RL: “Poor impulse control. It’s been documented and it’s genetic.. 6 year old children. Pure genetics.”
TJF: At age 6, environment could very easily guide one’s behavior. In reference to Alpha’s comment I’d like to see a study with children who have an engaged paternal figure versus those who do not. I’ve seen people dismiss the out of wedlock birthrates among Black Americans comparing the similar out of wedlock birth rates in Iceland and Sweden, but those societies are substantially different (markedly more socialist), and the birth fathers may be heavily engaged, but the parents are not married.
With that said I get the impression that clear consistent guidance is probably even more required / beneficial in Black Americans than Whites (albeit any child would benefit).
It’s been replicated over and over. The first tests were done in the South. They were worried it was environmental, so they took it to the Caribbean. Same result. They didn’t believe the results, so they kept doing the tests over and over. Eventually they had done the tests so many times that they got sick of trying to replicate them and they quit doing them.
You now have to argue that Caribbean Black and US Southern Black culture are the same in producing this odd effect. If it’s cultural, that means they have the same culture. But is that true? Caribbean Black culture is the same as US Black culture? Why would that be? And why doesn’t that play into the “niggers are the same everywhere” argument used by the racists? Also and more importantly, if they’re the same everywhere due to biology or due to culture, what difference does it make? Who cares! You still have a group of people who have problems with delaying gratification, and that’s a problem in a modern society.
Also let us look at this from another POV. One idea is the tests are simply wrong. Does the Black race on average seem to have a harder time delaying gratification than other races? Just look around you at how Black children and adults act. I taught Black kids for years. Of course it’s true, but by the time they are 16-18, most of that behavior is gone because the ones who could not delay gratification are all dropped out, on the streets, in jail or juvey, or probation or parole, or dead.
Look at the behavior of ghetto type Blacks. So much of the pathology seems to be so directly related to this inability to delay gratification. It’s as clear as air.
I’m not some racist out to hate Blacks and write them off as some failed race. At this point in history, I’m not sure how much it matters how they act. We are now in the era of genetic splicing and CRISPr technology. Genetically designed humans may not be too far away. Do we really need to be so concerned about what various races bring to the table genetically?
How about something else? How about a pill? I don’t like the idea of mandating meds for people who are not mentally ill and most pathological Blacks are not disordered at all. They’re not crazy. They’re just bad. We obviously don’t have a morality pill yet (but one can dream!) but suppose we found a pill that let you delay gratification? That enabled you to be less impulsive, which in my opinion is another terrible problem with the Black race.
I don’t see how we can force people to take it, but we could always offer it on a voluntary basis. A lot of Blacks are probably sick and tired of their impulsiveness and inability to delay gratification screwing up their lives. This might be especially true in Black men over 30-35. Maybe they’re angry because they can’t seem to control themselves, and this keeps ruining their lives. Suppose we say, “Here’s a pill to help you be less impulsive so you don’t get into trouble so much.” I think there would be some Blacks, especially Black men, who would gladly take it.
This goes beyond race. Obviously impulsiveness and inability to display gratification are human qualities, not Black qualities. Blacks simply display these all too human qualities in greater percentages. Speaking of pills, we could offer such a pill to anyone of any race who had problems with delayed gratification and impulsiveness. I’m quite sure there are Whites who have these problems. And I know there are Hispanics with these problems. IQ does seem to be an attenuating factor. As IQ rises, impulsiveness and inability to delay gratification seem to go down and vice versa.
I had a neighbor Hispanic, a young man who was gang affiliated, who used to hang out over here all the time. Mostly we just smoked pot. He literally could not think beyond one or two days in the future. He would get some money and it would melt in his hands in a day or two, no matter how much. Then he would be standing there dumbfounded, acting like,”Whoa! Where did all the money go? Duhhhh.”
I kept talking to him but he literally could not think beyond 24-48 hours into the future, so it was worthless. I had no idea what his IQ was. Surely in the 80’s.
He sure could rap though. I heard him rap a few times and the guy was a flat out genius. With an IQ of 85. I’m not sure you need a real high IQ to master verbal memory, which is the skill being utilized in rap.
So these sort of interventions would go beyond being “Black things” into being “human things.”