Why We Can’t Talk About IQ
Human nature is in the news: intelligence and prejudice.
First, disgraced conservative analyst Jason Richwine published a piece on Politico.com under the rather plaintive title “Why Can’t We Talk About IQ?”
(In case you’ve lost track of all the political-incorrectness defenestrations, Richwine’s was the one before Paula Deen’s. His was in May; hers, in June. July was Riley Cooper. A target for the August Two Minutes Hate has not yet been selected. You will be informed.)
The occasion of Richwine’s disgrace was the unearthing, back when the immigration debate was hot, of his 2009 Harvard Ph.D. dissertation titled “IQ and Immigration Policy.” The dissertation used some known facts about IQ differences between American whites and Hispanics to argue for IQ-selective immigration.
Second, Geoffrey Wodtke, a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Michigan, has done a study which, according to a reporter, claims to show that “Smart people are just as racist as their less intelligent peers—they’re just better at concealing their prejudice.”
I’m sorry to say that my reaction to both items was a cynical “Duh!” . . .
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