Review of Putnam’s Race and Reality -- Part 3
Thomas Allen
In Chapter 6, Putnam discusses questions sent to him after his book
Race and Reason was published. [Only a few of these questions are presented below.]
He is accused of increasing tension without offering a solution. Putnam responds:
The heart of the Negro problem lies in establishing the correct answer to one question, namely, are the Negro’s limitations the result of his bad environment or is his bad environment the result of his limitations? Can we, by making every effort to improve the Negro’s surroundings and education, reach the root cause of his comparative performance, or is it a matter of innate racial differences? Every public policy concerning race will be decided differently depending on the answer given to that question. . . . [I]f the answer is environment, policies will be the direct opposite of what they will be if the answer is genetics (p. 96).
[The race policies of the United States for more than 50 years have been based on the answer being environment. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars to improve and raise the environment of Blacks, little has changed. If anything, things are worse. According to most social indicators, such as divorce, abortion, illegitimate births, and crime, things are worse now than 60 years ago when the environmental dogma began being adopted into law. As Putnam notes, we need to adopt policies based on racial differences being predominately genetic.]
Some asked, assuming the inferiority of the Negro, “[W]hy is it necessary to believe that
intermarriage would necessarily lower the quality of human beings produced and thus the quality of American civilization?” Putnam answers:
Scientific evidence and practical experience regarding the intelligence of large unselected groups, and their creative achievements, show that Negroes as a group, in this country and across the world, have appreciably lower average intelligence scores and a vastly lower creative record throughout history. If we absorb twenty million largely uncreative Negroes into our White gene pool, the mixed product may be expected to lack the combination of qualities (insight, foresight, intelligence and drive) necessary to maintain and advance American civilization (p. 100).
[More importantly, God condemns interracial marriages (v.
False Biblical Teachings on the Origins of the Races and Interracial Marriages,
People of the Flood, and “
The Bible, Segregation, and Miscegenation” all by Thomas Allen). Moreover, integration results in genocide (v.
Integration Is Genocide by Thomas Allen).]
One person noted studies showing that White and Black infants up to 40 weeks revealed no differences and concluded that differences after that result from socioeconomic factors. Putnam replies, “[T]he lower centers of the brain and nervous system, in human beings and in animals, are the ones which mature first; the higher centers mature last. Therefore similarity of performance in the early stages of life signifies nothing as to adult potentiality” (p. 102). [Furthermore, studies show that genetics is much more important than socioeconomic status in determining cognitive abilities.]
Another comment is that “man alone is capable of culture and that cultural influences counteract and invalidate all your animal analogies and your references to evolutionary structure” (p. 103). To this comment, Putnam writes:
This question contains a non sequitur. It is true that man alone is capable of culture but it does not follow that these influences overbalance structure. On the contrary we have seen that in the case of human beings heredity overbalances environment by a ratio of about three to one. This is just another way of saying that structure overbalances culture by the same ratio (p. 103).
He adds:
[W]henever you hear an integrationist talk about the “cultural deprivation” which the Negro has suffered. The expression has become a cliche to account for all the Negro’s limitations. It is meaningless because you cannot speak of depriving a race of something it is, on the average, incapable of possessing (p. 104)
To the question that achievement (economic, academic, artistic, and managerial) depends on much more than innate intelligence and brain size, Putnam responds:
I have mentioned the probability that the development of the frontal lobes has a relation to planning, foresight and motivation — the use of intelligence. If this be true, then the brain is still involved in many attributes which might not be called intelligence in the narrowest sense.
Beyond this we may say that a man’s character is the product not only of his brain and entire nervous system but also of his glands and internal secretions, which interact with his nervous system. Negroes differ from Whites in these secretions.
Finally, there is that one-quarter contribution by environment. But with full allowance for these things, it still remains true that brain size is related to achievement. There is no contradiction (p. 107).
Putnam is asked, “How is the Government of Liberia so stable?” He answers:
Because it is essentially a political dictatorship, supported economically by Firestone and the Bona Hills Iron mines. Although Liberia was founded by supposedly freedom-loving Negroes from America, the League of Nations was obliged to intervene in 1930 to stop the slave trade. It was found that the President and some of his highest officials were implicated. The President had to resign (p. 110).
