Some years ago I attended a humanist conference. In attendance were African American humanist scholar Anthony Pinn and my old colleague, Verle Muhrer, of Kansas City. Pinn was astounded to hear some cold, callous remarks coming from a self-professed humanist. I told Pinn that it should not be surprising that humanists are capable of such callousness. After all, they are fallible human beings. Moreover, I pointed out that some humanists imagine themselves to be completely objective and above and beyond any negative influences of their culture, history, etc. This prompted Muhrer to say that perhaps we need a book titled “The Arrogance of Humanism” to complement Forrest Woods’ excellent book, “The Arrogance of Faith” — a superb critique of the role of biblical teachings in the defense of slavery.

“Does any snowflake in an avalanche ever really feel responsible?”

In light of the verdict of not guilty handed down by the Black-free Southern jury in the George Zimmerman case, many people are calling for soul-searching, the always predictable but never initiated, let alone completed, national discussion on race, etc. I will not write about the disgust I felt after the verdict. However, one respondent brought a lot of thoughts to my mind.

This is what is so upsetting about race scholars. Miele and Sarich write on several pages in their book about the “implications” of the work of other scholars. However, they expect the readers to believe that they are blissfully unaware of the insidious, invidious, racist and downright dangerous implications of their own research. They want to present themselves as kindly, well-intentioned scholars whose research could never influence and encourage racism of any kind. This is nothing short of cowardly and disingenuous, at best.

Malcolm X once said that he did not want to put a label upon himself, because it could be problematic. Many people are of the same opinion. After all, some labels have negative connotations. Moreover, many people believe they know exactly where a person stands on any given issue based on the label that a person embraces, or has placed upon herself or himself.

White scholars have regularly argued that the only role that Backs had played in Egypt during ancient times were those of slaves and low-ranking soldiers. However, in recent years, the more objective among them have changed their minds somewhat. Indeed, as the late Afrocentric scholar Asa G. Hilliard maintained, “They have quietly retreated into a multiracial Egypt.”

Well, well, well. John Paul II is soon to become a saint. Pope Francis agrees that John Paul II miraculously cured a Costa Rican woman, Floribeth Mora, of a cerebral aneurism. Physicians supposedly sent her home to die after she went to the hospital complaining of a “debilitating headache.” However, her family built a shrine to John Paul II outside their house, with a photograph of the late Pope. On May 1, 2011, the day he was beatified, Mora claims she demanded to watch the Mass in St. Peter’s Square. She claims she focused on the photo of the late Pope and vowed to get up. Supposedly, medical tests backed up the claim that the aneurism was no longer there. Showing before and after images of the aneurism, Dr. Alejandro Vargas told reporters, “It’s the first time I’ve seen anything like it. . . .”

Those race scholars that argue that Blacks are less intelligent than Whites buy into the racist notion that Black people have created no great civilizations. They point to poverty-stricken nations in Africa and the Caribbean as evidence that Blacks are, and always have been, incapable of producing great nations.

As quietly as it is kept by bio-determinists, there has been a fascinating development in Britain since 2004: African girls have had higher grades than White British boys. According to an analytical breakdown of the national educational department‟s testing results for 2004, Black African girls outscored White boys, and the lowest achievers did not belong to an ethnic group at all, but to poor children.

According to a study released by Princeton University, smaller class sizes in lower grades improves academic success and reduces the achievement gap between Black and White students. The study was conducted by Alan Krueger and titled “Would Smaller Classes Help the Black White Achievement Gap?” Krueger studied the work of 11,600 grade school students at 79 schools at Project Star, a test pilot program in Tennessee. Krueger discovered that smaller class sizes had a more dramatic impact on the performance of Black students than on White students. For Black students, the gap decreased by 38 percent and continued to be 15 percent lower after the students returned to bigger classes. Moreover, in smaller classes, Black students were more inclined to take ACT or SAT tests, having a larger increase than White students in smaller classes.

