Monday, April 05, 2010

What if everything you know is wrong?

Via OneSTDV, a cell phone video of a black female student at the University of Wisconsin disrupting a class and being dragged away in handcuffs.

Let’s take a break from our chortling at yet further confirmation of HBD and reflect on how tragic this truly is.

Blacks didn’t always behave this way (or at least, they didn’t behave this way around around white people). This behavior is a relatively recent phenomenon, too recent to be a product of genetic evolution. It is a conditioned response, a product of the culture in which so many blacks are socialized.

Somewhere along the line, this young woman’s defiance was rewarded. It was either encouraged directly, or insufficiently restrained. Somewhere along the line, it worked for her, was allowed to work for her, in the sense of getting her what she wanted, whether it was “her way”, or just respect and status.

This video shows her learning the hard way that the behavior is counter-productive. It no longer works, and in fact carries potentially serious consequences.

This will be a painful lesson. One does not easily recondition oneself away from a lifetime of behavior patterns.

We should know. Think for a moment (you to whom this applies) how, after a childhood and adolescence being told that you should be “nice” to girls, unutterably painful it was to apply even the first principle of Game (by whatever definition). Think of how difficult it was to do this even with an IQ of 130+. Now imagine trying to do it with an IQ of (by my estimate) 90.

So yes, I have some empathy for this girl. I’m not arguing that she should be allowed to go about her anti-social way on the UW campus. I’m not disputing the lessons OneSTDV draws from this at all. But I am saying that though I was never hauled away in handcuffs, I know just a little bit what it is like to be her.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nobody's commented on this yet? Well, then, I will.

Blacks didn’t always behave this way (or at least, they didn’t behave this way around around white people). This behavior is a relatively recent phenomenon, too recent to be a product of genetic evolution. It is a conditioned response, a product of the culture in which so many blacks are socialized.

Yeah, you know... I've been thinking about these things, partly because I'm currently reading a new book about South African apartheid. Learning about the awfulness of what went on has really afforded me a somewhat uncommon opportunity to truly examine my own beliefs - dare I say, biases. I think those of us in the HBD-conservative end of the arena are often so inured to dealing with PC nonsense that we become unable, sometimes, to honestly evaluate whether our beliefs are based in fact or prejudice. It can be harder than it should be to remind ourselves that, as you say, blacks really didn't always act like that.

We should know. Think for a moment (you to whom this applies) how, after a childhood and adolescence being told that you should be “nice” to girls, unutterably painful it was to apply even the first principle of Game (by whatever definition). Think of how difficult it was to do this even with an IQ of 130+. Now imagine trying to do it with an IQ of (by my estimate) 90.

Two responses:

1) Yes, you're right. I can't imagine trying to deal with a lot of concepts that I consider pedestrian if I had a subpar IQ. I think I literally can't quite put myself in 90-IQ shoes. What's your intuitive understanding of human psychology at that intelligence level? I'm trying right now, and I find to hard to “pretend” not to understand things that I do understand.

2) How high is a "high" IQ, anyway? I know hardly anything about IQ; I've never taken a test and I'm not sure I want to, given that all too often it's an avenue for pride, etc. But Half Sigma said the other day that an IQ of 115 was insufficient to learn calculus, and I was rather surprised. (Not that I take everything he says as gospel...)

Dr. Φ said...

I'm pretty sure HS's point about calculus was that you did not need more than an average IQ to learn it sufficiently to pass the AP test, although you needed a much higher IQ to apply it to new kinds of problems.

Since IQ correlates with a broad spectrum of social outcomes, I would predict that those with low IQ would have difficulty adapting to a new social environment.

Girl Adventure said...

As a black person, I really do agree with you. The perceptions of others does influence you.

Many black women have the word strong put in front of them along with the word Diva, so that's how you're supposed to act. Like a know-it-all brat who won't back down.

This video is the consequence of that in the real world and I'm glad it's there. Along with a fellow black student trying to explain to the girl where she was wrong and the obviously not fully equipped teacher who didn't want to take more crap from her.

Just my two cents,

Kim

Anonymous said...

The girl in the pictures used a variety of intimidation techniques, with the teacher, the other students and with the police. Even her demanding an ambulance and claiming to be injured were designed to get the police to back off. Somewhere she must have learned this and expected it to be successful. She is likely still fighting her suspenssion as unjustified and not realizing that she was wrong.

The one thing she did not try: Becoming immediately cooperative and polite.

Anonymous said...

Regarding your assertions of IQ playing a role. In the past, many people were taught something called "humility". Humility shileds the low IQ and high IQ people from the worst of thier bahavior choices. People with humility defer to the choices of others. In today's language, they are seen as "sheep" and that is a weakness. It takes maturity, not intelligence to practice humility. And it takes humility to listen politely to others, even when you are convinced they are wrong and have given you some petty offense.

Or as Clint Eastwood once said: A man should know his limitations.

Dr. Φ said...

Professor Hale: you are entirely correct about the importance of humility, and I did not intend to imply that IQ is the end-all-be-all of human existence. I DO mean to hypothesize that IQ would help a poorly-socialized adult adapt to new circumstances, especially when those circumstances include authority figures with priorities other than building his character.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if your hypothesis has any merit. In general, intelligence would lead to faster learning. But learning that has been reinforced for a long period gets pretty deeply entrenched. She was obviously acting on her "strong black woman" model that Oprah and her sisters on the hood taught her was essential to getting the respect you deserve in life.