Charles Murray’s Wake Up Call on Race Problems
Charles Murray just can’t help himself; he’s been a social scientist and prolific author for almost 40 years, writing books on the American experience and societal issues. Now he is back in the mix with a book, Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race in America(Encounter Books 2021), that follows up on the book he wrote with Richard Hernnstein, The Bell Curve (1994). That magnificent work blew the top off of racial debates in America by its in-depth analysis of racial cognitive ability (IQ) differences and socio-economic mobility of Americans and factors that are associated with success in life.
IQ
The 79-year-old scholar and warrior at the American Enterprise Institute is back at it, trying to substitute facts and analysis for the sloppy thinking and emotions that pervade academia and politics in America. While the chattering class and media focus on inequities and claims of social injustice, Dr. Murray (PhD MIT) points out that although there is certainly racism in every society and in America, the reality is that the inequities of socio economic status are more the result of cognitive ability and criminal activity.
The majority of the relatively short but powerful and scholarly book, Facing Reality, is focused on data and evidence. Murray repeatedly reminds us that all social science research must always be careful to consider contributing factors.
Murray disputes the fashionable assumptions that racial discrimination creates social inequities. The reality, says Murray, is that racial inequalities in America between European- and African-heritage people in health, wealth, position, status, income can be traced to a significant disparity in African Americans’ cognitive ability and criminal behavior. The inequalities are also present to a lesser degree for Latin-heritage people.
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