There have been numerous schools that have made it their mission to educate Black and Latino children - those that many race scholars insist simply cannot learn. One of the best examples was the Westside Preparatory School in the poor inner-city Chicago neighborhood of Garfield Park. Educator Marva Collins established the inexpensive private school in 1975 and ran it until it closed in 2008 due to a lack of funding and students. Collins had astounding success at teaching students that had previously been labeled learning disabled. Third grade students were reading at a ninth grade level and students were making other highly impressive accomplishments.

Those arguing that Blacks are less intelligent than other races downplay or completely ignore the role that poverty plays in determining I.Q. Indeed, a study conducted in 2008 found that nine and ten-year old children from poor families fared so poorly compared to rich children that the difference was like the damage done to a person suffering from a stroke.

Those racist scholars that try to link brain size to intelligence ignore or downplay the fact that environmental factors are at least as important as genetics in determining brain size. Children receiving bad nutrition and little social interaction with their parents have clear decreases in brain size. Moreover, children facing stress and diminished educational opportunities tend to have lower I.Q. scores.

Today’s eugenicists - many of them gathered under the Pioneer Fund’s umbrella - focus their attention on blacks and Latinos, although a fixation with Jews still persists among the most rabid, who, like Hitler, believe the ’colored races’ are being used to generally undermine whites so the Jews can take over the world. Under various guises, Pioneer Fund researchers have promoted many of the same policies for tailoring the gene pool as did their Nazi precursors. To limit mixing with the unworthy, Pioneer Fund grant recipients have lobbied for restrictive immigration policies and promoted various forms of segregation. To rid the world of ’undesirables’ - and their potential offspring - some grant recipients have suggested sterilization or even extermination.

Earlier this week it was reported that the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array) radio telescope in Chile caught an image of planets coming into existence in the disk of gas and dust surrounding a very young star. According to the latest scientific theory, the disk gradually increases in size and planets eventually form. And again, just like photos from the Hubble telescope capturing the formation of stars, there is not a God to be seen. (And yet again, Genesis got it all wrong. Planets do not come into existence _before_ stars are formed. Furthermore, stars and planets are the products of natural – not supernatural – forces.

Some White scholars make a fetish out of I.Q. scores and use them to argue that some races are less intelligent than others. Moreover, some claim that I.Q. is fixed or unchangeable. They further maintain that I.Q. is the main determining factor in earning power, class, status, etc. This implies that less intelligent races are destined to be on the bottom of society socially and economically, as Vincent Sarich and Frank Miele argue in Race: The Reality of Human Differences.

In the 1990s, _The Bell Curve_ received widespread media and scholarly attention, due mostly to the authors’ contention that Blacks are less intelligent than Whites and Asians. In 2004, Vincent Sarich and Frank Miele, in the name of skepticism and science, came out with _Race: The Reality of Human Differences_. The authors claimed that not only do races exist, but that the differences among them are significant. They claimed that not only are Blacks, on average, less intelligent than Whites, but that IQ is pretty much immutable, and that, in essence, Blacks are hopelessly stuck on stupid.

Anna Pierre, R.N., a mayoral candidate from North Miami, said that she received God‟s political endorsement. A poster on her FaceBook page featured a White Jesus. (Pierre is a Black woman.) The poster read: “Anna Pierre, RN is endorsed by Jesus Christ.” Unfortunately for Pierre, the Almighty did not have enough power to bring her the political victory. Actually, it was much worse than that. Out of seven mayoral candidates, Pierre came in dead last with 56 votes, or 0.83 percent - a rather ungodly finish. Jesus didn’t save her campaign.

Perhaps the most important virtue embraced by all humanists and many religionists is a belief in the separation of religion and state. However, a virtue turns into a vice if it is taken too far. A great example is the aggressive secularism found in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and other nations.

Recently, 14-year-old rapper Jayden Smith, son of entertainers Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith, made a startling revelation. He reportedly said that President Obama informed him that extraterrestrial aliens are real. In actuality, however, the President simply said that he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of said aliens. In Smith’s mind, though, this “means they’re real.” Smith went on to contend that human beings could not be the only intelligent beings in the universe.