Similarities
and differences between races
Note from the author: I do not intend to publish this article. I retain all rights to this article. If you have found a copy of this article and were not given explicit written permission by me to read it, please immediately delete it. I realize that in today’s politics, extremists will attempt to harass me, my family, and to destroy my business should it be publicized. I wrote this article to help me process the new racial quotas and racism I have seen in the world, and to help me think of ways to end all forms of racism.
“Racism” as defined by Wikipedia “Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.”
“Racial Quota” defined by Wikipedia - Racial quotas in employment and education
are numerical requirements for hiring, promoting, admitting and/or graduating
members of a particular racial group.
“Equal Opportunity” defined by
Wikipedia - Equal opportunity is a state
of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by
artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular
distinctions can be explicitly justified.
“Racial Differences” defined by me for the purpose of this article: Similarities and differences between races can be caused either by culture or genetics… the old nature vs nurture debate about what shapes who we are. Just like it is nearly impossible to pinpoint what percentage of who you are was established by your genetics versus what percentage was established by the environment you grew up in so it also is impossible to determine what racial differences are caused by DNA or the world around you. This article will refer to “racial differences” without specifying as to whether specific differences in question are caused by DNA or the world around us.
Race has never mattered to me before. I was raised to believe what mattered most was merit. Any individual with skill, luck, and hard work could make their dreams come true. It didn't matter if some races participated at a higher level than others in professional sports or entrepreneurship or music or business, because every individual had a shot. Sadly, people are pushing to make race matter where once it had no bearing. Federal, state, and local governments give major advantages in contracting and employment not on merit, but on racial differences. Today some people are pushing for racial quotas in everything.
If
there are differences in the participation of any given race in an activity, it
is assumed that that must be due to racism. Is that true? Are all races
identical and the only differences due to racism? I wrote this article so I
could research this question.
My company of two hundred plus people is made up of an incredibly diverse group of people in which white people are a small minority. I employ many black Americans, black Africans, Indians, Asian Americans, Asians, etc. I have worked hard to make sure my recruiting is as free from bias as possible by using skills tests and scoring solely based on actual skills in the day to day work of the job. I believe that I am not racist, but part of my purpose in writing this article is to investigate my own inner leanings and compare them to the facts of the world.
Racial issues are the most divisive issues of our times. I am curious to try to get at what the truth of the matter is without emotional and political baggage. I am afraid that this article will likely need to be kept entirely private as the risks of even considering these topics is enormous. I do believe that understanding the truth of these matters would benefit all groups of people though, so I am going to write this if only for my own understanding.
Where possible, I am going to try to gather data globally rather than just from America.
Ibram
Kendi, Doctor and Professor of African American Studies
Ibram Kendi is the New York Times #1 Bestselling author of “How to be an Antiracist”. Kendi is the foremost leader of those who make the claim that ALL racial disparities are due to racism. He claims that anywhere there is a statistical difference between races, that it must be due to racism. He advocates for reverse racism to be used to correct any imbalances between racial groups. He explicitly wants racial quotas. Kendi, and the academics who preceded him, want to bring racism back, but use it against other races like white and Asians that he believes have held back blacks.
Is this true though? Are there really no differences between racial groups? Is any statistical difference between racial groups an indicator of racism being present? I hope to investigate this claim thoroughly in this article. To investigate this claim scientifically, I am going to take the hypothesis that “There are no differences between races, and the only differences evident in the world are due to discrimination” and see if there is evidence to support or refute it.
Are
minorities harmed by the theory that there are no difference between races?
Minorities in America have been harmed by the narrative that there are no differences between races. Most medical research is done primarily on white people because of this assumption. This leads to medicines, treatments, surgeries, dosings, that are all tailored to white people and may not be the best treatment for minorities. A rigorous and scientific full analysis of the similarities and differences between races benefits everyone. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/minority-health-and-health-equity/clinical-trial-diversity
Legal
and social blockades to research
Discovering the truth of the matter of race is harder than it appears. Laws have been passed in the United States preventing discrimination based on race or national origin. These laws, passed with the best intentions, have the effect of stifling any diversity in scientific research. If a research institution were to publish an article that pointed out differences between races, that institution would be heavily penalized. That means no individual scientist employed by a research institution can publish this type of article for fear of losing their career. No individual anywhere in the United States can investigate racial differences at this point because that individual would never again be employed (what employer would take the risk of hiring someone known to be discriminatory?). Beyond mere laws, society has reached a point where anyone deemed as “racist” would be untouchable… no one would be their friend or visit them or do any sort of business with them for fear of being seen as contaminated.
The scientific method requires making a hypothesis then trying to disprove it. If it is illegal and unwise to investigate any evidence that runs counter to the popular narratives, science is impossible.
If science is impossible, opinion is all that you end up with. By looking at American politics, you can see the spectrum of opinions on race.
The conservatives of today appear to avoid the topic of race, perhaps because some of them are actually racist. The liberals of today appear to set aside logic and evidence in favor of their current opinions. Liberals currently claim that scientifically there is no difference between races and that individual differences are larger than differences between races.
Is race
merely a social construct?
