The ancient insistence on black intellectual inferiority, and thus black sub-humanity, is getting a new coat of paint from "race scientists." It's just a new gloss on the same old racist jalopy.

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Charles Murray of "The Bell Curve" fame, and "new atheist" turned Muslim-basher, Sam Harris, have leapt to the defense of the racist concept of innate, hereditary, and immutable African-American intellectual inferiority. They claim that the science on this is settled (the opposite is true ) and that any argument against their ideas is pure political correctness and "identity politics." Ironic, because it is they who indulge in the oldest form of identity politics--white identity politics.

Throughout history, arguments for black intellectual inferiority have been code for the presumption of black sub-humanity. Such arguments free those with racist white identities to regard every black body with contempt and treat it accordingly. It frees the American past from the stench of its racist crimes by convincing believers that blacks deserved no better than enslavement, apartheid, and state-sanctioned contempt.

There is plenty of convincing work crushing the notion that we can make any scientifically valid determination about what portion of intelligence is hereditary versus environmental, much less break that down by vague racial categories (is someone with 50% Sub-Saharan African DNA "black," what about 40%, or 30?).

What's more interesting is the 'race scientists' reliance on the three ancient pillars of white identity politics. The first pillar is denial of the toxicity of America's racist past. The second is pseudo-science to justify that same toxicity. These work in service of the third, the steadfast belief in a history of white American purity.

In a debate with Vox Editor Ezra Klein on the validity of science-based justifications for the racist insistence on black inferiority, Harris spends the debate negating the relevance of America's history of state-sanctioned and popularly supported racism--on both blacks and whites. During the conversation, Klein accuses Harris of having a "conversation [about race] without dealing with and separating it out and thinking through the context and weight of American history on it."

In reply, Harris baldly states, "The weight of American history is completely irrelevant"" To Harris, a history of enslavement, segregation and state-sanctioned discrimination has not touched African Americans, and a history of institutional insistence on black inferiority has not touched whites.

Similarly, Murray claimed that by the 1970s, a mere 10 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, all of the negatives of America's 188 years of state-sanctioned violence and discrimination against African Americans had been corrected for. That means that blacks in America endured 188 years of terrorism, substandard housing, education and healthcare, lack of financial opportunity, and generations of personal humiliation, but all vestiges of that 188 years had disappeared within the next ten.

Later, Klein asks if Harris agrees with the following statement:

[blockquote] I say that the belief that African-Americans are genetically less intelligent than whites, and then also inferior in other ways" is our oldest, most ancient justification for racial inequality and bigotry. Do you disagree with that? [/blockquote]

Harris replies, "In a sense you're wrong. I agree with the spirit of it. I think you could say the Bible is just as much of a justification." Harris feebly obfuscates to avoid a simple truth. Why? Because white innocence has always been a pillar of white identity politics.

Klein identifies this during his debate with Harris. He argues that by claiming immutable black intellectual inferiority, Harris is saying, "This is not on us, white America, or America broadly, and we don't have to" feel so bad."

The white innocence central to white identity demands a denial of America's racist history. Self-styled intellectuals with some knowledge of that history may find it difficult to wholly dismiss it. So, to hedge their bets, they produce pseudo-scientific justifications for that race hatred. The end result is the same" 'This is not on us, white America"'

Scholars like Noel Ignatiev in "How the Irish Became White" and Theodore Allen in "The Invention of the White Race," have connected the emergence of "whiteness" to the privileges of freedom. Whiteness was invented as the badge that distinguished the select--the white--from the despised--the black. It distinguished one group from those that same group wished to enslave. Active white identity had toxic beginnings and has been used throughout American history to further toxic, racist ends. Men like Harris and Murray are simply updating an age-old tradition of white identity politics. Unfortunately, they both think too highly of themselves to admit it.

Authors Website: http://www.leoncegaiter.com

Authors Bio:

Leonce Gaiter's literary thriller, "In the Company of Educated Men," was published by Astor + Blue Editions in 2014. His historical novel, "I Dreamt I Was in Heaven - The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang" was published September 2011. His nonfiction has appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and in national syndication. His thriller "Bourbon Street" was published by Carroll & Graf and is currently available in ebook formats.