Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race In America, Charles Murray, author; Robert Rivington, narrator
The country’s demographic has changed radically. Changes in our immigration laws have caused the Black and Latin population to explode. If we are to prosper and advance, we must face that reality. This author does not believe we should be judged by our identity, but rather, by our ability. He does not believe that systemic racism exists, rather he believes it is being used to drive us apart and promote a political agenda that will cause failure.
For the purposes of this book, he studies five groups and their progress over several years. They are European=white, African=black, Latin=Latino, Amerindian= Native American, and Asian. Citing an enormous amount of data, he measures the cognitive ability of these groups against each other. Do we have cognitive differences? Of course, we do. Eliminating tests and/or denial of our differences cannot change that; it can just change the ability to judge those differences and qualifications appropriately. If we promote unqualified people to positions they don’t deserve, or have not earned, we will witness less than stellar performances, as a result. That is common sense and no amount of politics or spin can change that outcome.
Expecting high performance from all applicants, usually weeds out the less qualified. It also encourages hard work to achieve one’s goals. There are definite differences in performance among all groups of people, but they have largely been ignored for the sake of political policies. If all groups are not expected to perform at the same level, the quality of the service they perform declines. Who wishes to be served by unqualified people? Murray believes that cognitive ability is more important than ethnicity but that cancel culture and identity politics have nullified the need for qualifications and placed a higher emphasis on diversity rather than ability.
The cancel culture and identity politics have influenced the focus in schools and driven people apart as they lower standards and measurements for success in order to promote only one acceptable idea along with the principle of equity. Preferential treatment is not a true recipe for successful performance, however. He cites many studies to make his points, but I am sure there are others who will contradict his findings with other studies. The proof will ultimately be in the pudding as graduates go out into the world and begin to perform. The results will either be worthy or substandard.
Because the book is filled with statistics and tables, it may be very hard for most readers to stay interested, but one thing is for sure, we are doing a disservice to those who will be served, if we don’t expect the best and brightest to be trained to serve them. For me, the main principles of this book are the idea of judging people by the content of their character and educating people according to their ability. In this way the best and brightest will advance to the positions they deserve and America will achieve greatness. Everyone will find their rightful place in the pecking order and find success in a field in which they can achieve success because they have the right qualifications to do the job.