Smart people cooperate better

In an AEI article, Jason Richwine writes about the finding that “diverse” neighborhoods lead to lack of trust and cooperation. (Steve Sailer pointed me here.)

I wondered the same thing as Jason, but I will put it more bluntly. Is it really diversity that causes this problem, or one specific minority group, blacks? I find it hard to imagine that there is lots of trust in homogenously black neighborhoods. Just the opposite, all-black neighborhoods are the most crime-ridden. I would suspect that the percentage of the people with IQs below some threshold number, such as 85, is what leads to bad communities.

As un-PC as it is for Robert Putnam to point out that diversity is bad, it's even more un-PC for him to point out that black people are bad.

This reminds me of my old Apprentice blogging. In season three of The Apprentice, Donald Trump separated the participants into the college educated team and the non-college-educated team. Here is what I wrote about one episode:

The task for this episode was to run a run-down motel in Seaside Heights (boy, those places looked vaguely familiar!). The non-college educated team lost, and the project manager, Brian, was fired. And deservedly so.

In this episode we begin to see the difference between the college educated and the non-college educated, which is basically the difference between the lower classes and the middle/upper-middle class. The non-college educated team, basically, lacks class. They were screaming and yelling at each other, using the "F" word, and putting off the motel guests with their loudness. The ritualistic polite behavior of the college educates allows them to work better as a team.

Brian is supposedly a "self-made millionaire" at the age of 29. But he's also an abrasive moron with absolutely no self control. This proves that you can be a person with few redeeming qualities and still be successful in real-estate sales. A very important life lesson there.

The college-educated group, in other words the high-IQ group, cooperated better with each other. This was seen in many episodes from that season. Here is what I wrote about the famous cucumber episode:

Last week, Magna had the more creative idea and the executed it a lot better. It actually made sense to me, it shows the cucumber being washed, and then when the guy turns out to be homosexual, that part does add a new “twist.” It may not be suitable for broadcast TV, but I liked it nevertheless.

Net Worth lost the cucumber body wash assignment because they couldn’t get along. As I explained a few weeks ago, the ritualistic polite behavior of the college educates allows them to work better as a team.

Comments

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"Is it really diversity that causes this problem, or one specific minority group, blacks?"

Lower class Hispanics tend to be relatively dysfunctional, though not as bad as blacks.

[Peter]

"Is it really diversity that causes this problem, or one specific minority group, blacks? I find it hard to imagine that there is lots of trust in homogenously black neighborhoods."

Perhaps. Then again, I rather doubt you'd see much trust and cooperation in a West Virginia trailer camp.

[ac]

Yeah it would have been useful to break "diversity" down by specific races, rather than lumping it into white and other.

[Stopped Clock]

OK But the question he's asking is whether there's something about having a multiethnic neighborhood that is, in itself, bad? Or is it just that in America multiethnic neighborhoods tend to have large numbers of blacks and Hispanics. Canada, for example, has cities with relatively low crime rates where just about every ethnic group in the world is represented, but the proportions of "NAMs" are usually quite low. To a lesser extent you can find this in the Pacific states as well, and there are often suburbs with heavily Asian populations located within a reasonably convenient distance of more dangerous major cities. But would these suburbs and the relatively NAM-less cities be even better if they were simply 100 percent white? I dont think we can do any better than guessing.

[KaBoom]

-Perhaps. Then again, I rather doubt you'd see much trust and cooperation in a West Virginia trailer camp.-

I'll take the trailer park any day over this:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.ci.violence28jul28,0,6786209.story

WV ain't even close...

Of course, this "lack of cooperation" isn't limited to just other blacks:

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/manhattan/090813_suspects_shot_In_Harlem

However, we may have a solution to the "mistrust due to diversity" problem:

http://www.mossberg.com/images/Mossberg_Guns/930/New/50299.jpg

[nothing]

The more I read this blog, the more I despise the members of the lower classes. I used to have sympathy for the lower classes but after leaving the insulated environment of a college campus and venturing out into the "real world", that sympathy has significantly waned. I'm just trying to figure which type of lower class annoys me more. The ghetto blacks, white proles in the suburbs and cities, white proles who act ghetto, the Hispanics or rural and/or semi-rural whites.

I'm leaning more towards white, prole women who live in small towns--rural and semi-rural. At least black women with ghetto attributes can be somewhat funny. Prole women never seem to shut the hell up. And they seem to be everywhere! Where can I escape from these people? Seattle?

