Al Hunt prefaced his remark by describing the issue of ethnicity and IQ as a "swamp". But did he then proceed to wade right into it?
Morning Joe today took up the topic of the flap over a report on immigration produced by the Heritage Foundation. The panel's particular focus was a statement by report co-author Jason Richwine contained in his Harvard dissertation that "the average IQ of immigrants is substantially lower than that of native whites." Rather than rejecting the notion out of hand, Bloomberg's Hunt asked "is that true of Asian immigrants? Is that true of all immigrants?" Ruh-roh! Did Al just suggest Richwine might have been on to something regarding the IQ of non-Asian immigrants? View the video after the jump.
Ever since the Bell Curve, the discussion of any possible variation in IQ among different ethnic groups has become utterly taboo in politcally-correct circles. The comment by MJ panelist Sam Stein—dismissing Richwine's notion as "crazy"—is the only PC-acceptable position. Will Al take any heat for his statement?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Al, let me read this for you, Jason Richwine, a senior analyst for Heritage, who co-authored this immigration study, wrote this in his Harvard dissertation. Quote, "the average IQ Of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations." Al, it's --
AL HUNT: Boy, that's a swamp when you -- is that true of Asian immigrants? Is that true of all immigrants? I mean, I think that, really, I agree with Cokie: that really set back Heritage.
