Biological Determinism and Conservative Bigotry

If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. - Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

There are certain racist ideas which bubble up from time to time as a new generation of right-wing bigots come to the forefront. I received this comment from a self-described conservative:

Glen Filthie said...

The average black IQ is 85. Mohammed Ali had an IQ of 79 which psychologists consider to be mild mental retardation.

As a conservative and a race-realist...I know there are exceptions to the rule - but they ARE the exception.

For the record I wish that you were right and I was wrong, but the facts are what they are.

MARCH 5, 2016 AT 7:56 AM 

This "argument" is based on what can be called Biological Determinism, an odious theory used by those entrenched in positions of power or authority to support the established order and to buttress the injustices done to those deemed "inferior". The latest most famous repackaging of this ancient ignorance came from Faux News and right-wing idol Charles Murray in The Bell Curve (1994). But, it can also be found in the movie Idiocracy (2005), and the warped applications of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. SCOTUS Buck v. Bell (1927), the infamous "Three generations of imbeciles are enough."

Now, modern day conservatives who become incensed at charges of racism, respond with the scientific "facts" of Murray's bullshit in The Bell Curve. Even as a politically conflicted youth I knew the idea that intelligence was an innate unchangeable feature, allowing for the rare intelligent members (as Glen Filthie wrote "there are exception to the rule"), was at best wrong and at worst a disingenious attempt to justify evil institutional racism.

Thus, I found Stephen Jay Gould's 1996 reissue of The Mismeasure of Man (originally published 1981). Gould's book contained the refutation of Murray and Herrnstein's racist BS as well as an accurate hypothesis for why the Biological Determinist theory was back to the forefront in the mid-1990's.

As Gould wrote,

The remarkable impact of The Bell Curve must therefore, and once again always, be recording a swing of the political pendulum to a sad position that requires a rationale for affirming social inequalities as dictates of biology. (Pg. 31) All quoted passages are from the 1996 edition.

And

Should anyone be surprised that publication of The Bell Curve coincided exactly with the election of Newt Gingrich's Congress, and with the new age of social meanness unprecedented in the my lifetime? Slash every program of social services for people in fenuine need; terminate support for the arts (but don't cut a dime, heaven forfend, for the military); balance the budget and provide tax relief for the wealthy.

Of course, since the Republican Contract on America, we have witnessed even worse attacks on the Social Safety Net including the rise of the LET THEM DIE Tea Party, Paul90X Ryan's Path to Penury, and W(orst POTUS Ever) attempts at stealing Social Security.

But, with the social media/internet age, the election of President Barack Obama, and the campaign of carnival barker Donald Trump the relentless right-wing march back to out loud bigotry and rampant racism that Nixon and Lee Atwater advised the Republican Party to abandon with the Southern Strategy in order to win elections has emerged stronger than ever.

This culmination of this re-embrace of racism has been evident with the right-wingers reaction to every killing of unarmed African-Americans (unqualified support) and the invocation of Chicago gang/gun crime.

For instance compare the comments of Darren Wilson after he killed Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri (2014),

Wilson told the story of three minutes of hot confusion, shattered glass, a misfired gun, fear and a look of anger that came across Brown’s face that Wilson said made him "When I grabbed him, the only way I can describe it is I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan... He looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked. He comes back towards me again with his hands up. He was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I’m shooting him,"

And this account as quoted by Joseph-Arthur, comte de Gobineau,

On the supposed stocism of blacks in the face of pain, for example, Gobineau cites the testimony of a doctor: "They bear surgical operations much better than white people, and what would be the cause of insupportable pain to a white man, a negro would almost disregard. I have amputated the legs of many negroes, who have held the upper part of the limb themselves." Any white man would be praised for bravery, courage, and nobility, but Gobineau attributes this supposed toleration of pain by blacks to "a moral cowardice which readily seeks refuge in death, or a sort of monstrous impassivity." (ibid Pg. 383)

This epidemic of sustained violence directed at poor, powerless people is coupled with the constant right-wing refrain about their laziness,

We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of work, so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with," - Zombie-eyed Granny killing Republican and Conservative darling Paul Ryan 2014

And the numerous times elected Republicans at every level of government constantly equate poor and black people with wild animals.

This theory of Biological Determinism often forms the core of modern right-wing racism. Conservatives have a whole litany of so-called scientific evidence which they claim supports their bigtory. While right-wing think tanks, like The Hertiage Foundation produce pieces claiming the Poor have it very well, and throughly debunked pseudo-science like The Bell Curve are held aloft as on par with the Bible and Atlas Shrugged.