This will take a little bit of background, but the end result is pretty funny. So its worth it.
First, we presume by now you know who Ibram X. Kendi is. He is basically a scholar who justifies affirmative action. He argues that basically that every time black people don’t achieve as much as white people, we should just assume racism is to blame. Of course this is ultimately silly. While we believe that the races are equal, we don’t assume everything constantly works out perfectly equally, all across the board. Sometimes cultural quirks result in one group or another dominating particular fields.
For instance, to take things outside of America, for many years the Russians dominated chess. No person would think that anything in the Russian people made them better at chess. But maybe Russian children saw one or two Russian superstars being praised and decided to give the game a chance and even more people who had the talent to be good at chess were found. And maybe seeing Russian dominance discouraged people from other countries. In short, no discrimination is necessary to explain why for some weird reason the Russians dominated in that game.
And of course, Kendi then takes that belief that all inequality can only be explained by racism to justify affirmative action. As he wrote:
The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.
We think he is popular because he tells the paternalistically racist Democrats what they want to hear.
As for Colin Wright, he describes himself as an ‘Evolutionary Biology PhD’ and he has popped up on this site several times, here, here and here, primarily dealing with the madness of transgender ideology. We don’t think his scientific expertise comes into play here, but he is a smart guy and we respect him a lot.
In any case, it started with a man named Kareem Carr. He describes himself as statistician and a ‘Stats PhD student @Harvard.’ Of course, being a Harvard student was much more impressive before David Hogg became one of them, but we won’t hold that against Mr. Carr. He was arguing against the claim that we could statistically control for racism, and we will print some of his argument here:
Social forces like sexism and racism aren't magical. They act through specific mechanisms in the physical world.
— 🔥Kareem Carr | Statistician 🔥 (@kareem_carr) February 2, 2024
Now imagine that you've collected every possible variable. Some of these will be the mechanisms through which racism reduces income. If you then control for all of them, you'll be controling for 100% of the racism and the remaining effect of racism will be 0%. pic.twitter.com/SV7Z48e4Wg
— 🔥Kareem Carr | Statistician 🔥 (@kareem_carr) February 2, 2024
Recommended
He goes on, but we think the mistake he is making is that NRO is talking about isolating the effects of racism in particular institutions, and Carr is conflating that with the effects in society. In other words, you might have a recruiting department for a hospital system, looking to hire the best possible doctors. And examining their decision-making process, and isolating for education, years of experience, positive outcomes in the past, and all other relevant factors, you can look to see if there is evidence that race is playing a role in personnel decisions.
Now Mr. Carr would probably say ‘but for racism, more black doctors would have had better education, experience and outcomes.’ Maybe so, but that wasn’t the question asked. Ultimately, we don’t think there is any meaningful way determine whether something as amorphous as ‘society’ is engaged in discrimination. We think it can only be determined one institution at a time. And any other approach risks creating a situation where the effects of racial discrimination is assumed as an article of faith, and it becomes an unfalsifiable claim.
In any case, that prompted Christopher Rufo to question this analysis:
What is the scientific definition of "racism" here? How do you measure it quantitatively? How do you determine the causal influence from racism to intermediary institutions to individual income? With what controls? And what is the current quantity of racism in the United States? https://t.co/7hkjYCpxBw
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 2, 2024
We don’t know if racism can be defined by ‘science,’ but we prefer to think of it philosophically as the opposite of Dr. King’s dream: To judge a person by the color of their skin and not the content of his or her character. Anti-white racists hate this definition because it means that people of all colors can be racist, but we stand by it. In any case, this led to Wright offering his response:
"And what is the current quantity of racism in the United States?"
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) February 3, 2024
Depends on what units you use. But assuming you're using the Kendi scale, as is standard in the US, then approximately 1,619 Kendis.
For those not familiar with the Kendi scale, 1 Kendi refers to the quantity of… https://t.co/yDYT42l78D
The cut off text says:
For those not familiar with the Kendi scale, 1 Kendi refers to the quantity of racism, measured in Kendis, it takes to reach 1 Kendi.
And we guess every time someone says something about Ibram X. Kendi, the man finds out and, in this case, he chose to respond:
In your imaginary, racism does not exist but the “Kendi scale” does exist? I am not familiar with the “Kendi scale” but I am familiar with racism.
— Ibram X. Kendi (@ibramxk) February 4, 2024
I suspect this is one reason why people like this become propagandists. It is easy to deny reality and make things up. https://t.co/Gwu0vR8SEd
Which brings us to the five humiliating words from Wright:
It's just a joke dude.
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) February 4, 2024
Like this wasn’t obvious to Kendi in his ‘imaginary?’ Certainly, the part talking about 1,619 Kendis—obviously a reference to the 1619 project—should have at least made Kendi cautious.
And as for that weird use of the word ‘imaginary,’ it’s something Kendi apparently does a lot:
To the awesome power of children to dream and create anew. To the radical imaginary of what the world can be after humanity wishes racism goodnight. Introducing #GoodnightRacism, my new picture book illustrated by @cbabibayoc. Arriving 6.22. Preorder now: https://t.co/Rw9SDqGe0Y pic.twitter.com/b6qtTxbJvS
— Ibram X. Kendi (@ibramxk) January 12, 2022
Read how slaveholders and segregationists framed Americans fighting for justice. The greater the antiracist resistance, the more power we seized, the more extreme slaveholders and segregationists became in their attacks, in their imaginary that THEY were being persecuted. 12/13
— Ibram X. Kendi (@ibramxk) September 27, 2020
Police shoot to kill Jacob outside of his car while he’s unarmed. Then “Wisconsin authorities” announce he had a knife in his car. What are they going to announce next?
