John Derbyshire had some thoughtful comments on this issue several years ago.

http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire091702.asp

Hmm… so then Sagittarius A-star (A*) is the largest African-Amerian Hole in the Milky Way?

US Catholic Bishops are dragging out approval of new translations hoping, I think, that a new Pope will let them do what they want. Part of the argument is the new translations use big words people wouldn’t understand. Bishop Donald Trautman says John and Mary Catholic are too stupid and ignorant to understand what ineffable means. Of course they could ask or look it up but these Bishops want to keep dumbing down the faith. It is insulting and condescending.

The 3 synoptic Gospels use the term fruit of the vine. How much simpler to say wine.

It’s no wonder the Mike Judge’s movie Idiocracy was suppressed. It is too close to the mark for the ignorant masses, black, white, gay, or college educated.

Snigger… yes yes

Problem is those ignorant kids are now in positions of power and, unortunately, money. And it hasn’t improved them a bit. Still proud of being undeducated, uncultured, and knowing as little as possible. Self-esteem above else, right?

Marcus shouldn’t be so sure about what black public officials know. According to The Bell Curve (P. 321-322, 488-492), a 1990 study found that whites in professional jobs have an IQ of 114 while their black counterparts one of 94, putting them well below the white average.

This kind of paranoia about color words is pretty mainstream. I once had a teacher say “white lie.” A black girl raised her hand and made one point and then another about how she learned in some class that the term says something about our society. In the same class I also once brought up race and intelligence and she confronted me outside the room. “Hey, what did you mean by that study?” she asked. I smiled and replied that the teacher was making the case that racial differences in school achievement were due to environmental causes and I was making the counter argument. She just looked at me for a few seconds and I then walked away.

http://thenewfaith.org/2008/07/10/what-blacks-know/

Their evidence [Bell Curve] comes from an analysis of data compiled in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY), a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics tracking thousands of Americans starting in the 1980s. All participants in the NLSY took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), a battery of ten tests taken by all who apply for entry into the armed services. Four of those tests comprise the **[AFQT] Armed Forces Qualification Test, a measure of cognitive ability comparable to an **IQ test (Some had taken an IQ test in high school, and the median correlation of the AFQT and those tests was .81, which is high.) Participants were later evaluated for social and economic outcomes. In general, IQ/AFQT scores were a better predictor of life outcomes than social class background. <bold>Similarly, after statistically controlling for differences in IQ, many outcome differences between racial-ethnic groups disappeared.</bold>

William J. Matthews writes that part of The Bell Curve’s analysis is based on the **AFQT “which is not an IQ test but designed to predict performance of certain criterion variables”.[14] Nobel Prize in Economics winner James J. Heckman observed that the **AQFT was designed only to predict success in military training schools and that most of these tests appear to be achievement tests rather than ability tests, measuring factual knowledge and not pure ability.

Anyway, I agree with Marcus here, the term ‘black hole’ has nothing to do with pigment.

I was buying a new TV recently, and decided I wanted one of those new LCD ones. I went to a local store and asked what I should look for in an LCD TV. The clearly racist sales person told me that it’s important to see how well it displays blacks! I was outraged!!!

I think these people’s ignorance and stupidity should be mocked.  I think they should be called stupid, rude, and obnoxious to their face, in public, anywhere and everywhere.  Whites are simply too polite for their own good and must stand up for themselves when they’re dealing with an evil enemy bent on his subordination.

The thing is John Wiley Price is not stupid and he knows what a black hole is and what was meant by the term. Mocking him would be doing just what he wants you to do.

Nobody gonna say it? Really? Nobody gonna make a black ‘hole joke? Nobody going call Jesse Jackson a black ‘hole? Really? Taki? TAKI!?

He wants us all to shut up and submit.  These black power types are not hoping for overcommitment or other game theoretic subtleties.  We’re talking about thugs at heart.

“Commissioner Defends Position That ‘Black Hole’ Is Racist Term”

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2008/07/commissioner_de.php

“The thing is John Wiley Price is not stupid and he knows what a black hole is and what was meant by the term. Mocking him would be doing just what he wants you to do. “

No, to underestimate the stupidity of blacks, even ones with college degrees, is a mistake. Here’s the story and video of some “debating champions” who won their title by ignoring the rules and singing and dancing.

http://thenewfaith.org/2008/06/26/theyre-insane-not-us/

With this kind of official and unofficial affirmative action going on every day it’s easy to see how blacks in such high places can be so stupid.  As a matter of fact, watch Cornel West and then remind yourself that this man is a professor at the most prestigious college in the world.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fjifj_PZONo

No, to underestimate the stupidity of blacks, even ones with college degrees, is a mistake. -Dmytro

I have several good friends who are ‘black’. I think its erroneus to place people into groups, profile them as a whole, into a narrow band.

