Review of The War on Whites.

20231007

I am posting this here as a trial balloon. I suspect Amazon would find something wrong with it - especially my last paragraph. I’ll reflect on it a while and then tone it down for their use. I do want something to appear.

I wrote that they simply slow-rolled my review of Celia Farber’s Serious Adverse Events, never posting it. Six months later I tried again and got a “community standards” message. Anyhow, here’s the review of The War on Whites.

We don’t need a moral argument against either race.  The chief factor is beyond our control.  

Ed Brodow's simple, obvious solution to the race problem is that Blacks should take responsibility for their lives. Stop playing the victim, stop blaming whites, and get to work.  Brodow suggests that blacks could do better if they were not morally deficient.  Blacks contend that whites immorally hold them back through invisible racism and other mechanisms. It is a moral argument either way. 

Brodow should note that blacks themselves have been making his arguments throughout America's history. Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois felt that once the Blacks achieved legal equality with whites, they could solve their own problems. All that they needed was the opportunity – they would take it from there.  In the half century they have had that opportunity things have only gotten worse.  We need to reexamine our assumptions.

In pointing to successful black people in today's American society, Brodow sells them short.  He constantly references the same short list of Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Bob Woodson, Candace Owens, and Larry Elder. He quotes author John McWhorter as well as Steele.  He should include Clarence Thomas, Tom Bradley, Alan Keyes and others.  He should talk about the above historical black writers, as well as others like George Washington Carver, Benjamin Banneker, Paul Robeson, Ralph Ellison, Ralph Bunche, Edward Brooke, Robert L. Johnson, George E. Johnson and Matthew Henson.  There are modern blacks such as Joseph Graves and Neil deGrasse Tyson, on the woke side of things but nonetheless accomplished.  American history is rich with successful blacks. 

Evolution

The words "Darwin," "evolution," and "genetic" cannot be found in this book. Human beings are of course the product of evolution. Since evolution occurs in response to changes in the environment, and man has been changing his own environment at an incredible pace, ours has been the most rapid evolution in biological history.

Britannica sets the origin of Homo sapiens at 315,000 years ago. Linguists such as Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, Robbins Burling, Philip Lieberman and John McWhorter, cited above by Brodow, when forced to choose the best approximation of a date for the emergence of human speech, put it at about 150,000 years ago.  Speech, the signal difference between us and other animals, has evolved rapidly.  Language is one of the three primary domains measured by Intelligence researchers, the other two being mathematical and spatial relationships. 

70,000 years ago Homo sapiens' population split, with the ancestors of Europeans and Asians migrating north.  The significant observed differences in physiognomy and temperament among the earth's inhabitants thus evolved in only a few tens of thousands of years.  Not surprisingly, though few researchers in today's woke climate are willing to write about it, intelligence evolved with similar rapidity.  Those who do address the issue include  Richard Lynn, Helmuth Nyforth, Nicholas Wade, Ed Dutton, and Arthur Jensen.  Intelligence researchers such as Richard Lynn and Philippe Rushton find significant differences in average intelligence and temperament among modern populations.

Researchers agree that the bell curve distribution of intelligence within any given population is broader than the distribution among the averages of intelligence among world populations.  There are smart people within every population.  Nonetheless, Lynn's finding that average intelligence among national populations ranges from 60 to 110 or more is very significant. 

Peoples whose environment of evolutionary adaptedness demanded a high level of cooperation were pressured to develop stronger language and social skills.  Those with the highest endowments of such skills were most successful and had the most surviving children.  Such abilities thus spread through the population.  The same with mastery of arithmetic. 

Despite the fact that science has no standardized measurements for temperament, there is widespread agreement with regard to certain population characterizations, based on the generally agreed five dimensions of personality: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.  The traits that evolved to make a great hunter were different from those of a farmer or tradesman.

Brodow is wrong to assume that the average success of individuals all groups could be equal if they would just apply themselves.  While it is probably true that any of us could achieve more than we do, some clearly evolved to have more potential than others.  Nobody finds it odd that Asians and Jews in America enjoy more success than people of European extraction.  With regard to blacks, Jefferson, Alexander de Tocqueville and Lincoln recognized the conundrum as America's tragedy two centuries ago.  There is no easy solution.

Here are brief notes on Brodow's chapters,  

Chapter One The Inquisition Against White People

Brodow is both right and wrong in his opening paragraph: "With the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, whites made it possible for blacks and other minorities to become full partners in the American Dream. 'White power' was unchallenged up to that time — yet willingly, unilaterally, they relinquished it. No one forced them to do these things."

It is true that no one forced whites to do those things.  On the other hand, as the nation's founders had known, the blacks by and large lacked the genetic endowments that would have allowed them to become full partners in the American Dream.  The civil rights movement only exacerbated the problem.  Since their plight could no longer be blamed on external factors, blacks were forced to reckon with their innate shortcomings.  Unwilling to see their own deficiencies, they redoubled efforts to blame whites.

