Race Realism

Guest Post by The Zman

The Israeli politician, Abba Eban, once said, “Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources.” A form of this is attributed to Churchill, but there is no evidence he ever said it. References to the apocryphal Churchill quote started appearing in the 1980’s. Like Twain and Voltaire, Churchill gets credit for a lot of pithy sayings, simply because people believe he would have said them. Regardless of the origin, the assertion is true. Men go to great lengths to avoid the right answer or wise course.

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We see this with race. Three generations ago , when social reformers and political leaders looked at the condition of the black man, they were presented with three possible explanations. One was biology, the reason most people accepted for the differences between blacks and whites. The other was some form of magic, like God blessed the white race or cursed the black race. Few people thought that was right. The other choice was culture. The laws and institutions of the nation were rigged against the black man.

It has long been understood by pollsters, marketing men and test designers that when given three options, people will look for the least likely of the three and eliminate that first, so the choice is a binary one. That’s what happened 60 years ago. Magic was eliminated as a possible choice, which left biology and culture. It is also well known that people will always choose the option they want to be true, over the one they wish were not true, despite a mountain of evidence in support of the latter. That’s the inspiration of that quote.

Three generations ago  our rulers decided that the reason blacks were so far behind whites was culture. They set about changing the laws, creating programs to address past sins, modifying institutions to accommodate blacks and lecturing whites about the sinfulness of racism. The last black to be the victim of Jim Crow, for example, is 75 years old this year. We are reaching the point where no living person was the victim of legal segregation. The majority of blacks now have never experienced real racism.

Blacks would contest that last line and they would have a point. The other day, there was a news story about a white not being properly worshipful of a black. It is these sorts of outrages that perpetuate racism in America. All kidding aside, no black under the age of 50 has had their race used as an impediment to their success. In fact, being black is now an enormous asset for a black person with anything on the ball. The demand for competent blacks far exceeds the supply and prices have responded accordingly.

Despite all this, the achievement gap between blacks and whites remains unchanged in measurable areas like education and household wealth. In some areas, like crime, illegitimacy and substance abuse, the gap has grown larger. The gap in SAT scores are higher than ever, despite attempts to alter the test to close the gap. For three generations, our betters have rearranged every aspect of American society in an effort to alter the realities of race in America. The results are more of the same.

The only rational conclusion is that culture is not the cause of the black – white gaps we see in American society. At the far right of the curve, sure, better social conditions for high IQ blacks have made an enormous difference. For the overwhelming majority of blacks, however, the culture war has been a battle among whites over how much money, in welfare benefits, will be transferred from the white middle-class to blacks. They are no more able to compete in American society than they were when this all started.

That brings us back to the original options. Between culture, biology and magic, our betters, and most Americans, were sure it had to be culture. Now that three generations of social engineering have disproved that argument, we’re left with biology and magic. Our betters, unwilling to accept the reality on the ground are now arguing that the real cause of the racial gap is magic. They don’t call it magic, but that’s what they mean when they chant phrases like “white privilege” and “unconscious bias.”

In fairness, our betters are not embracing oogily-boogily because they believe it. It’s that they cannot bring themselves to embrace biology. Everything about the prevailing orthodoxy depends on the blank slate being true. Even the slightest doubt will cause the whole thing to come crashing down. It’s why kooks like Cordelia Fine get awards for writing books that claim biology is a social construct created by a cabal of pale penis people to oppress women, if women existed, which they don’t.

All human societies need order, otherwise they look like the Mad Max hellscape of places like Somalia. Order requires authority and that comes when the people being ruled over accept the people and system that provides order. The king is not going to be king very long if no one accept his right to rule. Similarly, people will not tolerate a ruling class that is populated by madmen denying reality. This is, in effect, what brought down the Soviet Empire. Even the beneficiaries of the system could no longer pretend it made any sense.

That’s what is happening today. The reality of race is undermining the moral authority of the system. Everyday, more and more white people wake up from the dream of race denialism. It’s why, despite the lack of sane leaders and a coherent strategy, the alt-right thrives. Whatever their flaws, they are right about the reality of race, which gives them credibility in an age when the ruling class has none. Ironically, it is the weapon of race that gave birth to the current arrangements and it will be race that is its undoing.