A very common claim is that race is merely a social construct. Often, people point out that humans are 99.9% genetically similar. However, humans also share 80% of the same genetic information with cows. Little genetic differences apparently result in large physical differences.
https://sciencing.com/animals-share-human-dna-sequences-8628167.html
Chimps are humans closest genetic relative, humans and chimps share a surprising 98.8 percent of their DNA. Human and chimp DNA is nearly identical when you compare the bands on chromosomes. The small 1.2% difference in DNA means that across 3 billion base pairs there are 35 million differences. If only 1.2% of genetic differences leads to the enormous physical and mental differences between humans and chimps, then perhaps the 0.1% difference between human races is far more than we think? https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/human-origins/understanding-our-past/dna-comparing-humans-and-chimps
It may be true that the difference between a black person and an Asian person are smaller than the difference between say one extreme and the opposite extreme in the same race, but I don't think that reveals the truth. Everyone appears to recognize race and know what is meant by white, black, asian, etc. If there are no differences between races, how does everyone recognize this? Further, genealogical website like 23 and me can identify not just general race like “white”, but can identify very specific subregions like “22% norwegian, 42% swedish, 36% English”.
Investigating
racial differences and similarities
The legal and social blockades mentioned previously make science impossible. The only real way to try to address the question of if there is racial differences and similarities and what they could be is by observing areas of life that do not have racial quotas. Racial quotas exist in both public and private employment, so we cannot look to that. Racial quotas do not exist in games (sports, chess), and do not exist for inventors or entrepreneurs, so those could be areas to look into.
Analysis
of sports
Of further interest is the areas of racial difference that are allowable to talk about in our culture. The NBA has been remarkably racially consistent over the last 40 years - it is over 70% black. Over that same period, black people have only made up 13% of the US population. Further, black people make up 69.7% of the NFL. Such a sustained and dramatic difference is generally acknowledged in our culture in movies like “white man can’t jump”. Many individuals I know believe (even if they will not openly say it) that black people have a genetic advantage in athletics over white people. There is of course a debate over whether black supremacy in sports is due to nature or nurture. Perhaps black people have been oppressed in all other areas of society so long that sports is their only outlet and therefore where they all spend their time, thus leading to their superiority? The scientific evidence does not seem to support this theory though - black children only play slightly more sports on average than white children (2.24 vs 1.99) and white children actually start in sports younger than black children do (7.47 vs 8.32)
https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/contentgroups/sasp/poster_gallery/poster19.pdf
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1767&context=student_scholarship
The nature vs nurture argument has been around as long as science. How much of who we are is determined by our genetics? How much of who we are is shaped by our experiences? The required narrative in America of today is to say that there is absolutely zero genetic differences between races and the only differences must be attributed to experience (discrimination, systemic racism, etc). Certainly our experiences do shape who we are to a large extent. Human twins lead very different lives. On the other hand, when you look at the differences between species (humans vs cows vs chimps), it appears that the differences are solely due to genetics. You would never expect a cow to pick up a pencil and write a sentence, nor would you expect a person to be able to digest grass through multiple stomachs. So how do we know what differences between races are attributable to genetics and what are attributable to experiences?
Why do blacks excel at many sports? Is it because racism in other areas forces them just to play games? I don’t think that is the case based on the earlier cited study of black children and white children starting sports at about the same time and playing about the same number of sports. There is a scientific article I found showing that anthropometric literature shows that the center of mass in black people is 3 percent higher above the ground than whites, which they say means blacks hold a 1.5 percent speed advantage in running whereas whites hold a 1.5 percent speed advantage in swimming. https://www.witpress.com/elibrary/dne-volumes/5/3/454
In just running - the most basic human activity - there are racial differences. 28 of the last 38 world record holders in the men’s 100 meter dash have been black. https://www.livescience.com/10716-scientists-theorize-black-athletes-run-fastest.html
This is quite surprising as black people make up roughly 20% of the world’s population. How could black people be so much better at running than white people if there is no differences between races? People in every nation strive to be good runners. Once again, this live science article claims that blacks have physical differences from whites that give them this advantage.
I selected running rather than more heavily specialized sports like the NFL, NBA, or the NHL (which is actually 93% white) as running is a sport anyone and everyone on the planet can easily be involved in and learn.
Analysis
of black vs white nations success
One possible way is to look outside of America. Africa has many nations ruled by blacks, presumably with much less discrimination against black people.
Africa overall has the lowest median, mean and total wealth of any region. It is lower than half the next lowest (India).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult
Liberia for example was founded in 1822 by former slaves and free-born blacks from the United States. It received lots of support from American anti-slavery organizations and the US government. In WW2 it supported the US vs the axis and thus received a lot of investment and infrastructure support. In 1980 there was a military coup that led to civil war and a dramatic shrinking of the economy. As of 2015, 83% of the population lives below the international poverty line.
Nigeria is the richest African country by GDP, and also the most populous. Nigeria was under indirect British rule until 1960 and since has had a succession of democratic governments and dictatorships. It has had a stable democracy since 1999. Nigeria is known to have an abundant supply of natural resources. As of 2012, 60% of the population lives in poverty.
Seychelles is a nation of 115 islands in the Indian ocean with 98,000 people. It is the wealthiest per capita African country. It was under British control until 1976 and has been independent since. Seychelles appears to be a mix of all races - white black, asian, indian, etc. I guess not relevant.
