In America today we’ve gotten to the point that damn near everything that benefits a white person or is to the detriment of a minority is racism. Some would argue that the lack of black neurosurgeons is an example of our racist society. Of course, they’d be ignoring the fact that blacks have an average IQ a full standard deviation lower than whites. The reason for this difference is irrelevant, the fact that the difference exists is key. This is very much the same as why there aren’t very many white boys in the NBA. Now that I’ve got some of your blood boiling, go read this article over at Armed and Dangerous. Very well put. Here’s the closer:
Let’s pick neurosurgery as an example. Here is a profession where IQ matters in an obvious and powerful way. If you’re screening people for a job as a neurosurgeon, it would nevertheless be wrong to use the standard-deviation difference in average IQ as a reason to exclude an individual black candidate, or black candidates as a class. This would not be justified by the facts; it would be stupid and immoral. Excluding the black neurosurgeon-candidate who is sufficiently bright would be a disservice to a society that needs all the brains and talent it can get in jobs like that, regardless of skin color.
On the other hand, anyone who expects the racial composition of the entire population of neurosurgeons to be ‘balanced’ in terms of the population at large is living in a delusion. The most efficient and fair outcome would be for that population to be balanced in terms of the distribution of IQ — at each level of IQ the racial mix mirrors the frequency of that IQ level within different groups. Since that minimum IQ for competency in neurosurgery is closer to the population means for whites and asians than the mean for blacks, we can expect the fair-outcome population of neurosurgeons to be predominantly white and asian.
If you try to social-engineer a different outcome, you’ll simply create a cohort of black neurosurgeons who aren’t really bright enough for their jobs. This, too, would be a disservice to society (not to mention the individual patients they might harm, and the competent black neurosurgeons that would be discredited by association). It’s an error far more serious than trying to social-engineer too many black wrestlers or swimmers into existence. And yet, in pursuit of a so-called equality, we make this sort of error over and over again, injuring all involved and creating resentments for racists to feed on.
My only addition is to point out that, unlike his arguments on athleticism, I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence that certain mental capacities favor any particular race… which means that we CAN socially engineer a more balanced skilled workforce by helping underprivileged kids work up to potential. But we shouldn’t be doing that in the name of a “diverse” workforce, we should be doing it because everyone in the US should have chance to excel.
