Shouldn't there be an ASTERISK on that? Do we NOT believe our eyes? How about statistics? Let's take HEIGHT for example:
You'd think we might be ALLOWED to go to Holland and remark, "Say, you sure have a lot of TALL people here." We SHOULD also be allowed to point out that "the average Dutchman is way taller than the average Peruvian!" Here's the list of the countries with the SHORTEST people:
Isn't the big deal today "celebrating diversity?" We're supposed to be SO happy there are people of EVERY color, and EVERY religion, and EVERY height. Only we're really not allowed to say so. Sometimes.
STEREOTYPES, some Darwinian scholar might say, are often based in truth. The Jewish comedians of the 20th Century, the Mel Brooks and Milton Berle types, explained why so many comedians were Jewish: Jews had to be FUNNY to survive. They had to be useful in some way. If they weren't doctors, lawyers or accountants, they might be exterminated. If they didn't amuse the concentration camp guards by playing a violin like Heifitz or Menuhin, they'd be dead. If they didn't charm with jokes...including Myron Cohen starting his career as a funny salesman...they lived in poverty.
Is it possible that Asians are really good in math? Is that a BAD thing to say?
Is it racist to point out that a huge percentage of basketball players are BLACK? Gosh, why no Peruvians?
The New York Post gleefully noted that The New York Times revised an article for having the blasphemous NERVE to suggest that Jews are smart. In particular, Ashkenazi Jews.
You know what? Maybe the N.Y. Post should expose the RACIST INTERNET where every medical website points out that Jews, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, are more prone to Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease than others are. (And let's also point out those fucking racists who insist that only BLACKS get sickle cell anemia!)
Here's the Post:
You can't win. Every day there's some new PC rule, somebody thrown out of show business, somebody fired, and some idiot or other getting OFFENDED over what might be the truth. Is it racism or Darwin to suggest that only the most clever and talented Jews were able to survive all the pogroms and persecution? That only the fittest Africans, tall and muscular, were able to avoid being eaten by lions over these many centuries? That the French cookbook is a LOT more diverse than the English cookbook, or that recipes in Northern India or Northern Italy differ from ones in the Southern parts of those countries? Etc. etc. etc.
The big whine about the "Jews are smart" line, is that it's so RACIST because it suggests, gasps, that certain people are DIFFERENT from other people. You mean the pygmies and the Dinkas are the same height? Not different? We're not supposed to believe our own eyes?
The problem with stereotype is only when the word ALL is attached to it. Not ALL Asians are small. Sumo wrestlers aren't small. Not all Jews are accountants or comedians. Indeed, there are a lot of dumb and mediocre Jews, and you only have to visit Brooklyn to know that. There are generous Scotsmen. There are brave Frenchmen. There are Yorkshiremen who speak English properly. A Jewish woman can look like Joan Rivers or Lauren Bacall.
It's gotten to the point now that people can't open their mouths, write a few lines, or do ANYTHING without some naggy idiot pointing a finger and clucking a tongue and, worse, trying to censor and silence somebody else or make good on the threat "you'll NEVER work again."
The irony is that we are getting more and more sensitive in SOME ways, and more and more obtuse in others. For every woeful Debie Downer niggling over who can say the N word or its variant, "Nigga," or whether "fat shaming" is terrible or whether we should have an entire runway of models who look like garbage trucks, we still have boneheads who deny climate change, continue to smoke cigarettes, and delight in shouting "snowflake" at somebody who doesn't eat meat or thinks foie gras is a cruel and stupid product. There are people who mewl about abortion and cheer the death penalty. There are dumb arrogant people who think humans have the right to kill animals for fur and throw the carcass away...on the same pile as plastic bottles, paper towels, rubber tires and thousands of pounds of rotted food.
Yes, it could be offensive if, at a party, somebody says, "Oh, you Jews are all SO smart," or "you're black...you played basketball in school?" It might be better if people weren't condescending or so quick to judge someone on the basis of a stereotype. But it's also useful to acknowledge DIVERSITY, which is supposed to be a big deal now. Or are we supposed to have basketball teams that include Peruvians because size shouldn't matter, and dumbasses who failed their exams hired anyway to be doctors? Is it racist that when people go out to an Italian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, an Indian restaurant, a Fish and Chips restaurant, they expect their server to be as ethnic as the food? It's not racism, it's ambience.
Too often "PC" is an excuse to be stupid, gain control, or be Machiavellian. Aha, Senator Jellybrain thought, "Al Franken hugged a few women a little closer than he should've when they asked for a selfie -- I can become the LEADING LIBERAL SENATOR if I demand his resignation! Because...I am SHOCKED! SHOCKED! This is behavior worth a man LOSING HIS JOB!!"
Let's go back to the FACT that Ashkenazi Jews have a much higher rate of IBD and other issues. Do we DENY this because somebody might not hire an Ashkenazi Jew, figuring that person is going to have a lot of sick leave because it's POSSIBLE the odds are higher for IBD than somebody else? That's when things get nuts. Don't deny it. Accept it. And in every day life, explain your truth if somebody's pandering. It seems that less and less people do the stupid things that Lenny Bruce satirized in "How to Relax Your Colored Friends at Parties." Somebody is not as likely to go up to a black person and pander, "Joe Louis was a heckuva fighter." Or Mike Tyson. Or "Some of my best friends..." It's disappointing when it still happens, but it can be dealt with. As for this hoo-hah over the intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews in particular, or Jews in general, who knows? IQ tests are being debunked these days because they're "unfair." How does one measure intelligence? The same way one measures size?
But, go ahead, New York Times, be very careful the next time you dare mention that Peruvians are among the shortest people on earth. Put in an asterisk to denote there CAN be some very tall Peruvians. SOMEBODY might be offended if you don't.
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