Equatorial Guinea appears to be the wealthiest per capita majority at $18,000 per person. The nation discovered large oil reserves in 1996. It has the highest Gross National Income of any African country according to the World Bank. It has extreme wealth inequality and a lot of extreme poverty according to Wikipedia. It has 1,225,367 people. Equatorial Guinea is listed as 99 / 168 nations for wealth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult.
Is it possible that Africans have been discriminated against and held down in Africa by other nations? Perhaps. Many African countries did not gain independence from Europe until recently. One counterargument to this is that all of Western society went to war against Japan, Germany, and Italy in WW2. The hatred towards Germany and Japan were extremely high through the 1940’s and have continued until today. When a German goes to another country, many uneducated individuals immediately assume that the German is a closet Nazi. Japan faces similar discrimination: China teaches the horrors and evils perpetrated by the Japanese in WW2 to all of it’s citizens. Americans who fought in WW2 were convinced by American propaganda during the war that the Japanese were evil devils. Both Germany and Japan had all of their infrastructure utterly destroyed. Germany had roughly the equivalent of every military age man between 18 and 40 killed during the war. I do not know of any African nation that has faced outright hatred and discrimination as bad as what Japan and Germany faced from the world during and following WW2. However, Japan is now the 13th richest nation in the world while Germany is the 29th richest nation in the world.
Analysis of income
Does racism account for the differences in income between whites and blacks? Kendi says yes, but I am not sure. The gap between blacks median income ($44k) and whites ($66k) is actually the same as the gap between whites median income ($66k) and Asians ($87k)!
The common story is that white privilege has created systemic racism… but is the true story that asian privilege has kept both whites and blacks down? Are the asians secretly pitting blacks and whites against each other while they get rich? Maybe, but that does not sound accurate.
Asians in many ways suffered worse racism more recently than blacks in America. As recently as the 1940’s, many asians were put into internment camps for years!
So what is going on? Perhaps there are actual racial differences, and asians on average are a bit better at median jobs and thus earn higher amounts of money? Perhaps there are cultural differences (asian tiger moms) that push asians to achieve more and earn higher incomes? If there are cultural differences (a different set of interests and priorities) like that, perhaps there could be cultural differences between blacks vs whites and asians that cause them to earn less?
Analysis
of chess
1,721 chess grandmasters are in the world now. https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-grandmaster-hours
3 black chess grandmasters are in the world as of 2010. https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2010/08/19/the-challenges-of-black-chess-masters/
Is chess a racist activity? I’m not sure how it could be… anyone in the world can own a chess board and play chess. The ELO ranking system is solely based on wins and losses and the chess organizations of the world do not inhibit any races from playing in any way.
Do black people just not play chess? https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/countries-where-chess-are-most-popular?page=4 This could be a factor as the most popular chess playing nations are in Europe, Asia, some in South America, some in North America. Keep in mind this list is from chess players on the website chess.com; this means that some countries may not be listed where chess players use another website.
Analysis
of Inventors
Another area to investigate nature vs nurture could be with high achieving individuals. Black people have received less opportunities historically than white people have, but there are many black individuals who have received more opportunities than the median white person has.
Perhaps look at inventors. Here is a list of Black inventors from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_inventors_and_scientists. It appears that many of these individuals were not inventors, but simply worked at an early time at a research institution. George Washington Carver, the most famous black inventor, found methods of improving soils depleted by cotton planting and also famously published bulletins with many products made from peanuts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver.
I was unable to find a similar wikipedia article of white inventors. This article mentions a few (and also includes black George Washington Carver) https://www.thoughtco.com/top-popular-inventors-1992000. Thomas edison (light bulbs, film, audio device, electricity), Alexander Graham Bell (telephone, photophone - fiber optics), Johannes Gutenberg (printing press), Isaac Newton (calculus, optics, newtonian physics), John Baird (television, radar), Nikola Tesla (AC electrical supply, three phase electricity), Alfred noble (dynamite), Alfred Einstein (nuclear physics), Rudolf Diesel (diesel engine), Igor Sikorsky (helicopter), Eli Whitney (interchangeable parts), Tim Berners Lee (internet), James Watt (steam engine), Wright brothers (airplanes) https://www.cadcrowd.com/blog/100-famous-inventors-and-their-best-invention-ideas/
I am not able to get an exact scientific number but it appears that something like 99.9% of major inventions we use in our daily lives today were created by white people. This is pretty overwhelmingly one sided. I am not sure what conclusions to draw from this. If I had to argue against someone who claimed this was evidence of genetic difference, I would probably say that to be an inventor you have to be at the cutting edge of the human race and that racism prevented black people from attaining the resources necessary to make some of these inventions. I am not sure that argument would hold up under scrutiny, especially over the last sixty years of significantly reduced discrimination and increased opportunities.
Analysis
of crime
According to the FBI, African-Americans accounted for 55% of all homicide offenders in 2019, with whites 41%, and "Other" 3% in cases where the race was known. Among homicide victims in 2019 where the race was known, 54% were black or African-American, 42% were white, and 3% were of other races. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States
Black people are 13.4% of the population in the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States
According to the statistics above, a black person is 4x more likely to commit murder than a white person. A black person is also 4x more likely to be a murder victim than a white person. Other black people are overwhelmingly the most common victims of black murderers https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-3.xls. When I was a child, politicians and the media talked a lot about “black on black” crime and how to resolve it. No one says this phrase anymore because it has become a taboo topic. If you mention that blacks commit crimes at a much higher rate and are victims of crimes at a much higher rate than other races, you must be a racist. But sweeping a problem under the rug because it is inconvenient for the political ideology you wish to promote helps no one.
