Meritocracy and Its Discontents

Jewish pogrom in Prague, 1744 

We've considered the dangers inherent in a multi-ethnic society.  One of them is a policy that deserves special attention, because it (1) is getting ever more popular, (2) can lead to disastrous outcomes, and (3) has actual merit from a race-realist perspective.  That policy is affirmative action.

We've looked before at its history.  Though unpopular amongst conservatives, there are two plausible arguments that could be made in its favor:

I. Natives should restrict foreign immigrant groups' ability to dominate certain institutions.

II. It is a social good to 'insert' members of lower-perfoming groups into roles where they can feel productive.


Our first argument is one for which there is much evidence, both for and against.

When the Melting Pot Reaches a Boil

'The Face of Tomorrow'

As we have seen, some are hoping fervently for a 'post-racial' West in which we all blend to a mocha color and harmony comes at last.  In such a world, so it's thought, we'll see no more prejudice, exclusion, oppression, micro-aggressions, or 'other-ing.'  There isn't a social problem, it appears, that cannot be righted by us all becoming beige.

But where is the evidence that tossing diverse ethnies in a pot leads to a happy racial purée?  To those who insist it is coming, we at Those Who Can See offer three counter-hypotheses:

(1)  No multi-ethnic society will blend smoothly down to one race.

(2)  Multi-ethnic societies will always breed inequality, and the more disparate the groups, the more inequality there will be.

(3)  The resentments that spring from this can only weaken, not strengthen, society.


For these reasons, we propose that the ideal society is not ethnically diverse, but ethnically homogenous.

*     *     *

The prophets of a Beige Future are everywhere.  Being colored is trendy; being white is bland:

'Ours! ... It was our people!  ... Everywhere you saw nothing but this superb brown color that only the loveliest human beings have... [...]  Personally, I don't want to be Western. I don't want to be a white Catholic; I'd rather be a black atheist.'

--French Socialist MP (and white Catholic) Jean-Luc Melenchon, describing a political rally full of immigrants

'Look at all the beautiful colours the women here are wearing. Within ten years this is what it is going to look like all over Europe. Back home it’s so bleak and dreary, the colours are devoid of life. ...' 

--Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, appreciating the aesthetics of Lagos, Nigeria

We see echoes of the 'exoticism' of 18th and 19th century colonialism, where displaying a Chinese painted screen or an Ashanti mask in your drawing room was a sign of status. Today, appropriating not the possessions but the very identity of these 'exotics' has become à la mode.

La Japonaise (Monet's wife in Japanese costume), 1876

But let us not be fooled:  The light-skinned elite may preach 'marrying out' to the masses, but they avoid it scrupulously among themselves.  At the same time, it is rare that high-status men of color have children as dark as or darker than themselves.

 Black legends and their wives: Music greats Herbie Hancock and James Brown, sports icons Michael Jordan and Pele, acting legends Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones (Courtesy of A Field Negro)

Which leads us to the two great color systems the colonial world has known:  The one-drop rule and the pigmentocracy. Is there evidence that either one can lead to post-racial paradise?
 

The Madonna or the Whore?

A summer day at the Englischer Garten in Munich

Cheerleaders of mass immigration from the South to the North have a number of arguments:

1) They spice up our lives:

'Silly' Midsummer Festival, 'Vibrant' honor killing

'I think that's what makes many Swedes jealous of immigrant groups. You have a culture, an identity, a history, something that brings you together. And what do we have? We have Midsummer's Eve and such silly things.'

---Swedish Social Democrat MP Mona Sahlin, in a speech to the Turkish youth organization Euroturk, March, 2002.

2) They boost our standard of living:

The prosperous, innovative future of England

'Various surveys of [London] employers come to the predictable conclusion that migrants are better employees: they are more highly skilled, work harder and are prepared to do jobs that locals disdain. They may also be more innovative. In America they are disproportionately responsible for tech start-ups; similarly, they are over-represented in Silicon Roundabout, the tech hub east of the City, ... firms set up or managed by migrants are more innovative.'

