Race in the US - or "Exactly how fucked up ARE we?"

Tom Tomorrow does a great cartoon on racism in America. (Yeah, you'll have to click through a multi-part ad to read the entire cartoon - deal with it). And proving his point over on Washington Times way, we have this insightful rant by Fred Reed:

As a matter of logic, blacks either (a) are, or (b) are not, as intelligent as whites. For evident reasons, though not necessarily good reasons, people evade the question in public speech. But this is like not telling the doctor about the lump growing somewhere on one's person: current ease of mind exacts the price of later disaster.

The measured disparity in measured IQ between the races is about fifteen points. If the inequality accurately reflects a real difference in intellectual ability, the consequences will be enormous, for reasons growing out of the overlap of bell-shaped curves. The mathematics is not easily conveyed in a newspaper column. For the moment, suffice it to say that, if the fifteen-point difference means what it purports to mean, blacks, short of a miracle of genetic re-engineering, will be forever excluded from the higher intellectual reaches of a techno-industrial society.

And notice, the possibility that blacks are MORE intelligent than whites never enters as a logical possibility. I mean, of course, right?

And this remains ever-pertinent here at Reed, because, well this:

The editors of Reed College's student newspaper were asked to step down when a parody based on the popular website Hotornot.com misfired, drawing charges of racism. "Academic or not?" a full-page spread in the Feb. 6 issue of The Quest posed questions about the teaching style and academic leanings of five professors.
"We thought it would prompt debate and that it was readily obvious as being a satire," says Quest co-editor Jesse Hoffman.

The flap centers on the satire of Pancho Savery, English department chair and one of several professors teaching the required freshman course Humanities 110. Hoffman says Savery, who is African-American, is known for criticizing the humanities curriculum and fellow Reed faculty for failing to credit ancient Egyptians and Africans as the predecessors to Greek and Roman civilization.

----snip-------

The Quest satire asked readers to vote on whether Savery is an "Incendiary afrocentrist with alarmist concerns? Enlightened intellectual with informed opinions?"

That whole comment that it was designed to prompt debate is bullshit. I saw the page in question (hell, it was posted angrily all over campus) and all it was was a stupid joke, conceived in very bad taste, and blatantly unfair to the various profs that were parodied. I wasn't quite as outraged as many on campus, but I could see where they were coming from.

And Jesse Hoffman and his co-editor have formally resigned, just for your knowledge.

I suppose here is where I'm supposed to offer my insightful commentary that links all this together, but I really don't have anything. Plus I have work to do. I guess we're just fucked.

That is, unless Trogdor comes to the rescue!

Burninate it all!