[sabril]

For what it may be worth, I live in a wealthy suburb of New York City which has a large population of (foreign born) Orientals as well as many foreign born whites. There is very little crime and for the most part things work pretty well. However, if people needed to get together and put down sandbags I doubt it would work as well as a typical town in northern New England or the Upper Midwest.

Moreover, in my town people don't have key parties and such whereas in another town in my county (which is 100% white) those things happen. That's fine by me, but it does suggest that diversity does produce a certain distance.

So yeah, I think that diversity per se tends to lead to a lack of trust and cooperation.

That said, I think that the presence of blacks (and to a lesser extent hispanics) has a much bigger impact. In my experience, even educated and wealthy blacks tend to be lacking in community spirit. Would Professor Gates volunteer to help put out sandbags in Cambridge? Somehow I doubt it.

My opinion only.

[JL]

"Is it really diversity that causes this problem, or one specific minority group, blacks?"

As far as I remember, Putnam's research indicated that immigrants (mainly Hispanics) were even more damaging for communities than blacks. Putnam operationalized "diversity" by using the four racial/ethnic categories white, black, Hispanic, Asian. The most homogeneously white neigborhoods had the highest social capital, and all diversity, including Asian, was shown to lead to lower social capital. Apparently, this was true of all groups, i.e. the presence of whites in a black community leads to lower social capital among the blacks, too. However, the effect was stronger for whites, that is, whites are more damaged by diversity than others.

Some of Putnam's results are tentative, and he has promised to do more research. So far he has published only one article on the topic, and even in it he tries furiously to downplay the inconvenient truth about multiculturalism by claiming that in the long run all will turn to good. One wonders how often social scientists leave politically incorrect results unpublished?

[Winston Smith]

Nothing, you say that you're always surrounded by proles. I hate to be the one who brings this up; however, has it occured to you that you might be one yourself and that is why their always around.

[JGP]

"Is it really diversity that causes this problem, or one specific minority group, blacks?"

Another factor is how long a community has been established. The level of cooperation among mid-westerners after floods, tornadoes etc reflects the fact that they have all lived there for decades. I doubt you would see that kind of cooperation in most white suburbs. So ethnicity plays a role but rootedness is important too.

[nothing]

"Nothing, you say that you're always surrounded by proles. I hate to be the one who brings this up; however, has it occured to you that you might be one yourself and that is why their always around."

Hahaha, no I work for a marketing firm. We hire temps all the time to do the "grunt work", like make random survey calls to people and asking them questions relating to our clients' product or service. These are primarily prole women who have really bad habits, like laughing uncontrollably about sadistic shit and treating the newer temps like garbage.

I also make trips to the grocery store, the jogging trail, restaurants, bars and to the beach; the proles are always there.

I was born into a middle-class family but went to a public school with many people from prole backgrounds. I was friends with a few of them, but they didn't last long as I hated their perverted demeanor and aggressiveness.

Anyway, I guess I was sort of being hyperbolic in my previous comment. So don't take it too seriously.

[The Engineer]

Peter, WV is one of the safer states, trailer parks or not.

[The Engineer]

Sabril, how on earth do you know there are "kay parties"?

I think that they're a myth perpetraited by Malcom X. ;)

Seriously, I've NEVER heard of REAL key parties happening, and I have lived in some of the WHITEST communities in America.

[Indict Janet Reno]

Whenever you see the Habitat for Humanity volunteers, it's two dozen white people building a house for a single black mother with three or four kids. Never, ever is there one black volunteer. Think about it.

p.s. Same thing when it comes to park or beach clean-up days.

[imposterjohn]

For what it may be worth, I live in a wealthy suburb of New York City which has a large population of (foreign born) Orientals as well as many foreign born whites. There is very little crime and for the most part things work pretty well. However, if people needed to get together and put down sandbags I doubt it would "work as well as a typical town in northern New England or the Upper Midwest.

Moreover, in my town people don't have key parties and such whereas in another town in my county (which is 100% white) those things happen. That's fine by me, but it does suggest that diversity does produce a certain distance.

So yeah, I think that diversity per se tends to lead to a lack of trust and cooperation."
-------------------------------------------------

Is it possible that there's a lack of cooperation because the population is largely foreign born and therefore many perhaps do not share a common first language?

[Fiona]

I remember that season too, I think Donald Trump himself leaning to ''Book Smart'' , he always emphasis his kids went to good school...

A recent movie I watched '' The YES Movie'' , some former apprentices in the film share their business stories.., quite interesting.

The film produced by Louis Lautman

www.TheYESmovie.com