---The Economist, opinion leader since 1843 for the elite and those who strive to join them

3) Diversity is a religious principle the Gods of Equalitarianism want us to uphold:

This man's hurt feelings are worth more than 13 American lives.

'I'm concerned that this increased speculation could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers ... Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.'

--George W. Casey, highest-ranking general in the U.S. Army, reacting to the Fort Hood army base shooting, in which a Palestinian army major cried 'Allahu Akbar!' while killing 13 and wounding 30.

One of the oddest things about such cheerleaders, especially in Europe, is their avid support of 'women's rights.'  Odd, because the peoples with which they long to fill up their countries share no such notion.  The proof is starting to bubble to the surface.  Besides the honor killings, child marriages, genital mutilation, polygamy, and gender segregation these neo-colonists have brought to the West, they are starting to act out against the native populations.  The results give pause.


I. Foreign Predation in the West


Belgium:

A college student, hoping to raise awareness about street harassment in Brussels, secretly filmed one of her strolls through the capital and unwittingly showed the world that her country's catcalling epidemic is not a man problem but a Muslim one:

'Sexy ass.' 'Tramp.' 'Whore.' 'You turn me on.'  'Let's have a drink...at my place...or in a hotel, directly.'  Without stopping once nor looking anyone in the eye, modestly-dressed student Sophie Peeters fields a barrage of sexual propositions on her afternoon stroll through Brussels.  As the hidden camera shows, every single one clearly comes from the mouth of a foreigner.

Arabs and Liberal Democracy: A Primer

Image source

The Arab Spring, two years on:

‘Violent chaos’: Libya in deep crisis 2 years since rebels took over

Tunisia's Post-Revolution Blues: Stagnation and Stalemate Where the Arab Spring Began 

Massacre in Cairo: Egypt on Brink After Worst Violence Since 2011 Revolution

Since the first waves of revolt swept the Arab world two and a half years ago, we at Those Who Can See have dug into the data to find out just how likely is a series of Swedens on the Sahara.  We have looked at Arabs through observers' anecdotes, democracy and freedom indices, their peculiar marriage practices, and their opinions on Western 'human rights.'

For those who feel the media's handling of the question falls short, we thought it might be useful to present a synthesis of the data we've found so far.  

So: What is the evidence English liberal democracy will take hold in the Muslim Arab world?


First, a regional sum-up, pre-Arab Spring:

OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) member states, in green 

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains the most repressive region in the world—16 out of 20 countries in the region are categorised as authoritarian [most repressive category out of four].

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Whence Afro criminality?

 Image source

[This will be the final of our three-part series in reaction to the 2012-13 Trayvon Martin Affair.]


The country has been in an uproar in the wake of the trial for the shooting of an Afro teenager by Floridian George Zimmerman.  The question being asked by many Blacks is, 'Why are we profiled?'  Having looked at the data,, Those Who Can See concluded: 'You are profiled because Afro crime is very high relative to other groups.'

If such is the case--and we believe the data points in that direction--one may ask, 'Why is Afro crime high relative to other groups?'  Blackness experts have proposed several hypotheses, of which the most popular is:

'The history of slavery and exclusion makes us commit crime.'

As we have seen, the opposite is the case: As slavery and Jim Crow recede further into the past, black crime is increasing, not decreasing.

(Data Source: National prison census data for 1926-1986, 1990, 1995,

2000, 2005, 2010, also 1979 and 1984)

As well, Afros who emigrate to countries that never practiced slavery or colonialism still commit more crimes  than other groups there.

Disproportionate Afro immigrant crime in France, Switzerland,

Australia, London, Canada.

Furthermore, many Sub-Saharan countries are well-known to be dangerous places inside and outside the cities.

The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security reports on Haiti, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Liberia, and Ethiopia.

In addition, other ethnic groups who've suffered oppression, such as Asian-Americans, not only don't commit more crime than Euros--they commit less.

Click for full-sized graphs on Asian life outcomes.

'Oppression makes us criminal' does not seem, then, as an argument, to hold water.

So where do the real causes lie?

