Note from Dorian: As I’ve noted before, Heterodox STEM is a free speech zone. The views expressed in posts are their author’s and I do not censor based on content. If you disagree with anything in this post (or any other), I encourage you to submit a response to dorian.abbot@gmail.com. The point of Heterodox STEM is to encourage open, rational, evidence-based discussions and intellectual exchanges, even on difficult topics.
Apr 20, 2023·edited Apr 24, 2023Liked by Dorian Abbot
It would be unwise at present to, in effect, merge the anti-woke movement with the "race-realist" movement and declare as foundational the belief that genetically-based racial disparities in important traits such as intelligence have been established as empirical facts.
One can argue that the weight of the evidence suggests there may be a genetic component, but claiming that a genetic cause has actually been scientifically proven goes further than the evidence warrants, and this idea is certainly not actionable at this point.
Instead of requiring strict hereditarianism, the anti-woke movement should accept the following two ideas: 1) that important trait differences between groups do exist for reasons other than racism (including but not necessarily limited to culture, nutrition, etc.) and 2) that genetics is a valid potential cause of individual and group differences that should be open to scientific exploration.
I don't believe that incendiary ideas need be spread in order to stop illiberal actions by the institutions. One way is to have people stop being focused about the racial categories (as in the long-time official policy of France). Another is to just acknowledge that some people may not be fit for an intellectual life, and provide ways of decent living for those with lower IQ. I am aware that these may not be realistic or effective in the views of Cofnas or many people
I do not think that the differences can be explained completely by genetics, cultural differences, and the importance given to education has something to do with achievement. Improving education, encouraging family unity (father and mother involved in children's life) can have a tremendous impact for good in society. Also, the incentive structure in our society is kind of messed up, I have noticed that populations that do not have incentives to succeed do not. It's a combination of things that can explain differences in results, but racism is not a major explanatory variable now, at least not in most areas of the US. It is very damaging to say to children that they cannot succeed because racism will hold them down, this is dishonest and robs them of their future. In the US, it is possible to succeed with effort, regardless of race. I believe we are one human race; one human family and we all need to treat each other well.
It's rare that I so largely agree with a lengthy manifesto. I've been fighting illiberal horseshit and bad scholarship from both the left and the right for decades. You identify both threats to free inquiry in this piece. Unfortunately, the right is currently less illiberal on the point of free inquiry than the left. You can't alienate everyone with political power and get anything done. So I'm a DeSantis guy bu default. He's far from perfect, but he's as close as I'm afraid we're going to get. But we have to fight. We have to call out nonsense. And we have to convince our timid colleagues, and there are many, to stand up. Cheers
Do we have a genetic explanation of the differential achievement (income, education, professional advancement) between Caribbean black people and American blacks with ancestry descended from slave-holding times? Ditto with American blacks that are 1st-3rd generation African immigrants compared to descendants of black Americans from slave-holding times?
It's possible to agree with the premise of this article--the the way to stop wokism is to "refute the empirical claim that motivates it, namely, the equality thesis"--without adopting its strategy, i.e., bring relentless attention to race differences in IQ distributions. We can refute the equity argument by explaining that there will inevitably be differences in outcomes across identity groups any time free individuals are allowed to make free choices. Cultural and biological differences guarantee it. Celebrate that as diversity. But point to aggregate height differences and basketball demographics. Or the athletic performance advantages associated with male puberty.
I think we should pair that argument with a relentless attention to government impediments to success. Locking low-income and URM kids in failing schools is appalling. Barriers to business starts in high regulation states impede family-sustaining employment opportunities that build social capital. Policies that encourage fatherlessness perpetuate terrible outcomes . Before we abandon the sociological argument, let's make a real investment in studying the state and local policies that are associated with better outcomes for URM populations. I don't know of anyone who has done this on a large scale.