The phrase “black on black crime” originated in Ebony magazine and is frequently used today by black community leaders according to this article https://abcnews.go.com/US/black-black-crime-loaded-controversial-phrase-heard-amid/story?id=72051613.
It seems white people who want to be seen as “allies” of black people are doing black people a major disservice by not helping to directly address this problem.
Do blacks commit more crimes than whites globally?
The argument raised by Ebony magazine is that “exterior circumstances” cause black people to commit more crimes than whites. Presumably Ebony magazine is referencing historical and systemic racism in the United States that holds black people down and causes them to only have criminal options to resort to. This argument has merit, I think looking globally may help us see if that is true.
Blacks are 3.3% of the population in the UK in 2018, while they make up 13% of the prison population - basically the same 4x rate of criminals as in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_Kingdom
I searched for statistics on crime by race in Germany, France, Italy, Europe and was unable to find individual statistics.
Here is a crime index by country for the year 2021 - https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp. It appears to exclude over half of Africa, presumably because those countries don’t have solid governments.
Here is a list of countries by homicide rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate If you sort by rate, it appears that South America and Africa have the highest murder rates in the world. The highest non-African country on the list is Ukraine (civil war and at secret war with Russia) at #61, and the United States with it’s very high rates of gun violence at #74.
In Africa, most of the black countries are ruled by black people, but they still have severe crime issues.
Preventing
police from helping black communities
Making false claims that there are zero physical or mental differences between races and that the only reason black people are convicted of more crimes is racism directly harms black people. The differences may simply be a matter of culture (see Dave Chappelle’s theory / explanation that a lot of current black culture stemmed from the book “Pimp: The Story of My Life” published in 1967 by Iceberg Slim), and not due to some sort of genetic difference. But if black people are genuinely committing crimes at a higher rate, that may not be an indication that the police are all racist. It could be a cultural issue that needs to be confronted head on. By hiding the black on black crime problem, society stops working on solutions to help the black community.
Police officers have been accused of racism and fired for arresting a higher percentage of black people than exist in the population. Police officers now have taken a hands off approach to avoid getting fired or accused of racism. No police officer wants to get canceled on Twitter or dragged through the public news media for being a racist for enforcing the law in black communities. This means that black victims of crime will not get justice. It means that black criminals will have a free hand to continue to terrorize and harm black communities. Further, not enforcing the law against black criminals will lead to more white racism. Whites will live in fear that a black criminal will not be arrested or convicted, and that a black criminal could rob, rape, assault, or murder them with impunity.
Analysis
of entrepreneurs and founders and business owners
Anyone can be hired as an employee or an executive of a company, so I am focusing on founders of companies to understand if there are racial differences or similarities in business.
Finding race data on entrepreneurs is very challenging. I found this article https://fortune.com/longform/fortune-500-black-ceos-business-history/ that says that of all the CEO’s in the Fortune 500 today, only 4 are black. But that is not a very good metric since CEO’s are often hired and not founders themselves.
Here is another article complaining about there being zero black CEO’s on the Disruptor 50 list https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/16/why-there-are-no-black-ceos-on-this-years-disruptor-50-list.html.
Here is an article on founders finally, but these are VC backed founders which I don’t think are the same as bootstrapped founders. Less than 1% are black. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/venture-capital-demographics-87-percent-vc-backed-founders-white-asian-teams-raise-largest-funding/
Looking at it from another direction, here is a story of 20 game changing founders of color. I haven’t heard of one of these people or businesses. I would assume that if there was a black founder of a company like Apple or Home Depot or Staples, they would be listed first? https://socapglobal.com/2019/04/20-game-changing-founders-of-color-2019/
Here is a list of black owned founders - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-owned_businesses#Black_Owned_Public_Companies. The only person with a business of note that I recognize on this list is Oprah Winfrey, who is a world famous entertainer and not really a businessperson.
This article seems to be the best list of black owners / founders - https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/successful-companies-black-entrepreneurs--cms-32691. The biggest company is one with $10b in revenue (pretty small).
It appears that there are even fewer black founders / owners of companies than there are black chess grandmasters. I would guess that this is due to both systemic racism type obstacles, but also due to differences between races. Due to the dearth of trustworthy scientific research and the blockade on any true science where scientists can try to disprove a hypothesis, we just have to guess.
Racial differences through history
I am curious as to what people have said through history about racial differences. Have people always said there were racial differences? Was everyone in history a racist until now? Or did some people say there were no differences?
For the last 60 years it is very hard for anyone to freely discuss the possibility of racial differences due to laws in the United States (and in many countries) that heavily penalize anyone that does so, including making them legally liable and preventing them from being employed. Perhaps history may have some interesting perspectives considering that in many past times there was no barrier to speaking freely on this topic.
What
did Charles Darwin think?