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24 Comments
Pepin the Short
Pepin the Short
September 21, 2017 7:47 am

“The only rational conclusion is that culture is not the cause of the black – white gaps we see in American society.”

Not agreeing with you here Zman. You’re defining culture here as white culture, specifically white racism towards blacks. There is also black culture though. Call the white racist component and the black culture subcultures under the broader American culture if you like; doesn’t matter. Point is that (IMO) urban black culture has in the past, and continues to in the present, play a major role in preventing blacks from (as you say) being “able to compete in American society”. Dan Moynihan was an ardent liberal in a very liberal time meaning that to be an ardent liberal you had to be VERY liberal. Moynahans report “The Negro Family: A Case for National Action” correctly (again, IMO) emphasized the role of urban black culture in keeping blacks “(un)able to compete in American society “. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Moynahan report beofre ZMAN. Check out the wikipedia page on it or the recent article in The Atlanitic about it from 2015.

Barnum Bailey
Barnum Bailey
  Pepin the Short
September 21, 2017 8:36 am

Urban black culture is quite literally the phenotype exhibited by people of primarily African ancestry in an environment having little in common with Africa.

The talented tenth of POPAA (People of Primarily African Ancestry) who artificially adopt what amounts to a POPNEA (People of Primarily Northern European [i.e., inside the Hajnal Line] Ancestry) culture do fairly well. But make no mistake, they are ARTIFICIALLY adopting that culture. If you examine the children of highly-educated & highly-paid blacks, they revert to a mean that is well below their parents.

Culture is not an overlay. It is the collective expression of individual DNA.

Stucky
Stucky
September 21, 2017 8:11 am

I lost interest after “An Israeli politician”.

MMinLamesa
MMinLamesa
  Stucky
September 21, 2017 9:19 am

Thanks for that as if I give a shit. Your jew hatred is boring.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
September 21, 2017 8:16 am

Zman fails to explore a pretty obvious explanation: Culture is cumulative and slow-moving. It was 300 years from the Magna Carta to the Reformation and another 250 from the Reformation to the American Revolution. Half of Europeans east of the Rhine were de facto serfs at the start of the Hundred Years War, a full 200 years after the Reformation. When they all came to Cleveland and Pittsburgh, they did much better!

Laws, culture and religion all matter quite a bit.

So judging the results of African-Americans after 50 years since the Civil Rights Act seems a bit hasty. I agree with him that the trends do not look promising. But it’s too early to dismiss cultural explanations in favor of Biology.

More troubling to me is the rejection by the new Left of America’s foundational system. The whole Antifa/BLM strategy is to use the taint of slavery as an excuse to undermine the legitimacy of our system and Constitution. This is the most dangerous cultural trend in America today, even worse than single motherhood.

Zman should be more worried about this than about biology or phrenology or melanin or something. Given the level of inter-breeding in the US, it would take quite a feat of biology to isolate the genetic differences among sub-populations in the US. The cultural gaps are huge and obvious, so maybe let’s start our analysis there.

Barnum Bailey
Barnum Bailey
  Captain Willard
September 21, 2017 8:39 am

The current Left embraces Post-Modernism, which is a philosophy of pure nihilism.

As to culture, it is the collective expression of related-individuals’ DNA. It does not MOVE. It is as stable as their genetics. It is purest Lamarckian foolishness to believe that heredity can be moved by “training.”

The difference between “black culture” 80 years ago and today is that today’s people of African ancestry feel freer to be who they really are, on a collective basis. Anyone who has seen what black college students are like in a large dorm knows this.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
  Barnum Bailey
September 21, 2017 5:34 pm

I’m not sure you understand Lamarck. As to culture expressing DNA, I look forward to you posting any scientific research backing this up.

