Murray

 

                               

                                    Murray

Charles Murray is famous for "The Bell Curve," a study that purports to examine racial differences and offer solutions to the societal problems they cause. It created a furor because it challenged people with data, data many people did not understand and could not evaluate in context. Murray has a new book coming out on June 15 titled “Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America.” He is nothing if not brave. Interestingly, most of his data is seen by Americans as indicative of internal threats rather than the serious international threat it implies.

Here’s the description from Amazon:

The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have 1) different violent crime rates and 2) different means and distributions of cognitive ability. The allegations of racism in policing, college admissions, segregation in housing, and hiring and promotions in the workplace ignore the ways in which the problems that prompt the allegations of systemic racism are driven by these two realities.

What good can come of bringing them into the open? America’s most precious ideal is what used to be known as the American Creed: People are not to be judged by where they came from, what social class they come from, or by race, color, or creed. They must be judged as individuals. The prevailing Progressive ideology repudiates that ideal, demanding instead that the state should judge people by their race, social origins, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.

We on the center-left and center-right who are the American Creed’s natural defenders have painted ourselves into a corner. We have been unwilling to say openly that different groups have significant group differences. Since we have not been willing to say that, we have been left defenseless against the claims that racism is to blame. What else could it be? We have been afraid to answer. We must. Facing Reality is a step in that direction.