I ran across an article that mentioned Charles Darwin followed up his legendary book “On the Origin of Species” with another book “The Descent of Man”. I had never heard of this book prior to writing this article. Apparently though there is a strong online debate over whether Darwin is a “racist” or not. Darwin was an abolitionist, supporting the freeing of all people. But apparently this book had made a number of observations that most people today would consider racist on the differences between racial groups.
Charles Darwin famously came up with the theory of natural selection after traveling the world and very carefully observing nature. Darwin described large groups of people such as Africans, Indians, South Americans, Polynesians, and others as “savages”. He claimed that the “highest races and the lowest savages” differed in “morale disposition … and in intellect”. Darwin says that savages have “low morality,” “insufficient powers of reasoning,” and “weak power of self-command”. He begins with animals: “No one supposes that one of the lower animals reflects whence he comes or whither he goes,—what is death or what is life, and so forth” (62). His remarks soon expand to humans. “How little can the hard-worked wife of a degraded Australian savage, who uses hardly any abstract words and cannot count above four, exert her self-consciousness, or reflect on the nature of her own existence” (62). Darwin writes that Australians are incapable of complex thought, and insinuates that they are akin to lower animals. When he is referring to Australians, I assume he is referring to Aboriginal peoples.
https://sites.williams.edu/engl-209-fall16/uncategorized/the-dark-side-of-darwinism/
In defense of the “savages” Charles Darwin refers to, he may have mistaken a lack of technology and a lack of education for what he called “low morality” and “insufficient powers of reasoning”. In defense of Charles Darwin, he lived in a time where writing like this was not racist and these were commonly held beliefs. Keep in mind that Charles Darwin was not writing this to insult these people, but to document his beliefs and personal observations from his travels. If these were the observations of one of the greatest naturalists in history, could there be at least some truth to the idea that there are differences between races (even if the differences he identified were not accurate)?
What
did Martin Luther King Jr say about racial differences?
Martin Luther King said, “Don’t judge us by the color of our skin”. But Dr. King also said “The roots of racism are very deep in our country… the doctrine of white supremacy was embedded in every textbook… it became a structural part of the culture.
What
did Winston Churchill say on race?
Winston Churchill believed there were differences between races and claimed there was a hierarchy with white protestant Christians on top, Catholics under them, then somewhere lower Indians, and finally at the bottom were Black Africans. Churchill advocated against black or indiginous self rule in Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_views_of_Winston_Churchill
What
did Nelson Mandela say on racial differences?
Nelson Mandela said in July 2008 that human solidarity and concern for the other should be the center of the values we live by. He also said, “We are extricating ourselves from a system that insulted our common humanity by dividing us from one another on the basis of race and setting us against each other an oppressed and oppressor. That system committed a crime against humanity.” https://www.livemint.com/Politics/1FmwRy5VpW0yL3ZIBr2veJ/In-his-own-words-Quotes-from-South-Africas-Nelson-Mandela.html
What
did Thomas Jefferson say on racial differences?
Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant man with a long list of amazing accomplishments. He also pursued reforms to slavery, and took 7 legal cases on behalf of freedom-seeking slaves, but he also was a slave owner. When his wife’s father died, he inherited 135 slaves. That time period was known to be especially racist, and it seems Jefferson tried to add an anti-slavery clause to the Declaration of Independence but was unsuccessful. Jefferson also is believed to have fathered children by his slave Sally Hemings while he was visiting Paris.
Jefferson is quoted as saying that blacks were
"inferior to the whites in the endowments of body and mind." A more
full quote from him in his “Notes on the State of Virginia” he said “They seem to require less sleep. A black, after hard labor
through the day, will be induced by the slightest amusements to sit up till
midnight, or later, though knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the
morning. They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome. But this may
perhaps proceed from a want of forethought, which prevents their seeing a
danger till it be present. When present, they do not go through it with more
coolness or steadiness than the whites. They are more ardent after their
female: but love seems with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender
delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those
numberless afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life
to us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten with them. In
general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation than
reflection... Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and
imagination, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to the whites; in
reason much inferior, as I think one [black] could scarcely be found capable of
tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination
they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous... I advance it therefore as a
suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made
distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the
endowments both of body and mind.”
Later he is quoted as
saying, “No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that
nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other
colors of men, & that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to
the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa & America. I can
add with truth that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced
for raising the condition both of their body & mind to what it ought to be,
as fast as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstance
which cannot be neglected, will admit.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
Speculation
on evolutionary racial differences by philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer
He is quoted to say, “The highest civilization and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians, are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples, the ruling caste, or race, is fairer in colour than the rest, and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmins, the Inca, and the rulers of the South Sea Islands. All this is due to the fact that necessity is the mother of invention, because those tribes that emigrated early to the north, and there gradually became white, had to develop all their intellectual powers, and invent and perfect all the arts in their struggle with need, want, and misery, which, in their many forms, were brought about by the climate. This they had to do to make up for the parsimony of nature, and out of it all came their high civilization.”
Historical
evils that have occurred based on opinions of racial differences
Massive evils have been perpetrated by people who claimed that there were racial differences - see the genocide section below. Slavery in the United States was justified based on racism. Apartheid in South Africa was based on racism.
Because of these horrifying evils that have happened, people now oppose any form of observance of racial differences as racism. That may be too extreme of a swing back the other direction.