pedex
pedex
  Captain Willard
September 21, 2017 11:37 am

I mostly agree. Takes a long time for culture and values to change sometimes. I employ many black people and the overwhelming behavior I see constantly is they refuse to act like there is a future beyond the day they are living. Saving $$ is basically taboo. They take what they can get and in general pigeon hole themselves into an existence with no real future. This is speaking generally of course, there are exceptions. They do however suffer racism at the hands of the law, sometimes brought on by their behavior but sometimes not. I also see an awful lot of and I am probably not wording this the way I’d like but for now disdain for our whole system of everything. In short they feel fucked so they respond in kind even if its mostly an illusion in some ways. The ones that apply themselves do well, the ones that don’t, don’t. Still, it is impossible to see life thru someone else’s eyes and understand the whole bigger picture. On the other hand there are instances I have to scratch my head and really wonder what is going on. Case in point, metal detectors at govt buildings. My last business I ran had me going thru them several times a day 5 days a week. The failure rate and the guards would back it up when asked for blacks was up around 80% despite signs and lines and being able to see what others did they would simply refuse to cooperate. Big signs saying empty pockets and get all metal out of your clothes and into trays. Very simple. It got so bad I’d seek out lines with as few blacks as possible. Stereotypes may be bad and make us chuckle sometimes but often it is because they are true.

Bernard
Bernard
September 21, 2017 8:20 am

I believe it has not been disproven that culture doesn’t play a (large) role. It’s just that they applied the wrong remedy: free money and free shit, which turn people into dullards. And Pepin is right, Black culture, which means gettho, yo, smoke weed everyday, gansta and all that, is encouraged and seen positively, and it too, turns people into dullards, mainly kids who grow up in an environment where criminality, laziness and general disrespect are encouraged.

Barnum Bailey
Barnum Bailey
September 21, 2017 8:42 am

When the debt bubble pops and whites wake up and realize they are POOR, and don’t have the spare change to virtue-signal support for their Equalist Cult’s dogma and totems, the public support for wealth/jobs/etc. transfers and tolerance for mass chaos (chimpouts) will crater.

Wait and watch.

javelin
javelin
September 21, 2017 8:50 am

I for one, agree Zman. I think the “culture” that the other commentors mentioned are actually recent developments ( rap, gangsta culture, grills on teeth, tatting, and the subsequent lifestyle and language).
Hillary Clinton may have been right ( from one of her Wikileak emails) “Native americans, blacks and Romani are just ill-equipped to flourish in modern societies.”
Black culture has changed drastically but the biological evidence is overwhelmingly consistent—thousands of years of evidence don’t lie.
Unfortunately, if it is biology ( excepting a few high IQ outliers) then there is never going to be a solution to our racial issues.

MMinLamesa
MMinLamesa
  javelin
September 21, 2017 9:29 am

Segregation is the answer and since it’ll never be legalized again, self segregation has been my remedy. Living in virtually black free, small towns for almost the past 30 years has afforded me a relatively quiet life. Very low crime, no home invasions, I can walk the streets at any hour, no graffiti, no trashy alleys, quiet neighbors…I mean the benefits living without blacks are innumerable.

Yeah, I miss catching a symphony on a Sat night whim or late night Chinese but the downsides outweigh that. And the added bonus that when TSHTF, urban areas will become death traps.

Stucky
Stucky
September 21, 2017 9:22 am

Kids on their way to/from a nearby school …throwing so much garbage on this beautiful tree lined street that every 4-5 days I have a garbage bag full.

8th graders so fat they could be NFL centers. Boys an girls. Wearing $200 sneakers that never travel faster than 1 mph.

Hogging the library computer to go on social media, while making enough racket to raise the dead.

Giving the librarian dirty looks and mumbled fuck yous when asked to tone it down.

Walking in front of my car and daring me to start shit.

Parents doing 50mph in a 25mph zone while blasting “music” you can hear 4 blocks away.

Eight hundred dollar phones, and no book bags.

THAT there is black culture in real life.

nkit
nkit
September 21, 2017 9:39 am

Black crime in the city of Bruthalee Love

Who Commits Murder in America?

https://www.phillypolice.com/assets/crime-maps-stats/2016-Homicide-Report.pdf

Maggie
Maggie
September 21, 2017 10:00 am

Saw that Zman and JQ both got mentions on the Woodpile report…

“The redoubtable Z Man takes the hard line:

The sole reason for Schumer to exist in Washington is to guide troublesome Republicans through the process of committing political suicide. In the case of Trump, that means going for amnesty, abandoning the wall and supporting candidates who hate him. It is not enough that Trump fink on his voters. He must humiliate himself in front of them as well.