We hired a man to work with us, who was black, and because I engage people as people he eventually told me that ‘white’ people werent like he thought. I asked what he meant and he thought we sat around and conspired against black people. I know white people that think the same thing about blacks. With this kind of thinking on both sides, if you will, it causes problems, totally unwarranted friction. Roach, who is apparently an intelligent person, also sometimes thinks just like this guy we hired did.

A liberal I know walked into an appliance store. He noticed immediately that all the washing machines were of one uniform color, namely white. Indignantly, he turned to a salesperson and demanded to know the reason for this monochromatic lack of diversity, which obviously promotes a racist climate of privilege in laundry rooms all across America. “Indeed, sir, all of the washing machines we sell ARE white,” said the contrite salesman. The latter then immediately regained his composure and stammered in self-defense, “BUT ALL OF THE AGITATORS ARE BLACK.”

I want to go on record now that I resent the name “Tighty Whitey “ for those damnable Jockey underwear.
Whoever wears them is a blackguard.

Thats funny Gne and Dirk, I appreciate a good sense of humour, after all God thought it was funny to make you have different pigments.

Heh.

I will open your eyes by closing them.

Group versus individual behavior should always factor into discussions about these things. Question of the day: Is “racism” natural? And if so, are we beating our heads against a wall by trying, as a society, to “eliminate” it?

“I was buying a new TV recently, and decided I wanted one of those new LCD ones. I went to a local store and asked what I should look for in an LCD TV. The clearly racist sales person told me that it’s important to see how well it displays blacks! I was outraged!!!”

I wonder if it is possible to purchase a TV that edits out black ,people?

“I asked what he meant and he thought we sat around and conspired against black people. I know white people that think the same thing about blacks.”

Really? We do? I doubt that. I don’t think “average” white people are obsessed by race at all. It’s unhealthy. Just look at the lives and social systems of those so afflicted. Tsk, tsk… dreadful…

And the really ironic (but not surprising) thing is that there’s apparently a video clip on the web now showing this Commissioner Price explaining that the term “jew out” is just a normal synonym for “bargain down.”

Would it make everybody happier if astronomers just started referring to “African American holes”?

Your point is well taken, Mr. Epstein. We don’t need a Correct Speech Police.

Still words and phrases change meaning all the time, because they bring evolving associations to their users’ minds. And they mean different things to different people. For instance “Jew’s harp” originally had nothing to do with Jews, but with the jaw.

Linguists deny that there is an intrinsically correct meaning to any word. It’s a matter of definition and convention.

At a certain level of sophistication, there appears to be a kind of mystical or magical linkage between words and facts that defies any rigorous scientific evaluation. I wouldn’t be too quick to assume some kind of mischief is afoot. It seems reasonable to assume that the feelings expressed are real. I’ve had the recent experience of a friendly discussion with a retired engineer from a major company who had a master’s degree in software engineering. He was no dummy, but in the conversation about volunteer service clubs, I casually mentioned that one problem with volunteer clubs is that some members, for whatever reasons, tend to attack other members which cannibalizes the club. He flinched so quickly and so massively that I realized it hit a nerve. Needless to say, I didn’t apologize nor did he say anything, but the response was so overwhelming in body language that it had to be an operation of mental or psychological contents outside the portion of the mind subject to consciousness. It would be terrible to live that way. Imagine the hundreds of thousands of words that could get linked to this fear.

@ Jet

“Some had taken an IQ test in high school, and the median correlation of the AFQT and those tests was .81, which is high.”

“Similarly, after statistically controlling for differences in IQ, many outcome differences between racial-ethnic groups disappeared.”

“Nobel Prize in Economics winner James J. Heckman observed that the AQFT was designed only to predict success in military training schools and that most of these tests appear to be achievement tests rather than ability tests, measuring factual knowledge and not pure ability.”

Your post seems confused. The third quote above suggests that that the AFQT is not an IQ test, but the first quote shows that it is an excellent substitute (with a high correlation of .81)

And why the bolding of the second quote? That quote indicates that the key to explaining why whites do better than blacks at things like school or earning money is IQ.

No no, the truly ironic thing is that in his reaction to a profoundly idiotic instance of
political correctness, Epstein ends his post with a racist parting shot.

Why would grown men be watching “homeboys from outerspace”? Because it had black people in it?

That’s like saying Epstein only watches Kung Fu films because he’s Asian.