Surprising Comments from American Renaissance By Brian Simpson
For some time, I have been criticising American Renaissance for running the line that East Asians are “smarter” than Whites. I intend to do another article on this soon, taking them apart, yet again. But I did notice these comments in a recent post, worth quoting back at them, and I note the disclaimer that the comments relate to the US situation, not Australia (and no inference to Australia should be mechanically drawn), and are quoted as a debating point against the journal, and are not made by me, but quoted for the purpose of journalism. Personally, I remain sceptical about the entire IQ racket.
“I had always wanted to be a professor, but my undergraduate experience with so many intelligent people made me second-guess whether I had what it took to join the ranks of such intellectual giants. To be practical, I began working on an MS in statistics while still in my post-bachelors program. I was one of perhaps five white students in the entire program; almost all were Chinese. I felt foreign in an American classroom in my home state, surrounded by students who looked nothing like me, speaking a language I couldn’t understand.
It was during this time that I began to realize that Asians are not, in fact, smarter than or similar to white students. I can’t understate how rampant the cheating was. It was incredibly obvious, but the professors looked the other way. This is because international students are a cash cow for universities. Asian students study only to pass the test in the easiest, fastest way possible, not to learn any material. This was most apparent when we were sent to find real datasets and work through statistical analyses. Real data is messy — Google cannot help you. It requires an actual understanding of statistics, common sense, and creativity in order to understand what data might be telling you. The Asian students tried to parrot examples from our textbooks, which were developed with simple, contrived data, and their results were a laughable mess. They were unable to answer hard questions about the theoretical basis of their work, and couldn’t grasp any assumptions or limitations of their models. But they always aced the tests. …
Students all over the world take this exam, hoping to enter top-tier institutions in Europe and the United States. A simple online search yields hundreds of results of Chinese cheating rings for college entrance exams, including the one for mathematics. This pervasive cheating cost me admission into several universities, since they accepted only the top decile of scorers. When Chinese and Indian students cheat their way to a perfect score, this puts those of us who took the exam honestly out of the running. Shut out of the elite programs, I looked for and found a smaller one in Texas. …
As for the Asian students and professors, let me dispel the myth that they’re smarter than white students. Asians almost always head straight for the algorithmic disciplines in mathematics such as numerical analysis or theoretical computer science. This is because they can rack up publication counts by marginally tweaking someone else’s work. There is no creativity or originality, and I saw firsthand their abysmal performance in topics such as functional analysis, probability, and modern algebra. If they haven’t seen it first done by someone else, they are stuck. They can recite proofs of theorems professors like to use on exams, but they’re lost when they see something they’ve never seen.”
I wonder what Jared thought of that one? I suppose this crowd thinks that the bulk of modern mathematics, developed by whites, is just an historical accident. Anyway, James Reed would like this conclusion:
“The best way to break the hold of universities is to stop attending them. Starve them of the money and attendance they need. Businesses should stop weighing university degrees so heavily when they hire people and instead give technical interviews and skills tests. People go to college — and take on huge debts — because they don’t see an alternative. We have to walk away from established institutions and build alternatives. Instead of a university, build a private technical library. Value your “old-school” employees, and train promising workers, even in academics. Find a retired or “cancelled” professor to help homeschool your children. Invest in research and development yourselves, the way patrons of old did. View science and mathematics the way we view art — as part of our culture that needs protecting and preserving.”
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