I strongly believe that all people should be equal in the eyes of the law and the law should be colorblind. Businesses, government, and all organizations should not use race as a factor in any employment, contracting or other such decisions. I think every individual should be free to pursue his or her dreams. Achievement of those dreams should be solely based on hard work, luck, skill, and such factors - not on racial quotas.
I do not believe that statistical differences in racial participation in any activity necessarily are evidence of racism though.
Reparations
/ Sins of the father
A fundamental principle of American society is that we are not liable for the debts of our parents (and thank god!). I think we all instinctively sense the unfairness of a child having to spend his whole life paying off his father’s debts.
Keep in mind that slavery was not limited only to black people. Prior to the freedom granted to most people by the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of humanity was subjugated. Serfdom, debt bondage, indentured service, corvee, and peons were used in almost every nation on earth throughout human history.
Native Americans captured other tribes and used them as slaves, and when Europeans appeared, they sold these slaves to them sometimes.
Under feudalism throughout Europe, peasants could be sold with the land, had no rights over their own bodies and could only marry with their lord's permission. Serfs still existed in Europe until the mid 19th century, though it was abolished in Russia in 1861 and in Austria until 1781. American slavery was abolished at around the same time in 1861. American exceptionalism makes many Americans feel guilty over slavery here as if it was only here that slavery was practiced. Slavery was a global phenomenon that existed for all of human history until machines set us free in the Industrial Revolution as slaves were no longer needed.
The Roman Empire more or less enslaved the entire world except for a few very wealthy individuals.
If reparations are needed for American slavery, then reparations also should be done for all other forms of human bondage over time. All of us would likely owe money, and all of us would likely be owed money. All of us have ancestors that were aristocrats that held serfs, and all of us have ancestors that were serfs or slaves.
It is wrong to convict a child of the parent’s crime. It is wrong to ask a child to pay for a parent’s debt. Reparations for slavery are just as wrong.
Practical
observations of racial differences and similarities
It is conclusive from genetics and from worldwide observations of races that there are differences. What does that mean?
Doing scientific research on racial similarities and differences has been illegal and heavily penalized for the last sixty years, so we don’t have a whole lot to go on. Below are some practical observations from my own view that may or may not be accurate. These could be good hypotheses for scientific research when scientific research once again becomes possible. These are all just theories without hard evidence or statistical proof based on what I’ve seen. Some ideas are stronger than others.
Black people are superior at sports and physical activities. When I watch Lebron James or Michael Jordan move down the basketball court, it looks less like sport and more like beautiful dancing. Their bodies move at a higher level than any white person I have ever seen. Black people have a higher percentage of their brain hard wired for physical movement.
Black people are superior at entertainment. My favorite comedians and talk show hosts are black. Dave Chapelle and Eddie Murphy’s stand up and movies and skits are funnier than what I have seen done by white comedians. Morgan Freeman, Samuel L Jackson, Denzel Washington, and Will Smith are the most powerful actors of the last half century. Oprah Winfrey is in a class all her own.
Asian people seem to be able to perfect a system beyond other races. White people may have invented many things like microchips and software or pop music, but Asians are able to work as a group better and spend very long periods of time grinding away to perfect those things. This is part of the reason Asians score better than any race on standardized testing. Black people seem less interested in sitting at a desk for days, weeks, and years by themselves just deeply focusing on learning one topic.
White people are good at creatively putting together different ideas to build something entirely new. Most of the inventors and entrepreneurs on the lists above were white.
Politically, white people are a good balance
between Asians who are not willing enough to challenge authority and black
people who have a very hard time building nations because of lack of respect
for authority. Asian countries throughout history have been highly organized
but often become stagnant dictatorships. African countries have high levels of
individual freedom and autonomy, but have a very hard time controlling crime,
warlords, or providing property rights.
I would not want to live in a country made up of only one race that excluded all of the others. The magic of the American system is that we bring together people of many races and let each pursue his own path with equal opportunity. Black people may be better at basketball than white people, but any white kid with a dream, some lucky genetics, and a hard work ethic can become a basketball star. America became the greatest nation on earth because we have had the highest levels of equal opportunity and meritocracy. We need to sustain and defend our freedoms and fight back against insidious attempts to bring back racism in the form of cancel culture and racial quotas.
Anti-white
racism by the US government
The American government at every level has become strongly anti-white and racist. Other races are given special preferences in government contracting and in hiring government employees. Universities receive funding based on promoting non-whites, and most universities now have entire academic departments funded by the US government called Ethnic or Minority Studies dedicated to undermining white men.
A few examples include that Biden’s newly passed infrastructure bill includes provisions saying minority-owned businesses are to be selected first, it offers debt relief to black farmers but not to white farmers, and gives preference to restaurants owned by minorities. Whites have to go to the back of the line. https://nypost.com/2021/08/11/bidens-infrastructure-bill-is-chock-full-of-anti-white-racism/
The anti-white racism has now extended quite far into American business following the Black Lives Matters movement. One of the largest investment banks in the world is explicitly trying to block the advancement of any white men within its ranks. The article linked to has over 8,000 angry comments about this issue. Keep in mind that backlash to racism against a majority is what led to the one of the greatest horrors in the history of mankind - the Holocaust. Hitler was elected to office specifically by saying that the discrimination of Jews against Germans would stop. I am not sure if Hitler’s claim was true, but enough Germans believed it that he won in a landslide. https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/state-street-global-advisors-permission-hire-white-men
Nelson Mandela in 1995 described "racism in reverse" when Black students demonstrated in favor of changing the racial makeup of staff at South African universities. Mandela had suffered enormously from racism and recognised that the solution to racism is NEVER going to be more racism.
