{"id":737,"date":"2004-05-27T10:18:42","date_gmt":"2004-05-27T17:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/05\/unfinished_business_2\/"},"modified":"2004-05-27T10:18:42","modified_gmt":"2004-05-27T17:18:42","slug":"unfinished_business_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/05\/unfinished_business_2.html","title":{"rendered":"UNFINISHED BUSINESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before taking a few days off for the long Memorial Day weekend, we feel an obligation to
\naddress some unfinished business: a recent email exchange with blogger Steve Sailer involving the
\nitem “Scraping Bottom”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>
\n(May 10), which followed up on an earlier item, “The Spectrum from Blue to Red”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> (May 5). If
\nposting the exchange smacks of a little too much inside baseball, we apologize. <\/P>
\n

—– Original Message —–
From: SteveSlr@aol.com
To:
\njherman@artsjournal.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 8:01 PM
Subject:
\n“Anti-Semitic slur”?<\/P>
\n

You posted:
\n


\n


\n

SCRAPING BOTTOM<\/I><\/P>
\n

Thanks to anti-liberal columnist and blogger Steve Sailer for clarifying the chart that
\ncorrelated state-by-state average IQs and income with the votes for Bush or Gore in the 2000
\npresidential election. When we posted the item “The Spectrum from Blue to Red,” we wrote:
\n“The chart that explains it all for you” (an homage to Christopher Durang’s outrageous satire,
\n“Sister Mary Explains It All For You,” which drove conservatives nuts). We also wrote that the
\nchart “could be a joke,” but “if so, it’s a good one. No worse, certainly, than the outcome” of the
\nelection.<\/I><\/P>
\n

The trouble with Sailer’s clarification is that he gets to the bottom of things by scraping
\nbottom with an anti-Semitic slur when he writes that “anyone familiar with the topic would
\nquickly recognize the fallaciousness of the data. The 113 [IQ] figure for Connecticut is way too
\nhigh. That’s about what Connecticut would be if it was all-Jewish.”<\/I><\/P>
\n

posted by janherman @ Monday, May 10, 2004 | Permanent
\nlink\/<\/I><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Dear Sir or Madam:<\/P>
\n

You accused me of making an anti-Semitic slur, which is a very serious accusation, by
\nmentioning that the average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews in America is around 113.<\/P>
\n

Considering that you slurred Republicans by publishing fraudulent IQ data, I’d be fascinated
\nto learn the logic by which you arrived at the conclusion that I slurred Jews by mentioning
\naccurate data. I’m familiar with about ten different estimates of American Jewish IQs published in
\nrefereed scientific journals. They range from 107.5 to 118. The scientist who is currently working
\nthe most on this topic told me that 113 is the best estimate. All the real world correlates of IQ —
\neducational level, income, scientific and literary accomplishments, etc. — are roughly in line with
\nthat figure.

You seem to be implying that Jews are less intelligent. Besides apologizing
\nto me, you should apologize for making an anti-Semitic slur.

Steve Sailer<\/P>
\n

—– Original Message —–
From: jherman@artsjournal.com
To:
\nSteveSlr@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 7:42 PM
Subject: Re: “Anti-Semitic
\nslur”?<\/P>
\n

Dear Mr. Sailer —

You just don’t get it. What was the point of singling out the
\nJews as a group? It doesn’t matter what their collective IQ is, high or low. They as a group had
\nnothing to do with the issue you’re so riled up about. By singling them out in the way you did
\nyou’re trying to paint them as some sort of “other,” something separate and alien, which is at the
\nroot of anti-Semitism. There also seemed to me an implicit ridicule. Why didn’t you name some
\nother group? Why choose the Jews? Further, in harping on how I fell for a hoax, you conveniently
\nignored what I wrote in my original post of the chart: “This could be a joke. If so, it’s a good one.
\nNo worse, certainly, than the outcome of the 2000 election.”

Sincerely,
Jan
\nHerman<\/P>
\n

Footnote:<\/B> Sailer never mentioned “Ashkenazi” Jews in his original blog. Even if he
\nhad, singling them out among Jews in general because of some actual study, worthy or not (which
\nalso went unmentioned), would not have mitigated the offense.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before taking a few days off for the long Memorial Day weekend, we feel an obligation to address some unfinished business: a recent email exchange with blogger Steve Sailer involving the item “Scraping Bottom” (May 10), which followed up on an earlier item, “The Spectrum from Blue to Red” (May 5). If posting the exchange […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-bT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}