Then he gives some statistics about the deplorable conditions of Liberia (p. 110).
Some offer Brazil as a good example of a multiracial society and ask why should not the United States emulate Brazil. Putnam doubts if many Americans want the United States to become another Brazil. [It seems that the ruling elite who control the U.S. government want the United States to become another Brazil — not only as a multiracial society but also politically and economically.] He notes that the most backward parts of Brazil have the greatest concentration of Negro genes. The most advanced parts have the smallest concentration of Negro genes. He compares Brazil with the United States and shows that the United States have a much longer life expectancy (35-40 years for Brazil and 67 years for the United States) and a much greater per capita gross national product ($200 for Brazil and $2823 for the United States) (pp. 110-111). [Putnam’s data are circa 1967. In 2015, the life expectancy in Brazil was 74, and in the United States, 79. In 2015, the gross domestic product for Brazil was $8802 and for the United States, $55,904.]
Some reference scientists who assert that the burden of proof for innate racial inequality is on the racists [v.
"Who Is a Racist" by Thomas Allen] to prove their superiority. Putnam finds this assertion pathetic. He retorts, “The burden of proof is upon those who would contradict all previously accepted fact and experience, and who would alter all previously established custom. As for the evidence itself, there is no evidence for equality” (p. 112).
One asked why most Negroes raised in the U.S. segregated schools cannot qualify for U.S. colleges while many foreign Negroes can? In response, Putnam cites a report commissioned by the Ford and Carnegie foundations that shows that too many students from Asia and Africa had a difficult time in American colleges (p. 113). He also cites a report based on “a study of 1278 Northern college students, [which showed that] those Negroes from Southern segregated schools did better than Negroes from Northern integrated schools” (p. 113).
One asks Putnam to explain Negro children have higher aspirations than White children. Putnam answers, “Negroes have very high aspirations, often based on envy, but these are not matched by their performance. It is because of their high aspirational level that Negroes want the short cuts which they are unable to create themselves” (p. 115). [Thus, they cowed spineless politicians and judges into imposing integration, affirmative action, quotas, and the like that legally favored Blacks over Whites.]
Some commenters remark that I.Q. increases when students in a poor educational climate are placed in a better one. Putnam replies “. . . when you give two groups of different potential the same education you do not decrease the gap between them. You increase it, because the group with the higher potential will derive more from the education” (pp. 116-117). [People who make these types of comments are implying that Black teachers are inferior to White teachers as teachers are the primary determinant of the educational climate. I.Q. is the primary determinant of how well a student will do.]
One person notes that I.Q. tests have been standardized for White populations. He asks how they can have any validity for Blacks. Putnam answers:
The American Negro speaks English, has grown up in an American culture and should experience no handicap in taking “White tests.” The Japanese in California don’t. Moreover, the Negro must live in our White society. What we are trying to measure is his ability to adapt to our society and to contribute to it. To the extent that the Negro does experience difficulty in taking White tests to just that extent will the nature of his mind be alien to the White mind. We have a culture based on abstract thought. The Negro is poor at abstract thinking. If this shows up in a test it does not invalidate the test. It confirms its validity (p. 117).
[Studies show that Blacks score better on “culturally biased” tests than they do on culturally neutral tests.]
Another asks why should a democratic society care about intermarriage of different I.Q. groups, i.e., intermarriage of Blacks and Whites. Putnam replies:
A democratic society ought to care about the qualities in its population which have made it capable of becoming and maintaining a stable, free civilization. No Negro population has ever been able to do this; . . . therefore, to the extent that a successful free society absorbs a Negro population, to that same extent will its success decline (p. 121).
Another question is that since the I.Q. of Black and White students overlaps, why not divide classes by individual ability instead of race? Putnam answers, “[E]ducability is a matter of more than I.Q., and overlap in I.Q. does not necessarily mean overlap in other important factors” (p. 122). He adds, “[T]here is a basic human need for self-identification with one’s own kind which is part of the healthy psychological development of every individual” (p. 123).
