Sailer’s attempt to combine race realism with liberalism

VFR reader Jason Lande sent this interesting reply to my critique of Steve Sailer. While it adds to my understanding of Sailer, I don’t agree with Lande that there is something objectionable about Sailer’s idea of using the insights of racial realism to extend more effective help to blacks, though I do agree with Lande that liberals won’t buy race realism under any circumstances, and that if Sailer’s real intent is to make white America even more solicitous of blacks and black racialism than it already is, it’s hard to see many conservatives buying it either. I also would underscore, as I always do when discussing race differences, that there is room for great improvement in the standards and behavior and accomplishments of blacks, and that this goal should be pursued, but without recourse to the liberal expectation of equality of racial outcome.

My impression from Steve Sailer’s various writings on “citizenism” is that his race realism has not divorced him from liberalism, in that he still desires that Americans should take care of the minority underclass. Essentially, his “citizenism” concept is an attempt to reconcile race realism to liberalism by claiming that the reality of low black IQ and high black criminality (and now Hispanice as well) doesn’t mean we have to stop being liberals because recognizing the truth about racial differences will allow us well intentioned whites to help blacks more effectively, for example with a more realistic response to natural devastations of black populated areas of the country (e.g. Katrina) and by creating a new rapid response disaster relief organization similar to the National Guard but with lower IQ standards that could include blacks, which Steve Sailer has proposed.

I don’t know who Steve Sailer’s audience is for all of this. My experience is that liberals instinctively recoil from any hint of race realism (which leads inexorably to treating groups differently as Steve Sailer concedes), because they realize how devastating it is to their ideals of true equality, and they love their ideals far more than truth. And regardless, most of the devoted liberals I know don’t care very much for citizenship, believing as many of them do in erasing America’s borders altogether. Perhaps Steve Sailer’s audience is the declining numbers of put-upon white conservatives who still highly value American citizenship and feel devoted to helping other Americans no matter how awful they may behave. But those people are our audience as well. And as Jared Taylor so aptly articulated, will they continue to act as selfless and individual “citizens” as the growing number of minorities, who aggressively man the racial ramparts, continue to conquer us and the effects of this process become more and more obvious?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 12, 2005 10:56 AM | Send