Examples
of blatant racism in the US Government:
● I have become very frustrated personally trying to get government contracts. I have sought local, state, and federal contracts through my business for many years. I have tried offering the best value pricing, and even in desperation have even offered $1 or $0 contracts. We have bid on dozens of contracts. I have never received one. My company is one of the highest rated SEO and web design agencies in the nation, does SEO for Microsoft and a variety of blue chip names as well as many small businesses. I think it is a strong possibility that I have not received these contracts either because I don’t have salespeople that wine and dine politicians and bureacrats… or that the programs below have led to me not getting contracts because I don’t have the “right” skin color or gender. Discrimination like this based on race is extremely dangerous because it then justifies discrimination the other way. I am very upset about this, but I know some business owners who are less thoughtful and now hate minorities for the unfair advantage they have received.
● https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/8a-business-development-program “The federal government's goal is to award at least 5% of all federal contracting dollars to small disadvantaged businesses each year.“
● https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/05/minority-owned-business-certification.html
○ “The Department of Transportation, for example, requires that recipients of its funding award a percentage of contracts to minority-owned businesses”
○ “For the purposes of NMSDC's program, a minority group member is an individual who is a U.S. citizen with at least 25 percent Asian-Indian, Asian-Pacific, Black, Hispanic, or Native American heritage.” If you are white, don’t bother to apply.
● https://www.uschamber.com/co/run/business-financing/certification-guide-for-minority-owned-business First line… “Governments and corporations around the United States often set aside a percentage of their contract budgets exclusively for minority-owned businesses.” Translation: if you are not one of the races we favor, don’t bother to apply.
● https://omwbe.wa.gov/ An entire state website set up for pushing racial quotas and racism in hiring and contracting. Most, if not all, states have similarly discriminatory websites.
● https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/diversity-and-inclusion/faqs/ This is the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s recruiting & HR body. It pushes several forms of racism under the guise of it’s “Diversity & Inclusion” program, and “Equal Employment Opportunity” areas. Whenever you see these keywords, you will know that applicants are not being reviewed on merit, but on skin color.
● https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/women-owned-small-business-federal-contracting-program This is gender rather than race favoritism: The federal government sets aside contracts for only women to get.
“White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo
According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Fragility, Robin DiAngelo is an academic who has a degree in “Critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies”, who claims in her New York Times bestselling book “White Fragility” that any defensiveness a white person feels when their race or their opinions on race are criticized is racism. Basically, any white person that tries to question critical race theory and “anti-racism” must be a racist. Anything a white person does is racist in her eyes.
Harming
Minority and White (Aka ALL) Children by getting rid of gifted programs
Based on Kendi’s ideas that there are no differences between races, and that there are not even differences between individuals, California and New York and other states are getting rid of gifted programs https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/us/california-math-curriculum-guidelines.html
. This harms many gifted black children who should be in advanced program. It stops black children from receiving advanced education that moves them along much more quickly when they are ready for it, and forces them to stay with children who are not ready for it. Getting rid of gifted programs simply harms all children. Black parents oppose these proposals, but once again white “allies” of people of color are trying to force this on them.
The same thing is happening in Los Angeles - schools are getting rid of bad grades for minorities - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-11-08/as-ds-and-fs-soar-schools-ditch-inequitable-grade-systems. School is meant to prepare kids for the real world and help them to be successful. Not giving black kids good feedback means that they will be lied to and told they are doing well when they will really struggle in the workplace. We need to have MORE gift programs and more grading and feedback for kids so that they know how they are doing. Then give them the help and resources to get there by getting rid of teachers unions that only care about the teachers' pay and not the actual students' results.
George
Floyd
One of the initial impetuses for me in writing this was a drunk argument I had with friends about whether George Floyd’s death was murder or manslaughter. I was accused of being a racist for saying Floyd’s death was likely manslaughter and not an intentional killing. I was sent this video by someone else with a different perspective on George Floyd’s death after I explained the debate I had had - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkwSLgOBB0s. This is not relevant to the article though except that it was what launched me into the race rabbit hole.
The
world is becoming far less tolerant
I remember in the 1990’s and 2000’s observing friends who were both white and black in mixed groups make jokes at the expense of their own racial group and the other racial groups. No one cared because everyone said they did not feel discriminated against. They actually claimed that these jokes made them bond closer. Humor usually does bring people together.
Comedian Dave Chappelle pointed out in his most recent comedy special “The Closer” that American culture is becoming far less tolerant. Chappelle built his career on racist jokes, sexist jokes and picking on every kind of group. Every group though now has become far less tolerant… if someone makes a joke at their expense, the pitchforks and guillotine come out. Chappelle’s special to me seemed to be very pro trans to anyone who watched the whole thing and would generate a lot of sympathy and empathy for the trans community. However, a group of people who called themselves “allies” of the trans folks claimed to be offended and went to war against Chappelle. Perhaps these same “allies” are the people trying create new racist laws?