One commenter states “that the lack of perfect evidence of the Negro’s inequality (inferiority) is no reason to assume that he is equal. Is it not equally true that imperfect evidence of his equality is no reason to assume he is inferior” (p. 127). Putnam responds that this person assumes “that the evidence is equal, in amount and in imperfection, on each side. The truth of the matter is that the evidence is overwhelming on the side of inequality — indeed I know of no evidence at all on the side of equality” (p. 127).
When asked, “Is not the right to integrate a constitutional right,” Putnam answers, “There is no ‘right’ to integration, either in our constitution, our moral code, or our religious precepts” (p. 128). Then he uses the example of segregating restrooms by sex. Because he is not allowed to use the ladies’ restroom, he has not been denied “equal rights” or “civil rights.” Nor has he been made a second-class citizen deprived of “human rights” (p. 128). [As the transgender agenda moves forward, courts will begin to order the integration of restrooms. The plaintiffs will argue, and the courts will accept that argument, that when a transgender person, or anyone else, is denied the use of the restroom of his choice, he has been denied “equal rights” and “civil rights” and has been made a second-class citizen deprived of “human rights.”] He concludes, “The Negro’s so-called ‘constitutional’ right to integration derives solely from the Supreme Court's decision in the
Brown case. . . . [T]his case was based upon misrepresentation and concealment of vital evidence bearing upon the genetic issue” (p. 128).
Putnam is asked if the treatment of the Negro limits his equality of opportunity. He answers, “In the majority of cases the Negro’s failure is not due to a lack of opportunity but to a lack of capability. It is always easy to blame the latter on the former because opportunity itself is not easy to define” (p. 133). [To prove that Blacks are not deprived of equal opportunity, courts and federal agencies have forced businesses and institutions to resort to quotas, usually covertly but often overtly. This action has resulted in hiring or promoting lesser-qualified Blacks over more-qualified Whites. So much for
White privilege.] He notes, “Most Negroes with intelligence and character have made their way very well in the United States” (p. 133) He gives an example of a highly successful Negro.
Some people blame segregation for the lynchings, bombings, shootings, beatings, and unjust jailing of Blacks in the South. Putnam responds, “Segregation has not been the cause of [these] crimes . . .; the cause has been the attempt at force integration” (p. 138). To which he adds, “To the extent that crimes against the Negro were previously committed by Whites in the South, these were few in comparison to those committed by the Negro against other Negroes” (p. 138). [Even today, Negro crime victims are much more likely to be a victim of a Black criminal than of a White criminal (v. “
The Dirty War: America’s Race War” by Thomas Allen).]
One person asked, “[H]ow much do you think segregation has to do with causing the Negro to have such low moral standards, low I.Q., and high rate of illegitimate births and disease?” (p. 138). Putnam answered, “If a patient has a contagious illness and is segregated from the public, for the public’s protection, how much does this have to do with the patient’s having the illness?” (p. 139). [In other words, these attributes contribute to segregation; they are not caused by it.]
To the accusation that segregation enforces poverty, Putnam replies, “Segregation does not enforce poverty. The Jews have frequently been segregated throughout history, but they have not been made poor” (pp. 138-139). [Jews have been discriminated against for many more centuries than have Blacks. Yet their wealth far exceeds their numbers. Today, Whites are discriminated against in favor of Blacks, yet on average they are wealthier than Blacks. Segregation is not the cause of poverty. Low cognitive ability is.]
After the Goldwater defeat in 1964, many believed that the Republican party needed a broader base and needed to be more attractive to minority groups. Putnam replies, “When you please the Negro bloc, without carefully examining what you do, you are apt to be injecting into the bloodstream of the body politic the virus of collapse. The body politic in our case may be strong enough to stand a certain amount of such a virus, but it is bound to be weakened by it, and can be destroyed in the long run” (p. 141). [Today we are living in the long run and are witnessing the destructive effects of the virus injected in the 1960s. The United States are close to collapse with open borders and unlimited immigration contributing to the deterioration of the economy and political system. The descendants of the White founders will soon cease being a majority in their own country. The federal republic of liberty, limited government, free market economy, and rule of law is on its deathbed. The United States are becoming a third-world country with oppression, corruption, controlled markets, arbitrary rule of man, and anti-White socioeconomic policies. The egalitarians have won; liberty has lost.]