I agree completely: defeating the mania for equity is urgent. Every pillar of our civilization is threatened by it: the pursuit of truth, equal treatment before the law, the integrity of the family. But an argument that asks sentimental creatures (and that is what we are) to internalize a very hard truth--one that appears to challenge the equal dignity premise of the American constitutional system of government, not to mention prevailing cultural winds--is unlikely to succeed in my view. Decent people do not want to believe it. And that makes it easy for the other side to vilify those who are making it.
“Wokism has no official catechism, and it takes a variety of forms. But the essence of the ideology is the idea that disparities between certain groups call for an ever-escalating war on white racism and sexism, which justifies all manner of censorship and suppression.”
“Universities won’t be fixed by replacing SJW administrators with conservative activists and Christian fundamentalists, but by empowering non-woke scholars on the inside.”
Incredible read. Thanks for writing this out. I totally agree that a movement is needed to adjust expectations. However, I think it would be wise to be careful when dealing with people like Ron Desantis. Certainly, I would not consider him an ally in this regard. Perhaps he endorses similar views, however I doubt that his motivations would be out of care for scientific truth. Certainly there is a rot within the Democratic party, but there is a similar form within the Republican party as well.
There appears to be an extreme lack of race realism that doesn't stem from other, non relevant motivations. Truly few people are capable of contending with the ideas, while simultaneous keeping everyone's best interest at heart. Many people's reaction to hearing that there are differences within the groups is that it justifies inequality, or lack of well being. And perhaps, logically, it does explain some inequality. However, an importance upon well being must be emphasized. Although I believe some level of inequality to be truly unavoidable, we can do our best to ensure the well being of all persons, of all races. This would entail meeting the health needs, homing needs, nutritional needs, and other key living necessities. I believe that there is enough wealth in the world that can be strategically distributed in order to ensure well being for all persons.
"In the US, Nigerians are the most highly educated of all groups, with 61 per cent holding at least a bachelors degree compared with 31 per cent of the total foreign-born population and 32 per cent of the US-born population, according to 2017 data from the Migration Policy Institute.
More than half of Nigerian immigrants (54 per cent) were most likely to occupy management positions, compared with 32 per cent of the total foreign-born population and 39 per cent of the US-born population.
Similar Nigerian success is reflected in the UK, where many in a highly-educated diaspora work in financial services, IT, and the legal and medical professions. What drives Nigerians and the diaspora, and can future generations continue their success?"
The image of “seizing the trident” is a prescient one. The symbol of independent Ukraine (its trident shape spells “Freedom”) reminds us of brave people on the front lines, including some teachers and professors (as noted earlier in this forum). We should have the courage to stand up to forces that are demonstrably ruinous to academia and insist that physics professors teach … physics, without lamenting about the appearance of scientists that formulated the theories.
Bold and informative. Sports, especially Olympic qualifier and podium analogies, need to become part of the conversation about equity. If academia is now explicitly forced into artificially reducing standards in the name of “equity”, then any person from every country must be able to qualify for the Olympics and must be represented on the podium. Otherwise, by analogy, how do we even have highly selective universities? These cannot exist if DEI is taken to its logical fruition. Academia has to remain a beacon of free inquiry and free speech!
I am not surprised that the Heterodox Academy is not keen to allow its organisation to be focused on promoting the idea of race-based differences as The Way to address wokeness. That is an ideological position, and one which many of HxA's members will not share (myself included).
On a separate note (on the empirical side rather than the ideological), are you aware of school performance among ethnic groups in the UK? Children of Black African origin perform better on average than White children, and Black Caribbean children perform worse than both. Of course that is just one example. No doubt there are others. Are things really so clear cut as you suggest?
Another point... for some of us who do not support race-based affirmative action, one of the reasons for not supporting it is that its effects may be counterproductive... This may well be a policy that has had DELETERIOUS effects on the group it was intended to benefit. Thomas Sowell and others talk about this and its an empirical question I'd love to see addressed.
It would be unwise at present to, in effect, merge the anti-woke movement with the "race-realist" movement and declare as foundational the belief that genetically-based racial disparities in important traits such as intelligence have been established as empirical facts.
