The Talk: Nonblack Version (Knock-Out precautions revisited)

Taki's Magazine ^ | April 5, 2012 | John Derbyshire

[Third Person]

There is much talk about “the talk.”

“Sean O’Reilly was 16 when his mother gave him the talk that most black parents give their teenage sons,” Denisa R. Superville of the Hackensack (NJ) Record tells us. Meanwhile, down in Atlanta: “Her sons were 12 and 8 when Marlyn Tillman realized it was time for her to have the talk,” Gracie Bonds Staples writes in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Leonard Greene talks about the talk in the New York Post. Someone bylined as KJ Dell’Antonia talks about the talk in The New York Times. Darryl Owens talks about the talk in the Orlando Sentinel.

Yes, talk about the talk is all over.

There is a talk that nonblack Americans have with their kids, too. My own kids, now 19 and 16, have had it in bits and pieces as subtopics have arisen. If I were to assemble it into a single talk, it would look something like the following.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

(1) Among your fellow citizens are forty million who identify as black, and whom I shall refer to as black. The cumbersome (and MLK-noncompliant) term “African-American” seems to be in decline, thank goodness. “Colored” and “Negro” are archaisms. What you must call “the ‘N’ word” is used freely among blacks but is taboo to nonblacks.

“There is a talk that nonblack Americans have with their kids, too.” (2) American blacks are descended from West African populations, with some white and aboriginal-American admixture. The overall average of non-African admixture is 20-25 percent. The admixture distribution is nonlinear, though: “It seems that around 10 percent of the African American population is more than half European in ancestry.” (Same link.)

(3) Your own ancestry is mixed north-European and northeast-Asian, but blacks will take you to be white.

(4) The default principle in everyday personal encounters is, that as a fellow citizen, with the same rights and obligations as yourself, any individual black is entitled to the same courtesies you would extend to a nonblack citizen. That is basic good manners and good citizenship. In some unusual circumstances, however—e.g., paragraph (10h) below—this default principle should be overridden by considerations of personal safety.

(5) As with any population of such a size, there is great variation among blacks in every human trait (except, obviously, the trait of identifying oneself as black). They come fat, thin, tall, short, dumb, smart, introverted, extroverted, honest, crooked, athletic, sedentary, fastidious, sloppy, amiable, and obnoxious. There are black geniuses and black morons. There are black saints and black psychopaths. In a population of forty million, you will find almost any human type. Only at the far, far extremes of certain traits are there absences. There are, for example, no black Fields Medal winners. While this is civilizationally consequential, it will not likely ever be important to you personally. Most people live and die without ever meeting (or wishing to meet) a Fields Medal winner.

(6) As you go through life, however, you will experience an ever larger number of encounters with black Americans. Assuming your encounters are random—for example, not restricted only to black convicted murderers or to black investment bankers—the Law of Large Numbers will inevitably kick in. You will observe that the means—the averages—of many traits are very different for black and white Americans, as has been confirmed by methodical inquiries in the human sciences.

(7) Of most importance to your personal safety are the very different means for antisocial behavior, which you will see reflected in, for instance, school disciplinary measures, political corruption, and criminal convictions.

(8) These differences are magnified by the hostility many blacks feel toward whites. Thus, while black-on-black behavior is more antisocial in the average than is white-on-white behavior, average black-on-white behavior is a degree more antisocial yet.

(9) A small cohort of blacks—in my experience, around five percent—is ferociously hostile to whites and will go to great lengths to inconvenience or harm us. A much larger cohort of blacks—around half—will go along passively if the five percent take leadership in some event. They will do this out of racial solidarity, the natural willingness of most human beings to be led, and a vague feeling that whites have it coming.

(10) Thus, while always attentive to the particular qualities of individuals, on the many occasions where you have nothing to guide you but knowledge of those mean differences, use statistical common sense:

(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.

(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).

(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.

(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.

(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.

(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.

(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.

(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.

(11) The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black. These differences show in every test of general cognitive ability that anyone, of any race or nationality, has yet been able to devise. They are reflected in countless everyday situations. “Life is an IQ test.”

(12) There is a magnifying effect here, too, caused by affirmative action. In a pure meritocracy there would be very low proportions of blacks in cognitively demanding jobs. Because of affirmative action, the proportions are higher. In government work, they are very high. Thus, in those encounters with strangers that involve cognitive engagement, ceteris paribus the black stranger will be less intelligent than the white. In such encounters, therefore—for example, at a government office—you will, on average, be dealt with more competently by a white than by a black. If that hostility-based magnifying effect (paragraph 8) is also in play, you will be dealt with more politely, too. “The DMV lady“ is a statistical truth, not a myth.