One person noted that the Supreme Court decided the
Brown case on “the grounds that separate but equal schools for Whites and Negroes are inherently unequal and thus violate the 14th Amendment” (p. 141). Putnam responds, “Vassar and Yale are separate, but they are not inherently unequal. The inequality, if such it be, in the case of the separation of Negroes and Whites can result solely from the implication of inferiority” (p.144). He continues:
Now when evidence exists, but is not introduced at a trial, which indicates not only that integration increases the sense of inferiority as compared with segregation, but also that neither segregation nor integration creates the inferiority which is due rather to innate limitations and is thus a fact of life, do you . . . or the Fifth Circuit mean to say that this evidence has no bearing on the issues . . . (pp. 142-143)
To the comment that his views conflict with
Christ’s view that all men are brothers, Putnam responds with a quotation from Weyl and Possony: “If my brother is a cripple, do I treat him as if he were physically sound? If he is mentally retarded, does a brotherly attitude consist in pretending that he is normal” (p. 144).
One objects to discussing racial differences because it angers and humiliates the Negro. Putnam replies that this is a trained response by Negroes. The cause of the Negro’s anger results from the While liberal,
communist, and other egalitarians teaching him that his differences result from White injustice. This inflames him against Whites. “The average Negro honestly believes himself the victim of injustice and oppression, whereas the truth is he has had endless help from the White race” (p. 145). Putnam notes that Blacks in America have received more aid than anywhere else in the world. He concludes, “The Negro’s present behavior is entirely a taught reaction based upon fraud. The cure for this sort of sickness is to teach the truth” (p. 145). [The only thing that has changed over the last 50-plus years is that Blacks demand more and receive more. Whites are literally killing themselves feeding the avarice of Blacks and other races. What will Blacks do once they have exterminated the White race? Look to Black Africa for the answer unless they are fortunate enough to live under Chinese oppression.]
When asked, “How do you know our culture is superior,” Putnam answers, “Because the other cultures envy us, not vice versa. They not only want our money and other fruits of our achievement; they would like to enter our society if they could” (p. 148).
Putnam is asked to define “leftist.” He defines a leftist as:
a person who believes in taking the money out of the pocket of the man who earned it and giving it to somebody else. To be a bit more cynical, often he is a man who seeks legal ways of stealing from the top in order to buy the support of the bottom. He is a man who lays stress on the Commandment “Love thy neighbor” and never mentions the Commandments “Thou shalt not covet” or “Thou shalt not steal” (p. 148).
Envy is the driving motivation behind the hardcore leftists. He adds:
Envy of our Anglo-American civilization, and of the qualities of mind and character which built it, is widespread among certain races, and operates in the same way — there is a strong drive to dispense its benefits to everybody while denigrating the source as “Puritan” or “reactionary”. . . .
The leftist in the racial area seeks to take by force the hard-earned and long cherished customs, traditions, standards and other social and political attributes of our White society and distribute and share them with Negroes. . . .
[Leftist tax] success, enterprise and thrift to support failure, indolence and improvidence (Pp. 147-148).
[Leftist policies as defined by Putnam have brought the United States to the abyss of destruction. If things do not soon change, the United States will fall into the abyss and become irrevocably and irreplaceably lost.]
Commenting on compassion and charity toward the poor, one person concludes that the government ought to take an active role in carrying out this idea. Putnam notes that when the government acts, it is no longer charity. “The government takes by force from some and gives to others” (p. 157). [The government not only takes money by force to give to the poor, but it also takes money to give to the rich, e.g., corporate welfare like banker bailouts following the 2008 crash.]
To the communist doctrine “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” Putnam offers an analogy:
Picture a thug with a blackjack on a dark street. He slugs a passerby and steals his wallet. The thug has a need, the passerby has the ability to satisfy it. So the wallet changes hands. Such a philosophy can only result in hanging a millstone around the necks of diligence, enterprise and foresight while encouraging indolence, shiftlessness and theft (p.152).
Then he notes that when government and society excuse and appease bad behavior, more bad behavior is generated (pp. 151-151).
About the concept of a world unified in brotherhood, Putnam replies, “A man who loves all countries, and all races, as much as he loves his own, is like the man who loves all women as much as he loves his wife. He merits suspicion” (p. 152).
