NFL is pressured to stop using racial data

A SciAm opinion column by a couple of Black female academics argues:

On June 2, 2021, the National Football League (NFL) announced it would discontinue the use of race norming—the practice of assuming a lower baseline of cognitive abilities in Black players—in legal settlements for concussion-related injuries. ...

“Black former players are automatically assumed (through a statistical manipulation called ‘race-norming’) to have started with worse cognitive functioning than White former players. As a result, if a Black former player and a White former player receive the exact same raw scores on a battery of tests designed to measure their current cognitive functioning, the Black player is presumed to have suffered less impairment, and he is therefore less likely to qualify for compensation,” their lawsuit contended.

Okay, but was that assumption correct? The column does not offer any data to contradict it.

For the NFL, race norming depends on the belief that race is a binary, biological concept, and therefore that differences in Black bodies and minds are not only existent, but quantifiable. But they’re wrong on all accounts: race norming is an inherently anti-Black form of scientific racism that is evidence of slavery’s afterlife.

Yes, race is a biological concept, and racial differences are quantifiable. I would not call it binary, because there are more than two races, but the big majority of NFL players are either White or Black.

In nephrology, eGFR, another race-normed test, is the gold standard for measuring kidney function. This test measures levels of creatine and adjusts for gender, age and race. In 1999, a study developed a statistical prediction equation for eGFR based on race because scientists “determined” that Black people’s muscle mass “on average” was higher than white people’s — which they argued leads to higher kidney function. This deduction is not only flawed because race is not biological (nor is it genetically linked), but also because the muscle mass of living humans simply cannot be measured feasibly in clinics, according to nephrologist Nwamaka D. Eneanya.

This is a lot of politically motivated nonsense, for a science journal. Of course race is biological and genetically linked. That is why the DNA testers can reliably tell you your race from a saliva sample.

I post this to show how racist politics have corrupted science and colleges. There is not even an attempt to present data or make accurate statement. It is all just blaming Whites for events centuries ago.

I just listened to yesterday's NY Times Daily news podcast, and it was mostly an interview with a Black Evanston Illinois councilwoman who successfully pushed for Black reparations.

She said she grew in Evanston, and never suffered from any racism. She was captain of the high school cheerleader squad. Maybe if she were White she might have gotten a date with the quarterback, but that's all.

The argument for reparations is that a century ago, a bunch of low IQ high crime Blacks moved into Evanston, and were expected to live with other low IQ high crime Blacks. Apparently the worst indignity suffered by Blacks was being expected to live with other Blacks.

The money is being collected from marijuana taxes, and paid into some Black housing program. The main complaints were from Blacks who just want straight cash now. The Black councilwoman said she would have like to spent money on Black mental health and other services.

If having to live among Blacks is such a terrible thing, then the Whites are the primary victims. Evanstan was once a White town, until Blacks moved into White land, and brought their problems. The reparations committees made no attempt to measure damages to Whites. A race-neutral investigation would do that.

If Blacks want to move to a country where Blacks have taken power from White oppressors, they can try Haiti or South Africa.