One can argue that the weight of the evidence suggests there may be a genetic component, but claiming that a genetic cause has actually been scientifically proven goes further than the evidence warrants, and this idea is certainly not actionable at this point.
Instead of requiring strict hereditarianism, the anti-woke movement should accept the following two ideas: 1) that important trait differences between groups do exist for reasons other than racism (including but not necessarily limited to culture, nutrition, etc.) and 2) that genetics is a valid potential cause of individual and group differences that should be open to scientific exploration.
I don't believe that incendiary ideas need be spread in order to stop illiberal actions by the institutions. One way is to have people stop being focused about the racial categories (as in the long-time official policy of France). Another is to just acknowledge that some people may not be fit for an intellectual life, and provide ways of decent living for those with lower IQ. I am aware that these may not be realistic or effective in the views of Cofnas or many people
Go Nathan Go
I do not think that the differences can be explained completely by genetics, cultural differences, and the importance given to education has something to do with achievement. Improving education, encouraging family unity (father and mother involved in children's life) can have a tremendous impact for good in society. Also, the incentive structure in our society is kind of messed up, I have noticed that populations that do not have incentives to succeed do not. It's a combination of things that can explain differences in results, but racism is not a major explanatory variable now, at least not in most areas of the US. It is very damaging to say to children that they cannot succeed because racism will hold them down, this is dishonest and robs them of their future. In the US, it is possible to succeed with effort, regardless of race. I believe we are one human race; one human family and we all need to treat each other well.
It's rare that I so largely agree with a lengthy manifesto. I've been fighting illiberal horseshit and bad scholarship from both the left and the right for decades. You identify both threats to free inquiry in this piece. Unfortunately, the right is currently less illiberal on the point of free inquiry than the left. You can't alienate everyone with political power and get anything done. So I'm a DeSantis guy bu default. He's far from perfect, but he's as close as I'm afraid we're going to get. But we have to fight. We have to call out nonsense. And we have to convince our timid colleagues, and there are many, to stand up. Cheers
Do we have a genetic explanation of the differential achievement (income, education, professional advancement) between Caribbean black people and American blacks with ancestry descended from slave-holding times? Ditto with American blacks that are 1st-3rd generation African immigrants compared to descendants of black Americans from slave-holding times?
It's possible to agree with the premise of this article--the the way to stop wokism is to "refute the empirical claim that motivates it, namely, the equality thesis"--without adopting its strategy, i.e., bring relentless attention to race differences in IQ distributions. We can refute the equity argument by explaining that there will inevitably be differences in outcomes across identity groups any time free individuals are allowed to make free choices. Cultural and biological differences guarantee it. Celebrate that as diversity. But point to aggregate height differences and basketball demographics. Or the athletic performance advantages associated with male puberty.
I think we should pair that argument with a relentless attention to government impediments to success. Locking low-income and URM kids in failing schools is appalling. Barriers to business starts in high regulation states impede family-sustaining employment opportunities that build social capital. Policies that encourage fatherlessness perpetuate terrible outcomes . Before we abandon the sociological argument, let's make a real investment in studying the state and local policies that are associated with better outcomes for URM populations. I don't know of anyone who has done this on a large scale.
I agree completely: defeating the mania for equity is urgent. Every pillar of our civilization is threatened by it: the pursuit of truth, equal treatment before the law, the integrity of the family. But an argument that asks sentimental creatures (and that is what we are) to internalize a very hard truth--one that appears to challenge the equal dignity premise of the American constitutional system of government, not to mention prevailing cultural winds--is unlikely to succeed in my view. Decent people do not want to believe it. And that makes it easy for the other side to vilify those who are making it.
“Wokism has no official catechism, and it takes a variety of forms. But the essence of the ideology is the idea that disparities between certain groups call for an ever-escalating war on white racism and sexism, which justifies all manner of censorship and suppression.”
