Friday, February 22, 2019

Amy Harmon on blacks and math ability

Amy Harmon reports in the NY Times:
What I Learned While Reporting on the Dearth of Black Mathematicians

My recent reporting has highlighted why racial exclusion in “the queen of the sciences’’ may matter most of all.
She wrote a whole story on a black mathematician moving from one college to another for obscure reasons, and discovered that black mathematicians are uncommon. She cites this xkcd cartoon on the math being the purest field, by far.

She ignored some more interesting ethnic issues, such as why those same colleges are full of foreign professors with weak English skills.

If I am parsing her convoluted reasoning properly, she says:
Some people claim that there are not many black research mathematicians because African-Americans are not as intelligent as other races. ...

[They lack any] reason to think that a genetic trait would be impervious to social or educational intervention

[They lack any reason to think] that high I.Q. is key to math ability
Yes, all genetic traits are impervious to social or educational intervention. Those interventions do not change the genes.

And yes, there is reason to think that high IQ is key to math ability. You sometimes see someone with high IQ and poor math skills. You sometimes see someone with strong ability in music or some other field without a high IQ. But you never see anyone with high math ability without high IQ.

This article is so goofy that I wonder if the NY Times is trolling us.

The same paper has this AP story:
British author and broadcaster David Icke, who critics accuse of anti-Semitism and of being a conspiracy theorist, has had his Australian visa canceled ahead of a speaking tour.
More precisely:
Conspiracy theorist David Icke has blasted the immigration minister, David Coleman, for revoking his visa just hours before boarding a flight to Australia for his March speaking tour.

Icke, a former footballer and sports broadcaster best known for his theory that the world is run by a cabal of giant shape-shifting lizards, has claimed Jewish people bankrolled Hitler, caused the 2008 global financial crisis and staged the 9/11 terrorist attacks. ...

Icke denied being antisemitic and a Holocaust denier, and said he had never advocated for Holocaust denial to be taught in school. ...

Icke said the cancellation of his visa “sets a dangerous precedent for citizens who have differing views and are willing to openly express these”.

“This is the creation of a blatantly Orwellian totalitarian state and says the government believes they have the right to dictate what the nation can and cannot choose to hear.”
I don't think that Icke blames the Jews for bankrolling Hitler or those other things. I think his theory blames shape-shifting lizards who are masquerading as Jews and others. That would be anti-reptilian, not anti-Semitic. But I could be wrong, as Icke is probably trolling us also. I wonder if Jussie Smollett will be allowed into Australia.

If Icke is banned for being anti-Semitic, then why isn't the TV show The X-Files also banned? It also involves weirdo globalist alien conspiracy theories.

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