Intellectuals and RaceIntellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light. The views of individual intellectuals have spanned the spectrum, but the views of intellectuals as a whole have tended to cluster. Indeed, these views have clustered at one end of the spectrum in the early twentieth century and then clustered at the opposite end of the spectrum in the late twentieth century. Moreover, these radically different views of race in these two eras were held by intellectuals whose views on other issues were very similar in both eras. Intellectuals and Race is not, however, a book about history, even though it has much historical evidence, as well as demographic, geographic, economic and statistical evidence-- all of it directed toward testing the underlying assumptions about race that have prevailed at times among intellectuals in general, and especially intellectuals at the highest levels. Nor is this simply a theoretical exercise. The impact of intellectuals' ideas and crusades on the larger society, both past and present, is the ultimate concern. These ideas and crusades have ranged widely from racial theories of intelligence to eugenics to "social justice" and multiculturalism. In addition to in-depth examinations of these and other issues, Intellectuals and Race explores the incentives, the visions and the rationales that drive intellectuals at the highest levels to conclusions that have often turned out to be counterproductive and even disastrous, not only for particular racial or ethnic groups, but for societies as a whole. |
Contents
Changing Racial Beliefs | 21 |
Internal Responses to Disparities | 44 |
Liberalism and Multiculturalism | 86 |
Race and Cosmic Justice | 107 |
The Past and The Future | 122 |
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abstract academic Achievement affirmative action Africa American Dilemma Asian Americans average IQ behavior Bell Curve black and white black population black students Chicago cosmic justice countries cultural Czechs discrimination disparate impact early twentieth century economic edited Educational Edward Alsworth Ross elite empirical environment equality ethnic groups Eugenics European evidence example fact Flash Mob Franklin Frazier genetic determinism Germans Ghetto Gunnar Myrdal H.L. Mencken higher Ibid immigrants individuals injustices innate institutions intellectuals Intelligence intelligentsia intergroup differences IQ differences IQ tests issues Jensen Jews Journal lagging groups living Madison Grant mental test scores minority multiculturalism nations Negro Northern outcomes particular percent Philadelphia policies potential prevailing Princeton problems Professor Progressive Progressive era promote question race industry racial or ethnic racism Richard skills slavery slaves social society South Southern Theodore Dalrymple Thomas Sowell United University Press vision W.E.B. Du Bois white Americans York