Full wokeism is more general, more extreme, and more sinister: it is inverted fascism plus hypocrisy (https://jclester.substack.com/p/wokeness-is-inverted-fascism-plus).
“Universities won’t be fixed by replacing SJW administrators with conservative activists and Christian fundamentalists, but by empowering non-woke scholars on the inside.”
Universities can only be fully fixed by completely removing the state (government) from the Augean stables of academe (https://jclester.substack.com/p/the-augean-stables-of-academe).
Incredible read. Thanks for writing this out. I totally agree that a movement is needed to adjust expectations. However, I think it would be wise to be careful when dealing with people like Ron Desantis. Certainly, I would not consider him an ally in this regard. Perhaps he endorses similar views, however I doubt that his motivations would be out of care for scientific truth. Certainly there is a rot within the Democratic party, but there is a similar form within the Republican party as well.
There appears to be an extreme lack of race realism that doesn't stem from other, non relevant motivations. Truly few people are capable of contending with the ideas, while simultaneous keeping everyone's best interest at heart. Many people's reaction to hearing that there are differences within the groups is that it justifies inequality, or lack of well being. And perhaps, logically, it does explain some inequality. However, an importance upon well being must be emphasized. Although I believe some level of inequality to be truly unavoidable, we can do our best to ensure the well being of all persons, of all races. This would entail meeting the health needs, homing needs, nutritional needs, and other key living necessities. I believe that there is enough wealth in the world that can be strategically distributed in order to ensure well being for all persons.
https://www.ft.com/content/ca39b445-442a-4845-a07c-0f5dae5f3460
"In the US, Nigerians are the most highly educated of all groups, with 61 per cent holding at least a bachelors degree compared with 31 per cent of the total foreign-born population and 32 per cent of the US-born population, according to 2017 data from the Migration Policy Institute.
More than half of Nigerian immigrants (54 per cent) were most likely to occupy management positions, compared with 32 per cent of the total foreign-born population and 39 per cent of the US-born population.
Similar Nigerian success is reflected in the UK, where many in a highly-educated diaspora work in financial services, IT, and the legal and medical professions. What drives Nigerians and the diaspora, and can future generations continue their success?"
The image of “seizing the trident” is a prescient one. The symbol of independent Ukraine (its trident shape spells “Freedom”) reminds us of brave people on the front lines, including some teachers and professors (as noted earlier in this forum). We should have the courage to stand up to forces that are demonstrably ruinous to academia and insist that physics professors teach … physics, without lamenting about the appearance of scientists that formulated the theories.
Bold and informative. Sports, especially Olympic qualifier and podium analogies, need to become part of the conversation about equity. If academia is now explicitly forced into artificially reducing standards in the name of “equity”, then any person from every country must be able to qualify for the Olympics and must be represented on the podium. Otherwise, by analogy, how do we even have highly selective universities? These cannot exist if DEI is taken to its logical fruition. Academia has to remain a beacon of free inquiry and free speech!
Surely if you control for class, i.e. black middle class to white middle class, the IQ disparity falls away?
I am not surprised that the Heterodox Academy is not keen to allow its organisation to be focused on promoting the idea of race-based differences as The Way to address wokeness. That is an ideological position, and one which many of HxA's members will not share (myself included).
On a separate note (on the empirical side rather than the ideological), are you aware of school performance among ethnic groups in the UK? Children of Black African origin perform better on average than White children, and Black Caribbean children perform worse than both. Of course that is just one example. No doubt there are others. Are things really so clear cut as you suggest?
Another point... for some of us who do not support race-based affirmative action, one of the reasons for not supporting it is that its effects may be counterproductive... This may well be a policy that has had DELETERIOUS effects on the group it was intended to benefit. Thomas Sowell and others talk about this and its an empirical question I'd love to see addressed.
Link to UK government statistics: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/gcse-results-attainment-8-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest#by-ethnicity
Great article, there's a few other organizations in the "anti-woke" space which need to learn these lessons as well.
So… when all university professors are Asian, you’ll stop complaining