Wednesday, February 02, 2005
More On The Summers Controversy
Walter Williams has his own take on the controversy surrounding the President of Harvard University and as usual he is exactly right:
Professor Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of technology, attended the National Bureau of Economic Research conference titled "Diversifying the Science and Engineering Work Force" where Mr. Summers gave his lecture. She had to leave, explaining to a Boston Globe (Jan. 17) reporter, "I would've either blacked out or thrown up."
Suppose a speaker said sickle cell anemia is genetically determined and occurs almost exclusively among blacks. Would Ms. Hopkins stomp out of the room, charging racism?
What if it were said a person's chances of carrying the gene for Tay-Sachs disease, which has no cure, is significantly higher if he is an Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jew? Would Professor Hopkins barf and charge the speaker with anti-Semitism?
Jon Entine, in his book "Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid to Talk About It" (1999), says, "All of the 32 finalists in the last four Olympic men's 100-meter races are of West African descent." The probability of such an outcome by chance is all but zero.
Genetic physiological and biomechanical characteristics that help blacks excel in some sports - basketball, football and track - hinder those who aspire to be Olympic-class swimmers. Mr. Entine says, "No African-American has ever qualified for the U.S. Olympic swim or dive team. Indeed, despite a number of special programs and considerable funding that have attracted thousands of aspiring black Olympians, there were only seven blacks who could even qualify to compete against the 455 swimmers at the 1996 Olympic trials."
Do you suppose Professor Hopkins would charge Mr. Entine with racism? The only behavioral genetic explanation the campus anti-intellectuals unquestioningly accept is that homosexuality has genetic origins.
PermaLink | 5:32 AM |
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Professor Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of technology, attended the National Bureau of Economic Research conference titled "Diversifying the Science and Engineering Work Force" where Mr. Summers gave his lecture. She had to leave, explaining to a Boston Globe (Jan. 17) reporter, "I would've either blacked out or thrown up."
Suppose a speaker said sickle cell anemia is genetically determined and occurs almost exclusively among blacks. Would Ms. Hopkins stomp out of the room, charging racism?
What if it were said a person's chances of carrying the gene for Tay-Sachs disease, which has no cure, is significantly higher if he is an Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jew? Would Professor Hopkins barf and charge the speaker with anti-Semitism?
Jon Entine, in his book "Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid to Talk About It" (1999), says, "All of the 32 finalists in the last four Olympic men's 100-meter races are of West African descent." The probability of such an outcome by chance is all but zero.
Genetic physiological and biomechanical characteristics that help blacks excel in some sports - basketball, football and track - hinder those who aspire to be Olympic-class swimmers. Mr. Entine says, "No African-American has ever qualified for the U.S. Olympic swim or dive team. Indeed, despite a number of special programs and considerable funding that have attracted thousands of aspiring black Olympians, there were only seven blacks who could even qualify to compete against the 455 swimmers at the 1996 Olympic trials."
Do you suppose Professor Hopkins would charge Mr. Entine with racism? The only behavioral genetic explanation the campus anti-intellectuals unquestioningly accept is that homosexuality has genetic origins.
PermaLink | 5:32 AM |
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