Why We Profile

In the outcry following the recent acquittal of Floridian George Zimmerman in the shooting death of an Afro teenager, many in the black community have voiced their displeasure.  Canadian graduate student Matthew Simmermon-Gomes is one: 

What I do know is what it’s like to be a Trayvon Martin. To be suspect. I do know what it’s like to be followed by staff in a nice clothing store; to be stopped by police for walking down the street; to endure the thousand micro-aggressions and the hundred fearful looks, the patronising astonishment coupled with quiet indignation at my education or erudition. I know, in other words, what it is to be a person of colour in a world that privileges whiteness.

While we must take this nearly Euro-looking young man from Ottawa at his word, we are left a bit bemused that despite his 'education' and 'erudition,' he is flatly unaware of basic statistics and probability.

We all live our lives based on probabilities. This gentleman's Afro father, for example, got itchy feet and decided to abandon life in beautiful but tiny Antigua (then under British rule).  Though he had the choice of over thirty Afro-run countries to emigrate to, he opted to take his chances in chilly white-run Canada. Why?  Easy: Statistically speaking, Euro-governed countries provide a better quality of life in nearly every way--rule of law, lack of corruption, solid infrastructure, plentiful white-collar jobs, generous welfare state, a cornucopia of material comforts. Mr Gomes took a chance--and was right.  Can we fault him that?

Antigua or Canada....Decisions, decisions...

We can't speak for Canada, but chance is also the reason U.S. Whites lock their car doors, clutch their purses, and cross the street in the presence of Blacks.  There is a folk knowledge culled from 400 years of disproportionate black crime in North America.  It can be seen in the statistics, in the anecdotes, in the earliest colonial writings.

Statistical probability is the wellspring of stereotypes.  It is what pushes us to avoid snakes, spiders, and scorpions; it is why Swiss clocks, German cars, and Jewish lawyers are so sought after; it is why the global South continually tries to emigrate to the global North.  Past performance is no guarantee of future success, warn the experts, but from our experience, we know it usually is.

So in response to Mr. Matthew Simmermon-Gomes, 'Why are Afros profiled everywhere they go?' is a question that has concrete answers.  Here they are.

We Are Wild Animals; Treat Us As Such

William Heirens, a 1940s Chicago serial murderer, became known as 'the Lipstick Killer' after using it to scrawl on a victim's wall: 'For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more, I cannot control myself.'

 A plea for help

The infamous Zodiac Killer of San Francisco made a similar plea in a 1969 letter to police: 'Please help me, I can not remain in control for much longer.'  We commonly attribute such a sentiment to sociopathy.  But it has now sprung up again in a more unlikely place.

The recent criminal trial around an Afro teen's shooting death by Floridian George Zimmerman has gripped the nation.  The lesson to be drawn, say the pundits, is that young black men are akin to dangerous wildlife:  One cannot approach them, even innocently, without implicitly inviting them to beat one's head into cement.  'If only Zimmerman had stayed in his car,' the chorus sings, 'none of this would have happened.'

Computer animation presented in closing arguments of trial

We are to understand, then, that Afros are telling us, 'We cannot control ourselves.  Approaching us, looking at us, just getting in our space, can push us to spontaneous violence--for which we cannot be held responsible.'  In a word, 'We are wild animals.'

It is a curious line to take, in an advanced society.  The message is that though you may believe yourself in a city of civilized men, you are in fact no different than an Indian villager at constant threat of leopard attacks.  Your life en ville is a sort of urban safari.

In Somnapur Village, it just comes with the territory.

It is as though Black Americans are telling us that in their presence, we should follow the advice given to visitors by car to, for example, Namibia's Etosha National Park:

'Also remember to give a wide berth to elephants and rhinos which may become agressive if they feel threatened. Never get too close, never approach them too fast and never honk the horn. They can both outrun the vehicle if they decide to charge, so better not mess around. But if you are respectful and careful they will see you as part of their surroundings and will behave very peacefully. Warning signs that an elephant is annoyed is the raising and flapping of the ears whilst looking directly at you - retreat slowly and immediately.'

If Afros really want us to treat them this way--as dangerous wildlife--then we can only examine some case studies to see if simple guidelines could indeed change tragic outcomes for non-Afros.