File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1997/marxism-thaxis.9706, message 81


Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 12:49:18 -0600
From: Christopher Gunn <1k1mgm-AT-KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU>
Subject: Re: M-TH: D'Souza Can Kiss My Brown Ass


djones-AT-uclink.berkeley.edu (rakesh bhandari) writes:

>[....] Well, it turns out that blacks are even more socio-economically
>disadvantaged if we take wealth as the measure of socio-economic status.
>
>[....] Now add the daily assault of racism, which includes the national
>puzzlement
>over that fucking standard deviation, and the only surprise is that the gap
>is as small as it is.
>
>[....] In my opinion, there is no reason to turn to the dubious and seemingly
>idealist caste interpretation of black inferiority to explain this
>so-called IQ gap as Claude Fisher, et al. do in Inequality By Design:
>Cracking the Bell Curve Myth (Princeton, 1996). The real puzzle remains the
>black culture of overachievement.

I haven't read the Fisher book you mention, but  I'll agree that some
explanations of black/white differences try to walk a narrow line
just this side of "culture of poverty" explanations.  I was wondering
what people thought about Claude Steele's hypothesis that minority
differences on test results (and by implication gender and class
differences, too) were the consequence of an agentic decision to
embrace negative stereotypes as a strategy to preserve self-esteem
(e.g., to say, 'Since they're going to treat me like a fuck-up, *I'll*
show 'em fuck-up all right').  Steele had a long review article on
the subject, "A Threat in the Air:  How Stereotypes Shape Intellectual
Identity and Performance," _American Psychologist_ Vol, 52, No. 6,
June 1997, p. 613.  I haven't looked at it closely but have skimmed
some of his other stuff and have been trying to figure out whether I
buy it or not.

Christopher Gunn                Molecular Graphics and Modeling Laboratory
1k1mgm-AT-kuhub.cc.ukans.edu       University of Kansas
Phone: 913-864-4428 or -4495    Malott Hall
                                Lawrence, KS  66045




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