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The Lawrence Mead Affair
Quillette ^ | October 13, 2020 | Noah Carl

Posted on 10/14/2020 6:39:27 AM PDT by karpov

Lawrence Mead, a long-time proponent of welfare reform, is a professor of politics and public policy at New York University. On July 21st this year, an ill-advised article he had written, ‘Poverty and Culture’, appeared in the academic journal Society.

The article began by asking, “Why do so many Americans remain destitute… even when jobs are available?” According to Mead, the answer is not “social barriers, such as racial discrimination or lack of jobs,” but rather “cultural difference.” Noting that “the seriously poor are mostly blacks and Hispanics,” he argued that such individuals have not internalised Western norms of individualism. As a consequence, he maintained, “they are at a disadvantage competing with the European groups—even if they face no mistreatment on racial grounds.”

Regarding the claim that “black social problems” are due to “white oppression,” Mead argued, “By that logic, the problems should have been worst prior to the civil rights reforms in the 1960s.” Yet in his reading of events, “The collapse of the black family occurred mostly after civil rights rather than before.” Hence Mead not only suggested that Western culture is better than non-Western culture, at least when it comes to getting ahead in America, but also that higher poverty rates among blacks and Hispanics are attributable to factors other than racial discrimination. As you can imagine, this message was not warmly received.

By July 24th—three days after the article was published—a Twitter mob had begun to form. In a tweet that got more than 2,400 likes, one commentator offered the following points of criticism: “F**K LAWRENCE MEAD! F**K WHOMEVER ALLOWED THIS TO GET PUBLISHED! F**K THE EDITORS! F**K THE REVIEWERS!” [asterisks not in original]. The next day, an account currently under the name “bring back misandry” wrote, “Tbh f**k academia. Violent anti-Blackness cloaked in bs intellectualism.”

(Excerpt) Read more at quillette.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: cancel; nyu
The article is here. The only explanation for group differences that leftists allow these days is racism. They should read a book such as Discrimination and Disparities, by Thomas Sowell.

The author, Noah Carl, has himself been cancelled: Noah Carl: An Update on the Young Scholar Fired by a Cambridge College for Thoughtcrime

1 posted on 10/14/2020 6:39:27 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Act White


2 posted on 10/14/2020 6:45:40 AM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Reverse Wickard v Filburn (1942) - and - ISLAM DELENDA EST)
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To: karpov

Gee, the Liberal belief in Science didn’t last long.


3 posted on 10/14/2020 6:49:23 AM PDT by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: karpov

Some people genuinely and truly don’t want to work.

They might say they want a job but they are lying.


4 posted on 10/14/2020 7:54:01 AM PDT by Persevero (I am afraid propriety has been set at naught. - Jane Austen)
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