Singer/songwriter Randy Newman salutes “Korean Parents,” reports the LA Times Music Blog:
Randy Newman’s getting his apologies out of the way early. His new album, “Harps & Angels,” isn’t out until Aug. 5, but he knows he’s going to take some hits for the song “Korean Parents,” a portrait of race relations as played out in public education.
Some Jewish kids still trying
Some white kids trying too
But millions of real American kids don’t have a clue
Right here on the lot
We got the answer
A product guaranteed to satisfy …Korean parents for sale
You say you need a little discipline
Someone to whip you into shape
They’ll be strict but they’ll be fairLook at the numbers
That’s all I ask
Who’s at the head of every class?
You really think they’re smarter than you are
They just work their asses off
Their parents make them do it …
All I can think of is the poor schmuck who got arrested in Vancouver after he flew in from Korea for the expressed purpose of caning his son for playing hookie and mouthing off to his mother.
(HT to reader)
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
“Some Jewish kids still trying
Some white kids trying too
But millions of real American kids don’t have a clue”
America’s demographic now consists of Jewish,White and real American. Thank you for clearing that up Mr. Newman.
Reminds me of Russell Peter’s stand-up on his Indian Canadian parents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5jlrxcpkI
Funny shit…
… oh and my parents beat the living snot out of me.
… [sarcasim on] and look at how good I turned out! [sarcasim off]
“Some Jewish kids still trying.”
“Some White Kids Trying, too.”
I’m sure Newman knows that nearly all Jewish kids are white, so I think this song is a satirical poke at stereotypes. If you’re still not convinced, look at the next line:
“But millions of REAL Americans don’t have a clue.” Satire and stereotypes contain kernels of truth, but they shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
“You really think they’re smarter than you are[?]”
Yes, I do, on average at least, and marginally, with an IQ of 106 compared to the American average of 98. (See Smart Koreans for more.)
That said, I think the much-touted Korean homogeneity has led to a rather narrow standard deviation when it comes to intelligence, i.e. one encounters a lot of average and slightly above average people but few real geniuses (or idiots for that matter). In America, we have a lot more of all types.
Also, it has been pointed out that geniuses tend to be individualist jerks, that is, they don’t get along well with others and tend not to be team players, things that are necessary to survive in the “context-rich” societies of Eastasia. In the West, you can still (sometimes) find your place if you’re smart but weird. I’d hate to have Asperger’s Syndrome in Korea.
I had a look at your post, WC, and the embedded links. The learning of Chinese characters and high math scores is correlation, not causation, despite speculation about spatial reasoning and higher math scores. I think one reason among many why Asian children perform so well in math is that the Sino-based terminology is easier to understand and remember than the multisyllabic, tongue-twisting gifts from Latin and Greek.
At least there’s no talk of race and genes. I believe that IQ is more nature than nurture, but environment accounts for something like 30%. East Asians eat lots of fish and other foods rich in DHA and EPA needed for brain development. Moreover, small, stable families provide more enriching childhood experiences. When one considers the standard American diet and the home and school environments of our children, it is no surprise that our average IQ doesn’t even crack the 100 mark.
We’z be reel dum.
@5
And we can trust those numbers to be as accurate as a Korean cloning experiment. Oh, and genetic homogeneity (read: inbreeding) usually leads to mental retardation, not higher IQs…
I don’t put too much importance on IQ test scores because, with practice, they can be improved. They don’t measure intelligence as much as they measure one’s problem solving strategies.
PS. I’m way up in the IQ scale, in the top half of the top percentile…Trust me, I’m no genius.
Ah, it’s good to know that scientific racism is still alive and well. Ability to parse satire, however, is not, especially in the United States, as Acropolis and others show.
Y’know, Newman is Jewish. And he’s always played around with stereotypes and with making his critics trip over themselves. Back in 1973 or so, he wrote a song called “Rednecks”, inspired by a white racist politician’s appearance on Dick Cavett’s TV show. It began: “Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show / With some smart-ass New York Jew.” Cavett, of course, is not Jewish; he’s a Midwestern goy, but as Newman explained to interviewers, he was writing from the point of view of someone who thinks everybody in New York City is a Jew. (A lot of people have also had trouble grasping that the “I” in many or most of his songs is not Newman.)
WC,
I’ve read those studies as well, which I think was outlined in “IQ and the Wealth of Nations.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=KQ4rLiAbHQQC&dq=iq+and+the+wealth+of+nations&pg=PP1&ots=IrpWvs4ZlS&sig=WkRIWQRXq6WYNks4iivh6Ap8LwI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPR5,M1
Essentially states that rich countries tend to have higher IQs. However, the determining factor beyond IQ was resources. So you can have Saudi Arabia, which only has an average IQ of 83, be freak’in rich because it’s sitting on top of a grip load of oil. The U.S.’s average IQ is 98, which is close to Mongolia’s and Argentina’s, but due to their superior resource base and scale (i.e. size) it’s the largest economy in the world.
