It is widely assumed by high-IQ whites that a scientific finding of a genetic contribution to the racial gaps in IQ would be catastrophically shattering to black self-esteem.
First, one thing to keep in mind is that there are about 7 million African-Americans with higher IQs than the average white American.
Second, back in the late 20th century, low self-esteem was seen as the magic bullet that explained all social ills. A couple of recent articles (one in New York magazine, one in The Guardian) have looked back on how the self-esteem craze was launched almost single-handedly by a California Democratic state legislator named John Vasconcelos.
Raising self-esteem as the panacea for all social problems was popular in part because it seemed to explain poor black performance: They simply lacked self-esteem.
But eventually it started to dawn upon researchers that low self-esteem could hardly explain black troubles, as seen in this headline in The Guardian in 2000:
Black teens score high in self-esteem: US study confounds anti-racism activists
In general, blacks seem to be pretty pleased with themselves for reasons that they find highly persuasive. Would this really change?
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