Marking the speed at which it becomes unwise to state known facts.

This research came across my feed. From Conspicuous Consumption and Race by Kerwin Kofi Charles, Erik Hurst, and Nikolai Roussanov. From the Abstract:

Using nationally representative data on consumption, we show that Blacks and Hispanics devote
larger shares of their expenditure bundles to visible goods (clothing, jewelry, and cars) than do comparable Whites. We demonstrate that these differences exist among virtually all subpopulations, that they are relatively constant over time, and that they are economically large.

While racial differences in utility preference parameters might account for a portion of these consumption differences, we emphasize instead a model of status seeking in which conspicuous consumption is used to reflect a household’s economic position relative to a reference group. Using merged data on race and state level income, we demonstrate that a key prediction of our model - that visible consumption should be declining in mean reference group income - is strongly borne out in the data separately for each racial group. Moreover, we show that accounting for differences in reference group income characteristics explains most of the racial difference in visible consumption. We conclude with an assessment of the role of conspicuous consumption in explaining lower spending by racial minorities on items likes health and education, as well as their lower rates of wealth accumulation.

It is an error to conflate culture and race. They are distinct and these relative dispositions are far more a cultural issue than a race issue.

This is pretty well established knowledge - that different cultures vary in risk taking, in time discounting, in conscientiousness, in work ethic, etc. It is also well known that these differences in behaviors correspond to differences in outcomes in terms of income, wealth, education, and health.

What was so striking to me, in these sensitive times, was bald statements undermining the contemporary Mandarin Class belief system in which behaviors don't matter and all differences in outcomes must be a result of individual or systemic racism.

That explanation is clearly untrue but it is now dangerous to declare it. These guys are pretty courageous for stating so clearly what is also so well documented.

But then I finally notice. It was first published in 2007. Still a period when PC was in full blossom and resistance to facts was already emerging. So no golden era of tolerance for disconcerting facts. But well before the eliminationist ethos now on display.