— Ibram X. Kendi (@ibramxk) August 27, 2020
The racist imaginary is hard at work trying to criminalize the man who’s paralyzed from gunshots. https://t.co/M5PHgs7kkI
So … is he trying to redefine how we use the term ‘imaginary,’ or is he just a moron who has been misusing an ordinary term? We honestly don’t know.
Wright even explained the joke a little more:
Kendi thought my post about measuring racism in America using the "Kendi scale," which I said came out to "1619 Kendis," was serious.
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) February 4, 2024
I even defined the units of the Kendi scale with Kendi-esque circularity. 😂 https://t.co/dKvHaDrz6J
He can’t be this dense, can he? https://t.co/Se126eKNFg
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) February 4, 2024
Not only is Kendi blind to any positive developments around race in the last 170 years, he had has absolutely no sense of humor. https://t.co/H2n2YnakDK
— Kilgore Trout (@RadioFreeStPaul) February 4, 2024
Accurate.
Colin was clowning on your pseudoscientific concept of esoteric or hidden racism, that supposedly pervades society and causes hatred like the malodorous clouds of miasma of medieval legend. https://t.co/ZlTClkrYf3
— WM (@APTeacher1754) February 4, 2024
This is amazing. One of my favorite new Twitter moments. I give this 69,420 Kendis. https://t.co/NdvOlYr1wQ
— Andrew AT (@ThinkerAspiring) February 4, 2024
I wonder if this new scale will eventually be used to measure race hoaxes, or if Smolletts will develop their own system.
— 3lly 📺🎞🛠 (@ll_r_ps) February 4, 2024
🤣He doesn't understand Alien humor. https://t.co/OH8Dg3J4Bj
— Sam🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@CyrusConstitute) February 4, 2024
That linked-to post is amazing.
Just a reminder that MacArthur "Genius" Grant winner Ibram Kendi once became convinced that white people were literally aliens after watching a documentary.
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) January 13, 2024
He only questioned this belief when his roommate asked him how, if whites were aliens, they could interbreed with blacks. pic.twitter.com/qAzGlQ1s3I
Wow, we have no words. It reminds us slightly of when we read ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ and discovered that the Nation of Islam actually believed that the white race was invented by a mad scientist. It’s like Scientology and racism had a baby.
And if you don’t know how nuts Scientology is at its core, we’ll let South Park explain it to you:
Mind you, this doesn’t mean we hate Scientologists or something like that. We can have deep disagreements with a person’s faith and still think the person is a good person. We ultimately judge people as individuals. And we are aware that to a degree nearly every religion looks a little silly to people who don’t believe. But, as religions go, that is nuttier than usual.
Does anyone know how to convert Mystals into Kendis?
— Super Journalist (Ret) - JOURN-L of Skrypton (@Magnum_CK) February 4, 2024
That is almost certainly a reference to Elie Mystal (who is a man).
Kendi doesn't know that his critics are referencing the laughable moment where he defined racism with the word racism. He probably isn't aware that that video went around in our circles many times, and that we mock him for using circular logic.
— ⓐⓣⓘⓜⓐ Ⓞⓕ Ⓚⓞⓝⓘⓢⓗⓘ (@YatimaOfKonishi) February 4, 2024
I'm convinced more and more that Ibram X. Kendi is just an elaborate AI hoax designed (by AI) to determine what people the killer robots will have to eliminate because we're too smart, which to be fair is most of us.
— Aaron Simonoff (@Wolverstein) February 4, 2024
LOL, I’m dying right now @SwipeWright!
— Tiffany Justice (@4TiffanyJustice) February 4, 2024
I rate this post 187 Kendis
— WhiteGuy (@unflywhiteguy) February 4, 2024
That would be likely another numerical joke. ‘187’ is a common slang reference to murder, as a reference to part of the California Penal Code. We think here it is his version of ‘hello 911, I’d like to report a murder.’
Ibram, allow me to explain.@SwipeWright was joking, which is when a jokester tells a joke.
— Somebody Someone (@ATinyBitCrazy) February 4, 2024
They are obsessed with you, because you have committed the cardinal sin of talking about racism.
— Jake Ellwood (@mindfuljake) February 4, 2024
We think he gets rightward attention because he justifies unlawful racial discrimination. We are in a weird cultural moment where a huge swath of society has basically started ignoring the law on antidiscrimination, and Kendi seems to be leading the charge.
And in this case, he's getting attention because he faceplanted, badly.
Kendi thinks tests where Asians score the highest are racist.
— AltAzn (@Alt_Azn) February 4, 2024
Fair point.
— Theo Jordan (@Theo_TJ_Jordan) February 4, 2024
What, pray tell, is the relevance of Fonzi jumping over a shark? We are totally stumped …
(No, we aren’t actually stumped, Mr. Kendi. We are joking.)
Joke: a joke is anything the joker says when he is joking, and anything the joker says when he is joking is a joke.
— jimijo (@jimijo1002) February 4, 2024
Just to be clear about the definition of joke.
Thank you for that.
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