 So what is what is the idea of systemic racism fundamental idea behind systemic racism is the idea that If you look at blacks today in America, and if you look at whites today in America What you observe a large inequalities inequalities There are wealth inequalities There are income inequalities Their educational outcome inequalities So However, you slice it and this is just true. This is the data shows Average black is poor than average white the average the mean and a median It doesn't really matter the same as true of the different deciles the same as true of of education the same as true of By every measure this certainly I think inequality between people of different skin color and now I think You know we can talk about the reasons for that, but suddenly it is legitimate to argue that one of the reasons for that is Past racism to some extent that's true to some extent it's true that because blacks couldn't buy homes because of You know Jim Crow laws and because of redlining 50 years ago. They didn't bring they didn't build equity They didn't build wealth They they didn't leave that wealth to their children And it just hasn't been because of the history of racism in America because the history of slave in America There hasn't been the intergenerational ability To create and build wealth And that is true. There's no doubt about it right, there's no doubt about it, but that's Leaves advocates with a problem That's not what they mean by systemic well get to what they mean by systemic in a minute, but that leaves the advocates with the problem That's racism in the past What do we do About racism in the past if the racism happened a long time ago There's nothing you can actually Do about this Because if there's no racism right now The racism is past racism Then yeah, maybe we should have reparations maybe but that's not going to be very politically popular I mean you could tell blacks to suck it up and You know, yes, they had a rotten past it sucks You know, it's time now to go to work start saving start making money and grow wealth But of course the people who advocate for systemic racism certainly don't want to say that because their agenda is far more expansive than about racism Because fundamentally these people are egalitarian Fundamentally their agenda is about equality and They've observed one example of inequality and They need an explanation for it that can justify doing something about it So they've come up with this concept of systemic racism Systemic racism is not racism you can point at It's not racism. We can say this policy or this person is a racist They don't want to do that because they have a hard time finding them You know, there are plenty of racists in America, but it's not overt anymore and most of them hide and it's Not culturally okay to be a racist So it's hard to point at stuff and with regard to laws most laws have not only Negated past racism. They've turned it upside down in a sense that They now have reverse racism, which what affirmative action is They benefit blacks over whites Jeff. So what they're really complaining about is The fact of inequality needs to be solved and a powerful tool for them to solve it is to call it racism Because racism is something nobody likes something everybody can rally against Racism something we might even accept some redistribution of wealth around we might accept Attempts to fix the inequality, but what they really upset about is the inequality and What they really hate are the successful. So it doesn't matter for example that you point out to them that Blacks people with black skin from Nigeria or From the Caribbean Who are brand-new immigrants to America, but who have the same black skin as they do? Seem to do great in America Seem to work hard make a living do okay That I'm rich of the Nigerians as I said are the most educated But they're very successful And indeed when you get to education inequality You don't see the gap that you see between whites and blacks You don't see that gap once you include Black immigrants into this country where they come from Africa where they come from The Caribbean which is interesting from all kinds of dimensions So one of the things McCroth writes about is So he takes on one issue of this inequality and digs deeper into it So black kids tend to underperforms scholastically compared to white kids And he posits a number of different reasons this could possibly happen The classical argument is the black kids go to lousy unfunded schools true so All right Well, let's try to take that out of the equation Let's look only at black kids In decent schools Right and it turns out that even in good schools This scholastic gap still exists. There's a gap between white students and black students in Education in Test scores if you will all right, so why is this? Why is it that black kids lag behind white kids in normal schools? Well, the next explanation is you know is that black parents Because they didn't attend college and because they often work more than one job They don't have the quote cultural capital to shepherd their kids into good study habits But here you come against Black immigrants Who come into this country Who work more than one job Who have not gone to college Grow up in poor Caribbean families or poor African families and yet their kids Don't exhibit the same gap Don't exhibit the same gap. Okay, so here you have so it can be it doesn't look like it's just underfunded schools although clearly underfunded lousy horrible inner-city schools are a big part of this and And But even if you control for that you look at normal schools black underperform So you say it's the parents, but when you look at the background of immigrant parents from Kate St. Colis skin immigrant parents Their kids do fine. So then there's a some argument that says Well immigrants especially determined self-directed people and it's unfair to expect that kind of effort from native-born People well Why why is it unfair? Why shouldn't everybody be expected? To work hard You know to achieve things in life. I Mean wouldn't it be great if we all behaved like immigrants in that regard It's kind of funny because here we're talking about immigrants is working hard and particularly determine a self-discipline Self-directed people and so on but then if we switch the conversation and talk about immigration then immigrants are portrayed as as Lazy and welfare recipients and they don't do anything and they we need to get rid of them And there's scourge on American society. So Can't win on the immigration debate, but as John McQuother mentions He says we get closer to the truth in examining what black kids attitudes towards school. Oh And maybe they have something to do with the problem. So when black kids are asked Why they do homework? They say they do the homework for the teacher When white kids are asked why they do the homework they say they do the homework for the parents Now McQuother interprets this as meaning that The stimulus for them doing the homework is external for back kids They view school as a foreign thing. They have a responsibility to it over there White kids, it's part of what's expected in the family. It's part of who they are and what they are. So they internalize it internalize it so and he points out that in black culture Doing well in school Being a good student Doing your homework doing well in tests is considered being white is Considered being the other is Considered being bad in a sense out of culture out of norm Out of norm So he argued that much of the reason for black to underperformance at school is due to subtle Attitudinal factor in other words and this is I think true for the entire inequality issue It has to do with culture It has to do with culture within black communities It has to do with culture within among black students It has to do with the attitudes towards success How success is attained how success is achieved it has to do with attitudes towards education Has to do with attitudes towards school Peer pressure is a cultural phenomena peer pressure comes from your culture and it's not fought against by the leaders of the culture, by the intellectuals, by the artists, by the rappers, by the community leaders, by the politicians. Indeed it's encouraged by them because they thrive on a culture of victimhood. It's much easier to say I'm a victim of racism and I don't even have to point to a particular racist because I'm a victim of systemic racism. It's the invisible kind. It's the kind you can't see. It's the kind that doesn't really, I can't point to. That's much better explanation and it's the explanation that the leaders of this culture are responsible for and I blame them. I don't blame the people. I blame their leaders. The roots are not in IQ differences because then you wouldn't see Nigerians do so well in school. Nigerians do phenomenally well in school, better than whites and their educational attainment is spectacular. You wouldn't see blacks and the Caribbean doing so well in school. Again, great, great, great grandchildren of slaves and yet they come here with ambition. They come here with a pop of culture. Sorry, we're just spammed by Mujahid. It's not selection bias. Anyway, I'm not going to get an IQ debate because I think IQ is in many respects meaningless. There's a lot that should be done and can be done in the black communities. To address these problems, these are real issues. These are real kids suffering. These are real issues that have to do with cultural phenomena that can be fixed. Getting rid of racism is not the issue. It's getting rid of a culture of victimhood, a culture of defeatism, a culture of entitlement. But of course, and that's what John McCord ultimately argues but that of course is not in the not in the political discourse unfortunately and if you you mention it and I'm sure I'll be called a racist for even talking about it. And by the way, I blame the intellectuals, black intellectuals. I blame the black leadership. I blame black politicians and and maybe importantly, I blame black rappers, rappers, musicians. I mean they have a huge impact on the culture. Many of them have made a lot of money off of capitalism and I would suggest that if they had a different attitude towards all of this, they could have a real impact on that culture and a real change, a real change. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual would be any man or woman who is willing to think, meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, wins or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist roads. All right, before we go on reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now, 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I think at least 100 of you actually like the show. 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