(13) In that pool of forty million, there are nonetheless many intelligent and well-socialized blacks. (I’ll use IWSB as an ad hoc abbreviation.) You should consciously seek opportunities to make friends with IWSBs. In addition to the ordinary pleasures of friendship, you will gain an amulet against potentially career-destroying accusations of prejudice.

(14) Be aware, however, that there is an issue of supply and demand here. Demand comes from organizations and businesses keen to display racial propriety by employing IWSBs, especially in positions at the interface with the general public—corporate sales reps, TV news presenters, press officers for government agencies, etc.—with corresponding depletion in less visible positions. There is also strong private demand from middle- and upper-class whites for personal bonds with IWSBs, for reasons given in the previous paragraph and also (next paragraph) as status markers.

(15) Unfortunately the demand is greater than the supply, so IWSBs are something of a luxury good, like antique furniture or corporate jets: boasted of by upper-class whites and wealthy organizations, coveted by the less prosperous. To be an IWSB in present-day US society is a height of felicity rarely before attained by any group of human beings in history. Try to curb your envy: it will be taken as prejudice (see paragraph 13).

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

You don’t have to follow my version of the talk point for point; but if you are white or Asian and have kids, you owe it to them to give them some version of the talk. It will save them a lot of time and trouble spent figuring things out for themselves. It may save their lives.

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[bkopto]

[Excellence]

(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.

I act like a deranged old lady ready to use her walker as a lethal weapon. So far, so good.

[BenLurkin]

There are, for example, no black Fields Medal winners

So what? Most of the winners have come from a a clubby little list of academic institutions -- most of which are not in the USA,

[gaijin]

The Derb abides...!

[BenLurkin]

Thank you. I am so tired of the closet KKK types claiming that black Americans are somehow genetically inferior to white.

[BenLurkin]

Heck. In L.A., it’s the Mexicans dancing on the burning police cars after a Lakers win.

[driftless2]

There are hundreds of millions of blacks in the world. Maybe close to a billion mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. There is not one black-run country that comes close to first world standards. IQ tests taken of black Africans shows them having lower IQs than North American blacks many of whom have had white genes added to their genetic makeup. Numerous IQ tests taken always show blacks on the bottom. East Asians and Jews always outscore everybody else. Test after test after test. For many decades. IQ differences are innate. Time to face reality doc.

[T-Bird45]

The article is good but the really telling part is the opening where black mothers/grandmothers are having “the talk” because it points out the cultural bankruptcy that is the root of the problem: sperm donors copulating with any willing fecund twerking female without regard to consequences.

[driftless2]

"stay away"

Stay away from Oklahoma City? Every time I look at a crowd at a Thunder game, it's almost all white. Ditto for crowds in many other NBA cities.

[driftless2]

There are no genetically inferior humans. Genetic inferiority would mean an inability for certain humans to adapt to their surroundings. However, there is a disparity in IQ and physical characteristics.

[bkopto]

There are hundreds of millions of blacks in the world. Maybe close to a billion mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. There is not one black-run country that comes close to first world standards. IQ tests taken of black Africans shows them having lower IQs than North American blacks many of whom have had white genes added to their genetic makeup. Numerous IQ tests taken always show blacks on the bottom. East Asians and Jews always outscore everybody else. Test after test after test. For many decades. IQ differences are innate. Time to face reality doc.

The data, for the unbelievers or the willfully ignorant:

http://lagriffedulion.f2s.com/sft.htm

[Springfield Reformer]

I agree. My dad taught and was a principal in the Chicago public school system, working mostly in predominantly black districts. He designed an educational program that was a strict meritocracy, and it rapidly started producing multiple success stories. It was then summarily shut down by Jesse and the elder Mayor Daley, for being unfair to the less motivated and/or less gifted students. Very sad.

But that was my dad’s belief, that equivalent potential existed in students of any given race, but cultural and related political inhibitors prevented full expression of that potential. He blamed it not on genetics but on mishandling of Reconstruction. My uncle Fred, also an educator on the south side, had the same view. His solution would be deemed radically racist today, but he believed the problem could only be solved by raising black children in white homes, and in a generation the problem would be over. That of course is not possible, but it does put the focus on where the core problem exists. It’s not genetics. It’s the culture as an emanation of the family.

