Louis Farrakhan’s Visit to Los Angeles

As a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I take exception to the claim of Fairchild, the national president of the Assn. of Black Psychologists, that “Distinguished professors at the University of California . . . are making their careers in an effort to demonstrate the biological superiority of whites and the genetic inferiority of blacks and other minorities.” Fairchild fails to distinguish between the terms “racial difference” and “racial superiority.” The former neither implies the latter nor does it justify any form of differential social treatment.

Racial differences do occur as anyone can see. They are not surprising considering the thousands of years of human evolution under different environmental, physical and cultural pressures.

How does a democracy cope with differential talents among racial groups? One policy, espoused by Arthur R. Jensen, a professor of educational psychology at UC Berkeley, who has investigated psychological differences among racial and ethnic groups, is that, “It is unjust to allow the mere fact of an individual’s racial or social background to affect the treatment accorded him. All persons rightfully must be regarded on the basis of their individual qualities and merits, and all social, educational, and economic institutions must have built into them the mechanisms for insuring and maximizing the treatment of persons according to their individual behavior.”

These policy differences must be resolved by democratic processes. Reliable scientific knowledge can be helpful in designing an effective and compassionate social policy.

HOWARD H. KENDLER

Santa Barbara