Hence the "Inquisition" in the chapter title.  Not only blacks, but most whites are unable to accept the inequalities that were evident to the nation's founders.  John Adams wrote “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  Brodow, like the liberals he despises, is guilty of ignoring the evidence.

Brodow writes "At this point, I should describe the concept known as disparate impact. Disparate impact occurs when an action adversely affects one group of people more than another. Blacks make up approximately 12 percent of the national population. If the arrest rate of blacks exceeds 12 percent, or black prison population exceeds 12 percent, blacks are said to be disparately impacted. In those instances, the Left would argue that it is the fault of racist criminal enforcement." 

Since the races are different, we should expect any laws and policies to have disparate impact.  Those who choose to ignore innate, genetic differences can only attribute the outcomes to moral failings, whether white malevolence or black sloth and irresponsibility.  Some moral failings there may be, but the other differences have long been known and are significant.

Here are two more quotes from Brodow: "Minority special interest groups are using the banners of equity, diversity, and social justice as a power grab."  " Supporters of the social justice movement are not seeking justice, they are seeking control."  He is absolutely right.  Like all humans, blacks use the strengths they enjoy to get what they can.  We should not be surprised.  However, Brodow overestimates the alternatives open to the less capable among them.  Whether in America, Europe or South Africa, when a person doesn't have the wit to do much else , taking what you can from whitey makes sense.

Chapter Two The Myth of Systemic Racism

If a person chooses not to believe that peoples are different, what are they to believe?  A mythical "systematic racism" is as good as anything.

Brodow confines his discussion to the United States.  He should note that black behavior is the same throughout the world - the Caribbean, Central America, Brazil, Europe, and of course Africa itself. As an ex-marine he should have noted that black soldiers, whether with the French Army, US military or African peacekeeping organizations, have the same reputation wherever they go.  When exposed to black soldiers from abroad, Germans, Vietnamese and Japanese all develop similar opinions.

Chapter Three Identity Politics Encourages Hatred of Whites

Contending that America needs to make full use of the talent of its citizens, Brodow says that China and Russia are meritocracies.  This is only somewhat true.  A person has to be of the right ethnicity and political persuasion to succeed.  These countries also handicap themselves, albeit in different ways.

Equity is the modern notion that denies differences among peoples and asserts that  all citizens should enjoy equal outcomes, not just equal opportunities.  Brandow writes "Equity brings with it two dubious travel companions: critical race theory and cancel culture."  This is absolutely true.  A philosophy built on untruths cannot tolerate truth-tellers.  He adds "Critical race theory categorizes you as either oppressor or oppressed based on your race, gender, or sexual orientation," which likewise cannot stand up to critical examination.

Chapter Four Complicity of the Educational System

American schoolchildren are brainwashed with social justice messages.  White kids are made to feel bad about themselves.  Black kids are exempted from the need to produce "correct" answers.

Chapter Five Anti-White Ideologies

In looking at recent books by Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi, Brodow finds no real substance, just attitude.  He repeats two quotes from Amazon:

“How this witless dross made it to the New York Times bestseller list is not a mystery. It’s a sign of the times. As a culture, I sincerely hope we can overcome the mind-numbing groupthink that continues to enable this kind of wishy-washy mentality.”

“The author is a ‘diarrhea of words with a constipation of ideas.’ If you try to read his book, have a mountain of toilet paper available for your use.”

Chapter Six Biden’s Anti-White Presidency

Brodow contends that Biden, the political opportunist, supported the Klan in his early career and in its twilight is destroying white America. 

Chapter Seven How the War on Whites Hurts Black People

Blaming white people absolves blacks of the responsibility to make the most of whatever talent they have.  Many of them, including those that Brodow repeatedly cites, overcame whatever obstacles were in their paths.  Clarence Thomas' autobiography "My Grandfather's Son" is a stirring testimony.  Blacks were happier with their lot when they earned what they got instead of having it given to them through government programs.

Conclusion

That's the review.  Brodow commits the same fundamental error as those he opposes.  He fails to recognize that people evolved to be different.  We are different, both within and between races.  Unless we stop dealing with classes of people as defined by Marxists and return to recognizing people as individuals, we can never put things right.

This is a four-star book.  Brodow presents a lot of useful facts, but he overlooks the most important point.  Just as a mathematician who leaves out a key variable cannot solve his problem, unless we once again admit to truths that were evident to our grandparents, and have since been rigorously demonstrated by both social scientists and biologists, we are doomed to perpetual failure.

Robin DiAngelo was praised for writing "People of color need to get away from white people.”  Scott Adams was crucified for writing "White people should 'get the hell away’ from blacks.'  Unless both sides can come to grips with reality, that sad prescription may be the best solution.