[coloradan]

If there were no racial differences, the black fraction of people with Fields Medals would be the same as the black fraction of people with sub-10-second 100 m dashes, which both would be the same as the overall fraction of black people in the world. However, as it happens, 0% of Fields Medalists are black, and 100% of sub-10-s 100 m dash runners are black, last I heard. So there would appear to be some racial differences. And why shouldn’t there be? (Except in some leftist utopic fantasy of equality of outcome.)

[Utilizer]

I act like a deranged old lady ready to use her walker as a lethal weapon.

By a strange coincidence, so do I.

However, perhaps the fact that I am neither an old lady or possess any visible walker is what makes most people cross the street before passing by Me.

That and the well-practiced Helen Reddy impersonation. Somtimes with a mask. (plants tongue firmly in cheek)

Oh, speaking of which: I sent an anonymous letter to kathpeen si-libelous containing a clear sandwich bag and a short note reading simply: "Here is your Halloween mask. Use lots of clear tape." Hope she enjoyed it... *grin*

[Dr. Sivana]

Numerous IQ tests taken always show blacks on the bottom.

I better not tell my black children, the last thing they need is an excuse slough off.

East Asians and Jews always outscore everybody else.

That's funny, in the era of the know-nothings both were widely thought to be not quite there, these folks would also throw in the southern Europeans and Celts in for good measure. Eventually, the Italians and the Irish were allowed into the "white" club. Go back a little more than a millennium or so and the Germans were regarded similarly, and based on their behavior they probably earned it. Even today, many Americans consider Arabs to be intellectually inferior. I believe that is because Islam can be a poisonous environment, and breeds poor ambassadors. The most intelligent man I ever got to personally know was half-Arab/half-Irish. He spoke 15 languages.

I am not quite old enough to have known many black people from the early 1960s, but if you look at statistics, the plague of widescale out-of-wedlock-births was at about the same level among blacks then as it is among U.S. whites today. The attack on civilization from within our country is coming largely from these white high I.Q. people that are supposed to be so educated. I would rather that our civilation be formed by men like the uneducated men like Justice Thomas' grandfather.

I really don't care about aggregate IQs, and I am doubtful that it is a pure measure of innate intelligence, despite the fact that I score quite well on them.

I also have no idea how well Clarence Thomas' grandfather would have done on such a test, but Justice Thomas would certainly do well. Thomas' intelligence, to the degree that intelligence is inherited, would have likely come largely from this formerly unknown brickmaker in Pinpoint, Georgia. He also received much of the wisdom of his grandfather, something both blacks and whites need much more than mere intelligence right now.

[DariusBane]

While you are in some respects correct, their are still herds of black youths that run around downtown on game night. They are violent and often arrested. One fatality that I am aware of. A random shooting.

We used to have a fantastic community feel with Thunder Alley. It was a jumbotron on the side of the stadium. People who didn’t get tickets, or couldn’t afford tickets could hang out outside and watch the game. It was a real party atmosphere. Very fun. But it was closed because of gunfire. Damn Shame.

[Fuzz]

“The only solution is stricter punishment of thugs and sterilization of the black underclass.”

Revolting.

[Dr. Sivana]

If there were no racial differences, the black fraction of people with Fields Medals would be the same as the black fraction of people with sub-10-second 100 m dashes, which both would be the same as the overall fraction of black people in the world.

This assumes that folks with the "innate mathematical ability" have access to the education, means to make good on it, visibility to the Fields judges and no bias on the part of those judges. Based on the same thinking, 50% of the men with the best innate ability to skate in the world are from Canada.

In fact, despite the fact that east Asians and Jews score highest on IQ tests, they have a tiny minority of Fields awards even over the last 40 years. Once you correct for population sizes, France blows the world away ... who knew? USSR/Russia is well represented, despite Communism, in part perhaps because some smart guy who would have rather played teh balalaika was picked out early as being a math wiz and pretty much forced to follow that path in the USSR days.

Are there average differences between races on an aggregate level? Sure. Some of them will come from living in hot regions, at high altitudes, or even having a slave master pick spouses based on desired physical characteristics, having a diet rich in certain things or deficient in others for generations, etc. etc.

But not only do most of those differences have so much overlap between races (there are black pygmies as well as very tall black men, sme as white), in most measurable areas there is plenty of overlap. Cultural/religious/philosophical differences will also determine what gets emphasized.

Intelligence, to the degree that it is inherited, tends to towards the mean. Two geniuses do NOT normally have genius children, despite efforts to raise them as such. Two dullards do not have children innately dull (though the family environment may not be inspiring), but are more likely to be closer to average.

Intelligence itself is so multifaceted in humans, that it really defies full measurement, though tools like IQ tests can be part of a set used to form an idea of individual weaknesses and strengths.