many times in the past. If you use the search function you can find these versions. I do need to keep doing it. I just want to cop to the fact that I find doing it a profound challenge. Not because I don't think that the argument is correct, and not because I think I'm incapable of making it. But because race is the central political preoccupation of the American experience, and the argument is hugely important. So it takes a little time for me to muster the research and write with care. But: yes, he's right. It remains my responsibility. In the meantime, you can check this link for my thoughts on the subject from the last couple years.

Here's a sample on racial achievement gaps in standardized tests:

I wouldn't be surprised if a whole slew of factors, including poverty, exposure to lead, poor diets, parent educational background, the idiom tests are written in, neonatal health care, learning disorders, dyslexia and dyscalculia, lack of exposure to educational toys and games, low childhood reading loads, the persistence of syntactic immaturity due to parental modeling (my own academic obsession), and other environmental factors played a role. That doesn't even begin to untangle the web of what "black" means in terms of specific linear heritage, particularly since we are talking about a truly unique genetic history that has been conditioned by the rape and forced breeding programs that are common to chattel slavery. If I'm right and the origins of the racial achievement gap are revealed to be a stew of competing factors, it will make our job of closing the gap harder, but it will also hopefully blunt the words of those who ascribe vast social problems to the supposed inherent inferiority of our most oppressed group.

Update: Oh, and. I'm not a big Stephen Metcalf fan when it comes to his cultural writing. But I think that this response to William Saletan's work on race and IQ is a model for how to do it. It's unflinching, based on evidence, a close and fair reading, and devastating.