Conclusion
Differences between races do not matter at all if all individuals are able to seek their fortunes by their own merit. Even if some races were more genetically gifted at certain activities, that would not preclude individuals of other races who were also gifted in that activity to pursue their passion and their fortune.
Real differences DO exist between races, but there is not one “superior race”. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses, and individuals inside each race differ far more than races do from one another. To simplify - there are superb white athletes better than most black athletes, but they aren’t common. That is why 90% of elite sports are led by blacks. Similar things occur in other areas of life. Every bit of historical writing I have read from Hammurabai to religious texts to Thucydides to Aristotle to Caesar to Thomas Jefferson has assumed that everyone just knows there are differences between races… all historical figures seem to carry these differences further than is merited by reality though. When real science in this area started it led to eugenics, which led to incorrect assumptions that one race was superior. Politicians twisted things and made false assumptions and ended up committing the greatest horrors in human history. We have rightly recoiled from this in the other direction. However, we recently are going too far and are trying to claim that all races are identical to justify a new racism; racial quotas. This is a start down the wrong pathway just as much as eugenics was.
It is only when racism & racial quotas is the rule of law that these differences begin to matter.
Racial quotas / Affirmative Action / Slavery Reparations are all forms of racism. Implementing any of these is just as wrong as Jim Crow laws, redlining, and other policies used to hold certain races down.
When one man's hard work is stolen from him with the false claim of reparations, when all nations have disavowed the malformed practice of passing the father's sins to the son.
When people are told that if there are any differences between races, that must be because of systemic racism, that is directly using race to make future decisions. Statistics explain that even a perfectly fair coin will land randomly on one side more than another… that is not racism. It is racism to try to force a balance with policies like affirmative action. Racial quotas for school, for work, and for prisons are the ultimate form of racism.
When gifted math programs in schools have to be dissolved because different races participate in them at different rates, that is racism.
Anti-racism is fundamentally racist. By saying that anywhere one race is not fully equally participating is racism means that racial quotas are being demanded. We may as well close the NBA, and the NFL as well for being racist.
To truly defeat racism, we must end all racial quotas and racial demands. The law must be totally colorblind. The government must not favor certain races for government contracts or for spaces in schools or in anything else. We must have a society solely based on merit.
Future
Warning
Genocides most often occur when one ethnic group feels that it has been attacked or discriminated against by the others. A few examples from a very long list of this:
● Equatorial Guineau launched a genocide in which they killed up to ⅓ of their population, particularly those of the Bubi ethnic minority, especially those who were wealthy or educated. The president killed everyone who wore spectacles as education made him uneasy.
● In Uganda in the 70’s, a genocide was carried out against the Acholi and Lango tribes who had formerly held power in the nation.
● East Timor was invaded by Indonesia and underwent a genocide there, especially targeting the formerly powerful Chinese minority.
● After the US military abandoned South Vietnam, ethnic Hmong who had been in power and supported the US underwent a genocide from the new Communist government. An estimated 300,000 were murdered.
● Ethiopia’s former Marxist dictator Mengistu was convicted of genocide against intellectuals and was found to have murdereed 150,000 people.
● Saddam Hussein murdered 290,000 ethnic Kurds and Shia and several other ethnic clans in Iraq during his time in power.
● China is currently in the process of a genocide against the Uygur people and it is believed that over a million people are currently in concentration camps undergoing forced sterilization, contraception, and abortion.
● In July 1995, 8,000 Bosnians were murdered by Serbian forces in an ethnic cleansing.
● The Khmer Rouge committed genocide, killing approximately 2,200,000 ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese, and others.
● In Congo, pygmies were hunted down and eaten through 2003 as part of a genocide.
● Nazis committed genocide and murdered approximately six millions jews.
● Russia under Yeltsin committed genocide against Chechens, murdering 20,000-30,000 when Chechnya attempted to declare independence.
Almost every case of genocide I have found has been one racial group against another. Wikipedia lists about 80 of these instances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history with many millions murdered.
If we continue to use racial quotas, which are a direct form of racism, we greatly increase the risk of future genocides. A majority of Trump voters (poor and uneducated whites) support a civil war now https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/new-initiative-explores-deep-persistent-divides-between-biden-and-trump-voters/. The poor white men I have talked to feel especially discriminated against by the explicit racist policies (racial discrimination in government contracting and hiring, Affirmative Action in universities, as well as the large academic departments for ethnic and gender studies that bash white men) the US government has tried to use to “atone” for previous racism against minorities.
Systemic racism may be an issue that we must solve, but we should not ask the government to solve it. As I have shown in this article, systemic racism may not exist as there may simply be fundamental differences between racial groups where either by preference or by ability, some groups generally have more success.
Imagine how black people would feel if in order to combat the “systemic racism” in sports, the government said no more than 13% of participants in the NBA, MLB, NFL, track, olympics, etc could be black? Imagine how all the more talented black players would feel seeing less competent white people taking their places only because of their skin color.
The government must be color blind and non-discriminatory… if it picks racial winners, the government itself is racist and is creating a dangerous, potentially genocidal, future.