About church leaders who claim that the
Christian religion demands integration, Putnam writes:
I am puzzled by the attitude of churchmen nowadays who seem to think the Christian religion demands they support policies which are certain to lead to the aforesaid plucking down. They appear to care little for the heritage bequeathed them by their forebears, or for the millenniums of self-denial and self-discipline that have been a part of the growth of Western civilization and its codes of honor and decency.
They nimbly forget the effort and sacrifice — and the handing on of a torch — through countless generations. This is the trust which they now propose to abandon. But before they dissipate so many of those values which their ancestors committed to their keeping, let such as these remember the words of Paul to the Corinthians. “It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful” (pp. 153-154).
When asked what he would do if he were a Negro, Putnam replied, that he would find work within his limitation and be content with it. Then he adds that Negroes often refuse jobs for which they are suited because they have been taught that they are too good for such jobs. Instead, they “loiter or riot in slums, cursing society, and hugging the illusion that they are the victims of injustice. Instead they are the victims of a false conception of themselves, and the only injustice in the situation is due to the leftists who misled them” (p. 157).
When asked about the treatment of Negroes in America, Putnam answers, “The White man owes the Negro nothing. If there are any debts outstanding, they are owed by the Negro to the White man” (p. 158). Then he lists some of the things that Blacks owe to Whites: “hospitals, medicines, schools, food, opportunity, and a standard of living he could not possibly have acquired for himself” (p. 158). [To this day, Blacks continue to maintain that Whites owe them. Most Blacks believe that Black labor in the form of slaves built America. They believe, if the thought ever occurs to them, that the White man’s intelligence, ingenuity, foresight, accumulated wealth, institutions, etc. contributed little or nothing to the building of America — only their exploitation of Black slave labor built the country. Regrettably, far too many Whites also believe this nonsense. America would have been built without any Black labor. It would be a better country if the Negro were never brought here. It would be a country without racial strife where people are hired based on their cognitive ability instead of their race. The highly destructive welfare state may have never come into being. Thus, the productive would not be debilitated by having their wealth stolen to support the indolent, unproductive, and poor. Furthermore, the indolent, unproductive, and poor would not be reduced to being wards of the state. Perhaps more importantly, if Blacks never came here, today’s Whites would not be sniveling, spineless, self-hating, cowards destroying themselves and their country and culture to feed the insatiable demands of Blacks. Today most Whites believe that no sacrifice made by Whites for Blacks is too great — including the annihilation of the White race, to which many Whites look forward with great joy. (This may in part explain why Whites are failing to reproduce at a rate high enough to replace their stock.)]
A Southern commenter noted that if Southerners raised the question about racial differences, the South would “lose the sympathy and help of Northern conservatives who are with us on states’ rights, decentralized government, and similar issues” (p. 166). In response, Putnam voices his complaint against Northern conservatives:
The latter [Northern conservatives] make good whipping-boys for liberals and that is about all. When they win elections they do it by providing a slight variant in liberalism; when they lose, they do it on grounds that make them a public laughing stock. They appear as hard-bitten, discredited economic reactionaries, longing for a depression, while the American people are enjoying the greatest and most widely distributed prosperity in history (p. 166).
[Not much has changed. Once in office, one can hardly notice any difference between “conservatives” and “liberals.” They may differ only slightly in philosophy and policies. Their biggest difference is in rhetoric.] Putnam notes that conservatives consistently avoid using the racial issue [except to exceed liberals in unconditional surrender to Blacks] although it is a winning issue. [With the declared war on the White race and the fear, self-hatred, and cowardice instilled in Whites, raising the race issue may now lose more votes than it would gain.]
In response to how the South mistreats the Negro, Putnam quotes a Georgian businessman who served on several juries during his life. The businessman said, “In all my experience in the courts I have never seen a Negro get justice. What he got was mercy” (p. 168).
In Chapter 8, Putnam makes some concluding remarks about suppressing the truth about racial differences. He saw:
. . . an Anglo-American majority battered and divided on other issues, guilt-ridden and bemused by the equalitarian dogma; one observed a mass media saturating the public with a scientific fraud promoted by a hierarchy whose aim was not the search for truth but political propaganda; one found ignorant political and judicial leaders, with mediocre minds and little moral stamina, drawn from a society whose human resources had been emasculated by two generations of compromise and appeasement. These were some of the results of the destruction. But they were not the source.
