OPINION: Why Liberals Can't Acknowledge Culture's Role In Black-White Test Scores Gap

 (Source: DS Bigham via Flickr)

The Black-White Test Score Gap. It is a disparity that has existed on standardized tests for decades. On exams that claim to measure reading, vocabulary and math skills, Blacks and Hispanics consistently underperform Asians and Whites. 

Conservatives have long blamed culture for this disparity, but Liberals often derided this as prejudiced and instead asserted that the cause is poverty, not culture. Hence, Liberals have now spent decades working to equalize Black schools to their White counterparts. They have increased teacher pay, school resources and the whole lot.

Yet, after equalizing all other variables and with still no change, some observers are coming back to what many Conservatives have been saying all along: it's culture.

So why have Liberals resisted culture as the explanation for the test score disparity? Why have they chased every other explanation to no avail while this explanation was here all along? 

Why Liberals Can't Accept It

It is because the insights in the cultural explanation of the test score gap are so destructive to the Liberal worldview that the Liberal has to avoid them or deny them in order to maintain his Liberal beliefs' appearance of legitimacy.

For example, Modern Liberalism is an ideology whose fundamental claim is that there is no such thing as objective morality. Instead, morality is whatever the community subjectively determines its should be. So while one community’s morality may be “true for them”, it is also true that another community’s opposite morality is equally “true for them” too. 

So there is no objective, transcendent morality in the Modern Liberal ideology, but only values that the community subjectively determines.

Therefore, one culture that a set of moral values produces (since morality is the basis of culture) is no more or less valid than another, given that the basis of culture is someone’s subjective determination. Russian culture is no more or less valid than African culture, and so on.

However, if morality is not subjective, but objective, then morality is transcendent, true and universally authoritative. 

Therefore, in the education debate, to come face-to-face with a culture that is objectively better than another--as one does when comparing the test score differences among ethnicity--presents a type of existential crisis for the Liberal. 

He cannot maintain his belief in the cultural relativism of Liberalism and simultaneously accept that Black and Hispanic cultures are just as valid as Asian and White culture, when Asians and Whites are outperforming Blacks and Hispanics.

In this case, contrary to morality being oppressive as Liberals have claimed throughout their history, in the test score scenario, morality is the prerequisite for prosperity.  

An Important Context

Now, before we proceed any further, it is important to place this conversation in its proper context. It is important to note here that many Blacks and Hispanics today are thriving. They are becoming doctors, lawyers, and accomplished intellectuals. However, at the same time, there is a large segment of these populations who are not thriving, but are still floundering as denoted by the test score gap. 

So as we proceed, it is important to put this discussion in its proper context and note that the test score score gap does not reflect all Blacks and Hispanics (nor all Asians and Whites). 

Why Asian and White Cultures Produce Better Academic Achievers

Consider this for evidence of the cultural superiority among the average Asian and White cultures relative to producing superior academic performance. Asian and White cultures, on average, welcome and celebrate individualistic achievement and academic success of their children far more often, while Black and Hispanic cultures generally discourage it. 

In fact, a Black student winning an academic scholarship to a prestigious school is generally more likely to earn him the accusation of "acting White" or of "wanting to be White" by his community than it is their celebration and acceptance. 

Likewise, a Hispanic or Latino student winning an academic scholarship can garner him the accusation of "turning his back on the family" or "on his people" and the values that shaped him. 

Among under performing Blacks and Hispanics, these cultures generally prioritize social cohesion and collective harmony over individual academic success. In contrast, Asian and White cultures generally celebrate individual achievement and praise those who stand out for academic accomplishments.

In this sense, it is no wonder that Asian and White cultures generally produce students who outperform Black and Hispanic students, given the tremendous social costs upon Blacks and Hispanics for academic success. It is no wonder that teacher pay raises or more material resources at a school did not overcome this deterrent.

By this analysis, Asian and White cultures are superior in producing academic high achievers primarily because they are able to value individual achievement without an expense to social cohesion.

Cultural Explanation Undermines Liberal Worldview

Now, in the cultural explanation for Asian and White students academic success, one finds a scenario in which the observer sees across cultures evidence of an ideal set of moral values, ones that lead to human flourishing, not evidence that “anything goes” among various cultures.  

These points of evidence direct the observer to the conclusion that there is a transcendent set of moral values as well as a transcendent, universal moral order (just as adherents to traditional morality have historically claimed).

So in the cultural explanation of the test score gap, the Liberal observers find evidence of a cross-cultural, transcendent moral order that, when obeyed, leads to human prosperity. As one Conservative commentator wrote (paraphrasing), "If Black parents would focus as relentlessly as Asian parents on their child's school attendance and performance, on monitoring homework completion and grades, then they would likely see their child's performance reach higher levels of academic achievement." 

This observation of a cross-cultural, transcendent moral order completely undermines fundamental assumptions in Liberalism.

What It Would Take

The only way for the Liberal to accept that culture is the reason for the disparity in The Black-White Test Score Gap is for him to abandon his Liberalism, which many will not do. Instead, as the introduction to this article described, many Liberals will ignore such conclusions, even for decades on end while the test score gap remains.

Liberals’ refusal to abandon Liberalism in the face of empirical evidence that refutes its founding assumptions shows that these adherents have another interest in Liberalism aside from its veracity (which it does not have). 

Liberalism's Utility For The Irresponsible

This is because, even though false, Liberalism provides a form of legitimacy for irresponsible, immoral behavior among its adherents.

Therefore, in order for its adherents to maintain Liberalism’s legitimacy, they have to avoid or outright deny evidence that could lead to the discovery of inconvenient truths, such as the ones that the cultural explanation for the test score gap provide. 

Where Credit Is Due

However, to their credit, there are many Liberals who, at the discovery of irrefutable empirical evidence, do abandon their Liberalism for more honest positions. Many are now influential Conservatives, such as Economist Thomas Sowell, who was formally a Marxist, but abandoned his Marxism after it failed to explain what he daily saw in the inner city.

However, the Liberals who avoid accepting the cultural explanation for The Black-White Test Score Gap, do so, not because it is untrue, but because they don’t want it to be true! They are willing to put off the conclusion for a long as they can because they find other utility in Liberalism, such as its ability to provide an enabling narrative for irresponsible behavior. 

For example, the abdication of family duty to government welfare, the decimation of marriage for no-fault divorce; these activities all find their legitimacy in Liberalism, which seeks to liberate the self to a point of unlimited autonomy. Liberalism asserts morality is oppressive and that it constrains the autonomous self. 

Conclusion  

The insights in the cultural explanation of The Black-White Test Score Gap are so destructive to the Liberal worldview that the Liberal has to avoid them or even deny them in order to maintain the appearance of legitimacy in Liberalism. This is why the cultural explanation goes on for so long without Liberal acknowledgement.

Generally speaking, Liberals are in denial about life in the real world. This is why they cannot accept the cultural explanation for the test score gap, because it has implications for their own personal life which they are already trying to escape. They are never going to acknowledge this until they address the personal reasons for their flight from reality.

Until then, it is important for others to know that it's not you. It's them!