The authors also talked about how the higher IQs tend to be concentrated in northern nations, which means that cold weather may have helped natural selection pick smarter people. I mean hell, you need to have superior problem solving and resource allocation skills if you are not surrounded by a bunch of coconut trees and abundant wild game.
IQ having a positive correlation to the “wealth” of a nation is clearly a controversial subject in light of political correctness. However, I believe it’s a subject that should be discussed free from prejudice it itself.
The authors also identified two other basic skills that affect the success of nations. The emotional quotient (EQ) and the social quotient (SQ). It appears that East Asian nations score lower in these two other categories, sometimes lower then African nations (which tend to do well in the SQ scores). This could partially explain why East Asian nations realized modernization later than the West.
He’s made a whole career of satirizing racial stereotypes. Witness “Rednecks”, which despite the title and the chorus is really an attack on northern whites:
We’re rednecks, rednecks
And we don’t know our ass from a hole in the ground
We’re rednecks, we’re rednecks
And we’re keeping the niggers down
Now your northern nigger’s a Negro
You see he’s got his dignity
Down here we’re too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free
Yes he’s free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he’s free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he’s free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They’re gatherin’ ‘em up from miles around
Keepin’ the niggers down
Northern nations like Japan, Korea, Sweden, and Norway eat a lot of cold-water fish like salmon and halibut, which are higher in brain-friendly omega-3 fatty acids (keeps the blood from freezing), DHA, and EPA .
Yup. Success isn’t just a matter of IQ. In fact, something called “executive function,” the ability to resist distractions (another word for self-discipline) matters more than IQ for long-term success in learning and life. The EF person is the opposite of the ADD or ADHD person. Research studies have demonstrated success in developing the EF of preschool children, teaching them to focus on one thing and ignore other things.
Not all hot climates are endowed with coconut trees and wild game. Surviving in semi-arid or arid climates like Saudi Arabia’s or North Africa’s is probably a greater challenge than living near the Arctic Circle, but those places don’t have high IQs, do they?
“Yup. Success isn’t just a matter of IQ. In fact, something called “executive function,” the ability to resist distractions (another word for self-discipline) matters more than IQ for long-term success in learning and life.”
I have an even simpler analogy. No matter how great and function filled a camera is, if it can’t focus, it’s useless.
Your analogy is perfect.
# 13,
I believe Africa was warmer and more tropical a million to 500k years ago. But good point nonetheless.
Check out where the theory comes from and decide for yourself.
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2006/03/winters_are_goo.php
http://www.vdare.com/rushton/060322_iq.htm
Sonagi,
The dissenting view would be Jared Diamond, who makes it abundantly clear that it’s not better genes, but it’s culture that makes one civilization (or people group) more advanced than another.
I’m familiar with VDARE and believers in the race/genes-IQ connection. I do not accept it at all. Dr. Ronald Ferguson, a Harvard education researcher specializing in equity, gave a presentation at our district last year. He presented a wealth of research data supporting that racial/socioeconomic achievement gaps are environmental, not genetic and can be closed with effective early intervention. Some data he presented:
1. If whites have genetically higher IQs than blacks, blacks with more European ancestry should have higher IQs than blacks with mostly African ancestry when other variables are the same. They don’t.
2. From the early 70s to mid-1980s, the reading achievement gap between blacks and white closed dramatically. Whites made gains but blacks made even greater gains. Now the gap has stalled.
3. Research on early intervention shows that kids from disadvantaged backgrounds can catch up to middle-class peers with effective strategies.
About 30% of IQ is environmentally determined. That is a significant amount. Moreover, as already noted, IQ alone does not guarantee success.
The northern hypothesis is refuted simply by looking at the world IQ map. The Asian cluster is at a mid-Northern latitude. Indigenous peoples further north have lower IQs. I don’t know much about Jared Diamond’s culture hypothesis, but since culture is environmental, I’d probably find it more plausible.
One final note about IQ: IQ tests and academic learning focus on verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligence. Harvard psychologist Dr. Howard Gardner pioneered multiple intelligences, starting with seven and expanding to eight. Our ancestors would have found spatial intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, and interpersonal intelligence highly important to survival. I often think about this when I am trying to force a wiggly six-year-old to read words. His abundant physical energy and desire to explore freely would have been an asset up until the development of mass education 100 years ago.
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