HBD isn’t predictive; it’s a null hypothesis. The predictive claim is the inverse: that there aren’t substantial ability differences between racial groups. Unfortunately you do have to mention race because that’s the claim that people are making; obviously the group of MIT students has a different mean IQ from the general population. So differences in outcome are because of different starting conditions, racism, or culture.
In particular, a belief in ~HBD means that, when black kids don’t get into Harvard at population-representational rates, the system is unfair SOMEWHERE. Maybe it’s a problem with lousy schools, maybe there’s racism in college admissions, maybe it’s generational poverty. But, as a society that values fairness, we have a duty to figure out what’s going wrong and try to fix it.
With ~HBD, the system is unfair and we have a duty to fix it. With HBD, the way things are might be fair and something like affirmative action might actually be unjust. That doesn’t mean they necessarily are fair—just because groups can be different doesn’t preclude racism—just that they aren’t automatically unfair.
HBD isn’t predictive; it’s a null hypothesis. The predictive claim is the inverse: that there aren’t substantial ability differences between racial groups. Unfortunately you do have to mention race because that’s the claim that people are making; obviously the group of MIT students has a different mean IQ from the general population. So differences in outcome are because of different starting conditions, racism, or culture.
In particular, a belief in ~HBD means that, when black kids don’t get into Harvard at population-representational rates, the system is unfair SOMEWHERE. Maybe it’s a problem with lousy schools, maybe there’s racism in college admissions, maybe it’s generational poverty. But, as a society that values fairness, we have a duty to figure out what’s going wrong and try to fix it.
With ~HBD, the system is unfair and we have a duty to fix it. With HBD, the way things are might be fair and something like affirmative action might actually be unjust. That doesn’t mean they necessarily are fair—just because groups can be different doesn’t preclude racism—just that they aren’t automatically unfair.