Book Review of Charles Murray’s Facing Reality
Charles Murray has released a new book, Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America, some 27 years after the release of his controversial work, The Bell Curve. Murray has been lauded in conservative circles (and reviled in Progressive ones) for his conclusion that social welfare programs would be ineffective in improving poor, minority communities due to group differences in cognitive ability. The two “truths” that Murray discusses in his current book are the differences between the races in cognitive ability and violent crime. He rehashes some of his findings from The Bell Curve and then traces changes and trends in the data over the last two plus decades. While the numbers themselves are notable and he provides valuable insight on issues of race, Murray’s book feels incomplete. It is heavy on the data and short on possible explanations.
At the outset, Murray rejects the idea that American society and its institutions are systemically racist and that they are infected by White privilege. He does so with a call to return to what he terms the “American creed,” that embodies the “principles of liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, human rights, the rule of law, and private property.” He asserts that allegations of systemic racism in policing, education, and the workplace cannot be assessed without considering the realities of group differences in cognitive ability and violent crime.
Murray makes his case using statistical analysis across population groups with regard to intelligence and crime. Some of the numbers Murray puts forward are eye-opening. In Chapter 3, Murray shows the test score gap in K-12 education between White and Black students continues to persist, despite efforts to close it. In 1972, the cognitive gap between Whites and Blacks was 1.33 SDs (about 20 IQ points), but by 1987 that difference had fallen to .87 SDs (about 12 pts). By reference, Asians score about .3 SD higher than White students. However, the gap has remained constant between Whites and Blacks since 1987, despite a heavy focus on increasing test scores across the board, developments in multicultural education, and a reduction in racist test questions and curricula. Murray is careful to point out that these numbers are relevant for the general population as a whole and not indicative of any one person’s cognitive ability. “If you rely on the difference in means, you are going to make a huge number of mistakes about individuals,” he cautions.
Critics of these findings have suggested that the test score gap is meaningless since test scores do not reflect Black students’ true abilities. They allege systemic racism is the root cause of educational inequities. Murray argues that this line of reasoning does not “reflect reality.” Murray asserts that these differences in cognitive ability are real and have predictive value in terms of educational achievement and career advancement. The effects of the cognitive ability gap are exacerbated as IQ level increases. For example, while only 70% of the people who have IQs of 100 are of European or Asian descent, 96% of the people who have IQs of 140 are.
Murray goes on to state that these differences in cognitive ability have real world consequences. He notes a positive correlation between cognitive ability and job performance and that that increases in IQ scores are associated with increases in productivity. He also notes that the size of that correlation increases as the job becomes more cognitively complex. For example, Murray finds the race differences in the pass rate for the bar exam or for teachers rated as minimally effective or ineffective are commensurate with race differences in cognitive ability.
Not surprisingly, Murray is critical of affirmative action policies in education and employment. Since Blacks and Latinos are admitted with lower standardized test scores, it is axiomatic to Murray that these students end up concentrated in the bottom of their classes. Murray cites to a leaked version of the 1993 edition of the college admissions Red Book which showed that Blacks were admitted to top universities and colleges with SAT scores on average 180 points lower than their White peers. A typical White applicant to an Ivy League school or its equivalent needs an SAT score of 1500 or above to realistically gain admission. Murray notes that in a typical year, 27,500 White and 20,000 Asian students score 1500 or higher on the SAT nationwide while only 900 Black students do so. Thus, without affirmative action policies, the number of qualified Black applicants to elite schools would be dramatically reduced. The lowering of Black admission standards is repeated at each level of the university admissions process. Murray states that this results in “a cascading propagation of a large difference in the mean cognitive ability of African, European, and Asian undergraduates all the way down the line from elite schools to ordinary ones.”
While the numbers for cognitive ability are troubling, the numbers for violent crime are even more lopsided. Murray examined arrest data for violent crimes (such crimes are much less likely to be open to charges of differential treatment by racially motivated officers) and calculated the ratio of Blacks arrested for such crimes per 100,000 residents to that of Whites arrested for the same crimes. He found that the nationwide mean ratio in America’s largest cities is 11.2. In other words, Blacks are arrested 11 times more than Whites for violent crimes. That figure doubles to 23.7 when murder is looked at in isolation. To Murray, these figures, and not systemic racism, explain the disparity in arrest rates for Blacks in comparison to their percentage of the population.
The societal impacts of these numbers are significant as well. Although it is often assumed that racism plays a major role in big businesses such as mortgage lenders or supermarkets not locating branches in Black neighborhoods, Murray posits that crime rates (and the economic costs associated with them) in these neighborhoods play a far bigger factor. He declares that “opening a store in a big-city minority neighborhood is often not economically rational [due to the cost of crime]. Racism need not have anything to do with the decision.” He goes on to conclude that social programs are unlikely to reverse these trends. “The places where the need for social intervention is greatest are the places where they have the least chance of working. High crime is a big part of the reason.” Murray is adamant that a simple reflexive call to eradicate systemic racism will be insufficient to solve problems in the minority community. “Many of the problems are systemic, but they will not be solved by going after racism. They will be solved, or ameliorated, by going after systemic educational problems, systemic law enforcement problems, systemic employment problems. Those problems are exacerbated by individual racism. The racism is not systemic.”
In the final Chapter, Murray returns to his initial thesis that identity politics is ripping us apart at the seams. This is his most compelling message. He believes that a focus on group identity, as was once common among minority groups but is now spreading to the White middle and working class, is antithetical to our system of government that is designed to keep factions in check. He wants us to resist the call to engineer equal outcomes by “dispensing opportunities preferentially.” According to Murray, what “keeps us all safe” is the government’s impartiality.
Unlike the mainstream media and many in academia, Murray has his finger on the pulse of White, working-class America. He blames much of our recent political division on the backlash to Black (and White) Progressive leaders’ rhetoric about White privilege and systemic racism. He notes that many middle-class and working-class Whites are insulted by this charge and are pushing back. He believes this, along with a complete lack of faith in the federal government, have led to the red-blue divisions over seemingly nonpartisan topics such as election results, wearing masks, and getting vaccines. He cautions, “If working-class and middle-class Whites adopt identity politics, disaster follows.” Murray believes the solution is a return to the American creed. Despite this compelling call to action, I fear Murray’s plea will go unheeded. Many conservatives have become too enamored with the Trump election playbook to turn back. Liberals will simply discount Murray’s findings as racist and not give the book more serious consideration.
Ultimately, Facing Reality is notable for as much as what it doesn’t say as for it what it does. Murray never explores what factors may account for the initial improvement in IQ gap between Whites and Blacks but then led to its subsequent leveling off. Instead, he simply assumes that the problem is intractable. He also fails to investigate why there is such a disparity in White and Black violent crime arrest rates. Had he done so, Murray may have written a truly ground-breaking book. Without more, neither side of aisle is likely to change their minds about the root causes of racial differences and how to solve them.