…Next please

Jim Quinn at the Burning Platform warns us the stock market and inflation will go vertical just before it all comes apart:

Ignore that silly Shiller PE ratio far surpassing 1929 and 2007 levels. Ignore every historically accurate valuation method showing the stock market 70% to 129% overvalued… true annual inflation rate isn’t 1.9%. It exceeds 5% and has exceeded 5% since 2000.”

and “The cliff, Z Man – As America edges closer to majority-minority status, the non-whites feel free to make their anti-white rage public, which is putting the lie to everything whites have been told over the last half century. It turns out that the prophesies were not true. There is no fixing the race problem and that realization by whites now leaves us with a much bigger race problem. Now the only only public racists are non-whites, mostly blacks and foreigners. The Progs not only lack an answer to this, but they are actively encouraging it. The result is America is about to drive off a racial cliff. The deranged antics of ungrateful non-whites convince white people that there is no fixing race relation.”

http://www.woodpilereport.com/

As for this? I have no doubt our own military industrial complex has profited from the NORK situation. They always do.

Nork’s missiles, National Interest – The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the East Asian dictatorship without a patron that dispensed weapons on easy credit terms, and the lack of modern gear is telling. Certain weapons, however, stand in stark contrast to the rest of North Korea’s aging weapons collection. Where did these mystery weapons come from? North Korea has shown itself to be a canny state that can get what it wants, whether by pressing its citizens to the maximum or by utilizing a carefully cultivated network of overseas contacts to surreptitiously import banned weapons—all with the goal, of course, of ensuring the regime’s survival.

Southern Sage
Southern Sage
September 21, 2017 10:53 am

It is quite obvious that the problem with blacks is biological. They are a primitive sub-species, case closed. As for the person “bored by Jew hatred”, most of us are enraged by the tole played by the Jews (with honorable exceptions) in wrecking our country and civilization. Don’t make a fool of yourself denying it.

lmorris
lmorris
September 21, 2017 11:09 am

I learned long ago blacks and white can’t get along I don’t hate them we just look at every thing from different angles When came back from VIet NAM it has gotten worse each and ever year LBJ and his war on poor people started it You can’t give free every thing without a backlass and it is starting you can’t make me like you and you can’t make me give you what I have worked for they are playing a game that they will lose and sit them back a long time, just look at South Afica if you think it will end will If you want a fram run my the animals we are close

A. R. Wasem
A. R. Wasem
  lmorris
September 21, 2017 1:53 pm

WTF?

BB
BB
September 21, 2017 12:00 pm

Anyone who has ever lived close to Blacks knows​ we are different .There is no fixing this race problem.I learn that lesson in the mid 80s as I lived in an apartment complex that was about half black.No amount of money ,time or anything else is going to change black behavior.For now the best thing whites can do is avoid blacks altogether.They are a race hard wired for self destruction and they will Destory you in the process.

Ponyexpress
Ponyexpress
September 21, 2017 12:19 pm

So, to all concerned. How is Black Africa doing?
What about the Now Zimbabwe , once run by Whites as Rhodesia? South Africa once White ruled, now Black
Same resources . Same Climate , just different races running society and the economy. Magic?

rainbird
rainbird
September 21, 2017 12:31 pm

I think about the welfare system & scratch my head. Is Uncle Sam purposely breeding underachieving low IQ people for some unknown reason?

A. R. Wasem
A. R. Wasem
September 21, 2017 1:55 pm

Yes – the “reason” is to assist in the destruction of Western Civilization.

The Modern Chronicler
The Modern Chronicler
September 21, 2017 2:03 pm

This post reminds me of the The Welfare State’s Legacy post from yesterday.

The Welfare State’s Legacy

It isn’t surprising that Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, and others like them are called “uncle Toms.”

I love reading both of these men’s work. Sowell’s book “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” addresses the main points of this essay by The Zman. One of the best books I’ve ever read. Worth a 2nd read if not a 3rd and a 4th.

MarshRabbit
MarshRabbit
September 22, 2017 6:11 am

“They set about changing the laws, creating programs to address past sins, modifying institutions to accommodate blacks and lecturing whites about the sinfulness of racism”. Actually, most of the civil rights legislation was based on Constitutional Law, specifically the “privileges or immunities” clause and the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment, and the 13th Amendment.