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Feb 09th
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Sandile Memela on black matric failure

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Everyone has been commenting the South African matric results lately, including the fact that whites outscore blacks in marks and distinctions.

One black columnist doing some soul-searching is The Sowetan’s Sandile Memela. He writes:

"A few days ago I had a conversation with my niece Nomfundo about matric results.

She is a second-year science student at Wits University. She obtained one distinction at a private school in matric.

Nomfundo does not believe that whites have greater intelligence than blacks.

“It is not that whites are smarter. The fact of the matter is that black students are just lazy and uninspired. They lack focus, discipline and determination ,” she says.

It is a fact that in the post-liberation period, African students in matric hold the record for being the worst performers.

If you look at the faces of smiling and happy pupils who have obtained more than six distinctions in matric this year, they are mostly white.

Of course, that tells us something, not about who has superior intelligence but who is willing to work, work and work hard even if they go to parties.

Nomfundo says during her high school days, what struck her was what African students were obsessed with.

“Black pupils seem to be interested in hairstyles, designer labels, parties and, of course, booze.”

Read the whole article here.

What Memela argues, is that black failure and white success may be ascribed to a difference in attitude. But just like two individuals may differ in both attitude and ability, it is certainly admissable that races, too, may differ not only in attitude but also in ability. How much of the one can be explained by the other? After all, if I am a bad golfer and I find the game frustrating, I am more likely to give it up than pursue and practise it until I become a low handicapper.

What goes for golf, goes for maths and science, as well as school or university in general. Since The Bell Curve, not to mention may scientific studies published in peer-review journals, we all know that blacks have a lower average IQ than whites. In South Africa, the white IQ is somewhere around 100 whereas the average black IQ is about 70.

Blacks generally prefer parties and festivals because a lot of them lack the mental ability to excel at such demanding subjects as mathematics and natural science which require logical reasoning and cognitive ability. Of course, a small minority – less than one percent – of such abilities and even the mediocre ones are showered with praise, bursaries, corporate scholarships and so on.

What government should do, is to bring back IQ tests in school like they used to exist under the old government. Research in this area should also be funded by companies and the National Research Foundation. Only when we have a better idea of South Africa’s cognitive and intellectual capital, will the debate about the matric results become meaningful and scientific, instead of vague exhortations to blacks to drink less beer and study more.

However, while ignoring race differences in IQ, Memela is quite right when he says:

“It is time black society accepted it is raising lazy and uninspired pupils who are encouraged to rely on false affirmative action.

In fact, black pupils have internalised a culture of entitlement that over-emphasises skin colour, worshipping at the altar of materialism and political connectivity over merit.

This marks the beginning of the end of black rule and self-determination as ultimate power, knowledge and intelligence will always rest with whites.”

The only problem is, South African whites have been so bamboozled by our liberal media and the ANC government’s propaganda that they are starting to doubt their own talents.

Except for those white matriculants, mostly girls who, year after year when school-leaving results are published, continue to surprise us by shooting the lights out. One Afrikaans girl from Hoërskool Florida, Wilmé Olivier, obtained a 100% pass rate in the more difficult and demanding Alpha Mathematics that includes calculus, financial mathematics and advanced statistics.

But what kind of future is there for her and so many other white kids who obtain brilliant marks but who will soon be demotivated by institutionalized anti-white discrimination in South Africa?


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