Getting Schooled by an Anonymous “black Woman” Genius

By Nicholas Stix

What do we think of this? pic.twitter.com/UxoU2X8ZXP

— Edward Dutton (@jollyheretic) February 1, 2023

At the since dormant Website, 100 Reasons to Not Go to Graduate School, I once noted the decline of academic standards in higher ed. A black female responded to me, convinced she was refuting me (she was in some affirmative action program for brain science).

I responded as follows, to a previous writer.

@Lazy, Anon PC November 10, 2010 11:18 AM

How can telling the truth “undercut” one’s “credibility”?

Most colored people admitted to highly selective undergraduate and graduate programs are manifestly unqualified, and are admitted via affirmative action. This has been shown to be the case so many times that if you truly aren’t aware of it, you’re unforgivably ignorant. However, your assumption of the validity of “disparate impact” theory (“underrepresented”) points to dishonesty, rather than ignorance.

Admitting unqualified people dumbs down an institution, as the night follows the day.

As for your scorn of history, the most demanding undergraduate college in American history was the old City College of New York (CCNY), before it was destroyed 40 years ago, in order to admit semi-literate and functionally illiterate blacks and Hispanics. As James Traub observed in his book City on a Hill, most of the brilliant, predominantly Jewish students who attended City during its glory years (and a great many of whom later attended grad school) endured much worse poverty than the overwhelmingly incompetent black and Hispanic students who succeeded them, and who destroyed City.

December 17, 2010 12:50 AM

My comment inspired the following response which, until I read its very last word, I wasn’t even sure was directed at me.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, author, you have not been to graduate school. Pity.
(For the record, I'm a black woman studying computational neuroscience at one of the top 10 medical research schools in the nation (I don't put race on my applications). My father, an immigrant to this country, studied organic chemistry at a graduate level and was associate director of a *very* large pharmaceutical company before retiring. Suck it Nicholas.)


My response follows.

Dear Anonymous “Black Woman” Genius (“ABWG”),

The only reason I am even aware that your post was a “response” to mine is that you insulted me by name, though you neglected to sign your own. An oversight, that, no doubt.

Your post does not respond to a thing I said. Still, I know that you are a genius, because you left no doubt, and because I know that all black women are geniuses, except for those who have either been held back by racist white male morons like me (please pardon the redundancy), and those (e.g., meritocrats and conservatives) who fail to recognize the genius inherent in being a black woman. Ultimately, I know of black women’s genius, because black women constantly announce the fact.

In your meta-parenthetical, ABWG, you maintain that:

1. I have not attended grad school;
2. You pity me;
3. You are a black woman;
4. You are studying computational neuroscience at one of the top 10 medical research schools in the nation;
5. You don't put race on your applications;
6. Your father is an immigrant who studied organic (presumably for a master’s, since you would have said if he’d earned a doctorate), and was an AD at a pharma giant; and
7. You are the offspring of a wealthy family.

Even if I were to believe all of your variously unsupported, erroneous, and disingenuous assertions, none is in the least germane to my comment.

The literature, both scholarly and journalistic, on affirmative action in higher ed is copious. As a smugly superior BWG, surely you must know this.

And yet, if you are such a genius, why would you post a comment that is full of irrelevancies?

On one point, however, I do believe you: You are a black woman. Certain characteristics are typical of BWGs, including but not limited to:

• Responding to arguments they hate with irrelevancies;
• Displaying toxic levels of self-esteem; and
• A willful refusal to distinguish between the individual case and the class.

I look forward to the next time you deign to school me, ABWG.

Love,

Nicholas Stix
February 7, 2011 10:40 PM

I have not heard from ABWG since.