Facing Reality

Two Truths About Race in America

By: Charles Murray

Narrated by: Robert Rivington

Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability. The allegations of racism in policing, college admissions, segregation in housing, and hiring and promotions in the workplace ignore the ways in which the problems that prompt the allegations of systemic racism are driven by these two realities.

What good can come of bringing them into the open? America’s most precious ideal is what used to be known as the American Creed: People are not to be judged by where they came from, what social class they come from, or by race, color, or creed. They must be judged as individuals. The prevailing progressive ideology repudiates that ideal, demanding instead that the state should judge people by their race, social origins, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.

We on the center left and center right who are the American Creed’s natural defenders have painted ourselves into a corner. We have been unwilling to say openly that different groups have significant group differences. Since we have not been willing to say that, we have been left defenseless against the claims that racism is to blame. What else could it be? We have been afraid to answer. We must. Facing Reality is a step in that direction.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Cox and Murray, Inc. (P)2021 Black Hills Audiobooks LLC

Thank you for writing this

Murray does a great job laying out the facts and shows that their are group differences. It’s important to acknowledge these. Please share with your liberal friends. If your reading my review and don’t know who Tom Sowell is look him up right now. Read his books watch him on YouTube!

Why, Charles Murray, why?

After the negative reception of The Bell Curve (1994) which Murry coauthored why would Charles Murray write another book about race and intelligence? He's stupid, as in not intelligent, is the answer. Oh, I'm sure that he aces IQ tests but is it intelligence they measure? FACING REALITY would be a much better book if it made the same points about cultural issues rather than race and intelligence. Negative culture rather than low intelligence is what Murray is really concerned about but at age 78 (my current age, by the way) he is so dug in to the his intelligence argument that he fails to see the obvious.

Until I retired my career was in a senior manager with successful manufacturing business. With rare exception those with high intelligence scores were not our best and most productive employees. In fact most of them were marginal performers at best. I fired quite a number of people with intelligence scores greater than 130 for failure to do an acceptable job or their lack of willingness to work well with others. I came to the inescapable conclusion that intelligence tests measure something other than intelligence. I believe it is likely comfort taking tests.

Professor and economist Glenn Loury of Brown University who is black is a huge fan of this book. He likes Murray's reliance on data to make his points. He also agrees with Murray that we are close to ending the US political experiment in abject failure (I also agree with that). The US was founded on the concept of individualism rather than groups. Identity politics is far and away the greatest threat to our future as a country. The concept is destructive. Murray said he released this book in a last ditch effort to avoid political catastrophe for our country. Facing Reality gives ammunition to Americas enemies within.

A Fact-Based Analysis of Racial Differences

This book is terrific. But, boy, how do you insert the information into a conversation without raising the temperature in the room?

The author documents and explains why we won't have equality of outcomes (equity) among populations (he explains why "races" isn't the right term), whether equity is based on each population's percentage of the overall population or some higher target.

Among his most important points:

* Of a population of IQs of 135 or higher (necessary to be an effective law-firm partner, surgeon, CEO, professor in a rigorous discipline, engineer, etc.), four are Latin, one is African, and three are mixed race. Those eight are competing with 92 peers from the European or Asian population. These odds are real.

* Arguments that standardized testing (IQ, SAT, MCAS/LSAT/GRE) inherently discriminate against non-European populations has not been confirmed in any meaningful study. And anecdotally, if the tests underprojected the academic or professional performance of any population, we'd see case studies, newspaper headlines, further academic research, and an abandonment of these tests as predictors. But we don't.

* Rates of violent and property crimes aren't evenly distributed across populations. Perpetrators and victims are concentrated in the African population in certain ZIP codes and sub-ZIP codes in major urban areas. This activity has a direct correlation on earnings (as well as overall lifestyle).

* Government spending appears to be ineffective in raising certain populations' cognitive abilities or reducing crime. And some solutions that appear to have a positive effect - freeing families to abandon government-controlled schools in favor of schools that must compete for students and cracking down on crimes in certain urban neighborhoods - are most vociferously opposed by the very people who are most likely to favor equity.

This is a powerful book with persuasive conclusions backed by meta studies (rigorous analysis of rigorous studies already conducted).

The author makes clear the importance of distinguishing between the subpopulation and individuals. On average, Africans score lower on cognitive ability on multiple intelligence tests. That doesn't mean that ALL Africans do. This concept should be apparent to any pro football fan w ho knows that all cornerbacks are black because the fastest black players are faster than the fastest white players. But Aaron Donald would be far less effective at cornerback than would a number of white teammates who are faster than he.

But as well documented as the author's conclusions are, I find it hard to determine how to inject them into a conversation on this topic. The world today is so woke and so quick to label as "racist" anyone who points out a single characteristic that might explain differences in achievement among populations. But this information is important in any rational discussion of outcomes.

mandatory

thorough, depressing, truth, we need to start thinking rationally and unemotionally about these issues or the American experiment will end

Compelling Research

It is a pleasure to read substantive material that takes the occasion to quantitatively support ideas objectively. The author tries to convince the reader with applicable discussions of extensively gathered data. Compelling research about a difficult subject.*Audible customers may download the pdf file with supporting data, so there is no reason not to obtain this excellent book.

American of Mexican descent.

As a libertarian-conservative who happens to be Mexican, I’ve been warning anyone who will listen that identity politics is a mortal threat this beautiful experiment we call the US of A. Literature such as this goes far to raise the alarm for those good people who are governed by reason and logic as opposed to ignorance and emotion.

Well Researched Book

Excellent book. Very well researched. a bit dry in some parts, but definitely worth reading.

Excellent read

This was extremely well written and straight to the point. The warning is extremely dire and I hope it never comes to pass.

The only thing that I would critique is the length, it needs to be much longer.

a must read for every American

an accurate fact based presentation of how we got to this point in America.

Charles Murray is brilliant.

Charles Murray is brilliant. His books are well worth the study. Not fluff reading! Scholarly and academic.

Truths people are too scared to speak

The west is racist against whites, here’s the proof. Colourblind meritocracy is the only way to run a society - we need to start saying that LOUDLY and OFTEN.

Reality may not be soft and fuzzy, but it still is

Not many fearless, truth at any cost writers left out there. Vast majority of social scientists wouldn't touch this issue with a 20ft pole out of fear and cowardice but here comes Murray and nails it straight on the head.

Excellent review of the literature

Great concise review of the literature surrounding group differences in IQ, crime, and employment. Cannot recommend enough.

An uncomfortable topic.

An extremely uncomfortable topic for any decent person but one that must be discussed and understood.
Murray is rational and based is fact. It is telling that non of his critics can confront him in the facts. They all play the man and not the ball.

This should be a handbook for those of us who reject identity politics

An excellent up to date exposition of the literature. We should all carry this around in our top pocket (so to speak) so that we can draw on this knowledge to refute many of the common claims of the identity politics crowd. I’ve just ordered the hard cover. Human Diversity has a permanent place on my desk for this reason and this is the perfect companion. Thank you, Charles.