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Race-Stalking The Wild Taboo Analysis

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There is much to be discovered about race, whether it be through genetics, sociology, biology or history, there is a lot to be understood and recognize how it is structurally embedded in our institutions. In the article “Race- Stalking The Wild Taboo” written by Richard Spencer, there are very interesting points that are made in regards to his belief that Race is genetic and all around biology which, in turn, leads to social inequality. Spencer claims that because of evolution and genetics, social inequality is no one’s fault but their own because of low SAT and IQ scores compared to others but ignores that those results come from a long line of institutional racism from schooling and neighborhoods. David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, …show more content…

Whether it be because of illness, home environment and home resources, or access to early education, there is a strong indication that SES affects IQ and testing scores in school. According to the American Psychological Association, “...low SES in childhood is related to poor cognitive development, language, memory, socioemotional processing, and consequently poor income and health in adulthood.” (2018) Because of low SES, the government then allocates fewer funds to the schools in the area and have an increased dropout rate and lower test scores. In Spencer’s essay, he takes many of his points from the controversial book The Bell Curve written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. “...American schools are only failing to negate millions of years of human evolution.”(Spencer 2017) Spencer writes in his article that these IQ score differences are biologically based rather than SES based. Even at same amounts of family income, it was recorded that African American children still scored lower in their SAT scores compared to white children. What Spencer does not mention or leaves out, is that this is cumulative from all schools and districts. In inner-city schools, there is a very high ratio African American students and other minorities versus the white population which is around 20%. (Greene and Peterson 1998) These inner city schools low funding and resources which would mean lower SAT scores compared to another school with better funding. Spencer leaves out the fact that many African Americans live in inner-city areas because of past red lining and no matter their SES, they may be stuck in an area where their child goes to a lesser-funded inner-city

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