Nor could the source lie in the humanitarian impulse itself. The drive for social justice and the awakening of sympathy for the unfortunate were both good (p. 182).
The real crime is using good to promote evil “. . . with the trend toward sympathy with failure — toward encouragement of the underdog — had grown a tendency to disparage the superior and to fawn upon the inferior” (p. 183). Thus, the egalitarian dogma contains “within itself not only the seeds of its own proliferation, but of general collapse as well” (p. 183). He writes:
[I]n condemning the concept of inferiority, our society necessarily had had to destroy the concept of superiority, for one could not exist without the other. With its destruction had come the death of respect for authority, of pride in the achievements of the past, of reverence for tradition, of the wisdom to honor the heritage of one’s family, one’s race and one’s country (pp. 183-184).
Worst of all has been “the death of that quality in superior men which sprang from confidence not only in their own personal excellence but in that of their kind and race” (p. 184). With his death “passed the genius of true leadership” (p. 184). It is the quality that gives “men the courage to tell the truth” (p. 184). The only hope for America, the West, and the White race is to kill the egalitarian lie of racial equality. Only when Whites learn and accept the truth about racial differences can they save their race, countries, and civilization. [Unfortunately, it may be too late for Whites to save themselves and their country and culture. To reverse 60-plus years of lies and propaganda of the false dogma of egalitarianism within a few years that Whites have left may be too much to expect. Such a task will require such fortitude that the world has not seen since the Confederate army.]
[Putnam believes that scientists have misled political leaders with their egalitarian, socialistic ideology promoting racial equality while suppressing the vast body of evidence showing the inequality of the races, especially of the White and Negro races (for example, see page 166). On the contrary, the political leaders, who lust for power, are not being misled. They know that the egalitarian philosophy of race, economy, etc. concentrates more power into their hands. Thus, they promote the egalitarian scientists while ignoring the honest nonegalitarian scientists. He believes that if our political leaders knew the truth about the races being unequal, they would act differently. Most likely, they would not. Most probably do know the truth.
Putnam also fails to realize that the super-rich, the moneyed interest, control the politicians, socialists, communists, and other egalitarians including egalitarian scientists. (V.
the Illuminist series by Thomas Allen.) To the extent that he recognizes their involvement, he considers it irrelevant. To him discussing the involvement of international bankers is like discussing the Constitution or states’ rights. It avoids the issue of racial inequality.
Each race, like each individual, differs in temperament, intelligence, character, etc. These differences are as much, if not more, genetic as they are environmental. For the betterment of mankind, egalitarianism has to be abandoned. As the lesser cannot be raised to the level of the greater, the greater must be suppressed to the level of the lesser. Thus, egalitarianism demands the suppression of the greater to the detriment of mankind. Society needs to be organized so that each race and individual can develop to its highest capabilities and potential.
An irony of egalitarianism is that the more successful egalitarians are at equalizing the environment of the populace, the more genetics determines I.Q. For more about genetics dominating cognitive ability, see
The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray,
The Inheritance of Mental Ability by Cyrll Bur,
Man’s Racial Nature and Race and Politics: the Racial Controversy by H.B. Isherwood,
Race Difference in Intelligence by John C. Loehlin,
Major Findings from Twin Studies of Ability, Personality, and Interests by Robert C. Nichols,
Racial Difference in Mental Growth and School Achievements by R. Travis Osborne.
Race, Intelligence and Bias in Academe by Roger Pearson,
Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective by J. Philippe Rushton,
A Question of Intelligence: The IQ Debate in America by Daniel Seligman, and
Integration Is Genocide by Thomas Coley Allen.
Dear reader, before you attempt to argue with an egalitarian about racial inequality, you need to heed the advice of a Southerner whom Putnam quotes:
“Any man who thinks that the average Negro is innately the intellectual equal of the average White man is too dumb to argue with” (p. 6).]
Copyright © 2016 by Thomas Coley Allen.
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