You have to read how Ward Connerly responded to those who attacked him after he stated “segregation need not be racist.” Thanks to Joanne Jacobs-you should check out her blog, lots of interesting pieces.

/. has an article/thread on grade inflation up.

Joanne Jacobs talks about an interesting study that indicates that black families of the same wealth as white families had kids with the same SAT scores. In sharp contrast, it has been long known that income != high SATs for middle-class black communities [1]. [1] != is “does not equal”

Dancing with Dogs has an interesting post about Asian-American activist follies and foolishness. I have a long rant railing against them on the message board. (those who have an aversion to miscegenation need not read….) Posted by razib at 02:14 AM

The La Times reports that the Cal State system is kicking out kids that can’t pass remedial Math & English. Check this: …The most common problem is critical reading skills, and Cal State officials attribute that partly to the large number of students from immigrant households in which English is not the primary language. …. […]

There is a cuteness competition over at TV GUIDE ONLINE on their You Sexy Thing feature. One of the girls is eligible for underrepresented minority scholarships and is a fast rising starlet of color, while the other is a typical “all-american” of oppressor stock. On your left, Alexis Bledel of Gilmore Girls, half Argentine-American & […]

They might start weighing people because of crash risks from underestimating the mass of the average American. Posted by razib at 07:20 PM

Rioting in Ivory Coast because the French brokered peace. What more can I say? The Arabs are clever enough to be dangerous to the rest of us, but the Africans, alas, only they need fear their fever dreams and hauntings. France is the last of Africa’s Romes. Will an Arthur arise when the legions leave […]

Please make sure to scroll down and read the next entry on genes & IQ if you haven’t! Ruben Narvarette is angry at what he sees as liberal racism. He notes: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had appeared on the show moments before Mr. Lieberman. Asked her view of affirmative action, Dr. Rice said she […]

From the journal Cell (one of the holy Trinity of journals…at least to biologists), we have the following article on the BDNF gene (subscription required). A juicy excerpt for our crew of bloggers: “Our results also speak to a current debate about the genetics of human intelligence. Specific cognitive abilities are partially correlated, and the […]

Go read Randall Parker’s excellent post on cloning. Posted by razib at 03:23 PM

Lee Kwan Yew’s racial views fully explored. Lee, the elder statesmen of Singapore and formerly Harry Lee, is of “Baba Chinese” extraction [Some further digging by me indicates his mother is part Baba, while his father’s family came too late to the Straits to be considered Baba and is as Jason pointed out more properly […]

How many euphemisms for “fat” can you spot in this article on “young and chubby” chicks? “chubby,” “curvy,” “zaftig,” “healthfully big,” “rounded feminine beauty ideal,””larger feminine form,” “full-figured,” “voluptuous,” “natural body type.” Ok. Reality check. Five-foot-five and 200 pounds is FAT. You’re not a “natural body type;” you’re not just big-boned. You’re FAT. One girl […]

This LA TIMES article (free registration) asks the “nature vs. nature” question about singer Norah Jones (she had to learn playing the piano and wasn’t any prodigy, but has never had singing lessons). Heterosis perhaps? Posted by razib at 11:06 PM

Anthropologist Henry Harpending e-mails me the following: Mitochondrial DNA paints an extreme picture of greater African diversity. It is just one locus and hence expected to be unreliable. Large collections of repeat polymorphisms show that there is a diversity cline away from Africa so that Japanese are about 15% less diverse than Africans, Amerindians maybe […]

[finally I’m commencing my multi-part series on liberalism and various world cultures. I am starting with the possible Christian origins of liberalism, but will eventually venture toward the topic of Islam and the future liberalism that might grow out of Confucian values in China. From now on, I will use liberal in the broad-sense mode. […]

Nick Kristoff, my fellow Imblerian, has a vapid and shallow article on affirmative action up: It also made sense to accept me over a more qualified applicant from Bronx Science: It’s good for colleges to have hicks from the sticks, to tease city slickers and coach them on the differences between a gilt, a barrow […]

Dave Chapelle debuted with his sketch comedy series on Comedy Central tonight. There was a really funny sketch where he broke a lot of taboos, using the work “nigger” many, many times-even uttered by the guy (white) who is a narrator for Frontline. The context is a documentry about a white supremacist author who turns […]

VDare had a great piece the other day on the image of Martin Luther King. In Gottfried’s view, the MLK has become the new redemptive martyr for secularized Christians. As for claiming that life wasn’t so bad under segregation, I’m skeptical. But here’s a great quote from Brimelow’s introduction: “I don’t think King can bear […]

Some call all who speculate on the interplay of our biological heritage and social policy “racist” (even one as benign as E. O. Wilson was so accused). I now want to add another word to the lexicon-something that we realists can throw back at the tabula rasa utopians-rasist. And the dogmatic-and social harmful adherence to-belief […]