Episode Summary
Executive Summary: Michael Shermer argues that race remains socially salient despite historical progress, and reviews evidence suggesting much apparent racial bias is shaped more by culture, institutions, and changing social norms than by fixed biology or hidden prejudice. He critiques CRT/DEI excesses, the IAT’s scientific limits, and media incentives, while also acknowledging persistent structural inequalities and calling for a more evidence-based path toward MLK’s colorblind ideal.
Main Topics: Why race still matters in America: Shermer frames the episode around the persistence of racial categories and conflict despite emancipation, civil rights reforms, and electing a Black president. He says the expected post-race future has not arrived. Difficulty engaging CRT/DEI advocates: He recounts attempts to solicit contributors and guests for a race-themed issue, describing repeated nonresponses and a cancelled book excerpt invitation as possible signs of ideological gatekeeping or strategic avoidance. Scientific versus ideological definitions of race: Shermer revisits genetic and anthropological work arguing that human variation is mostly within groups, not between them, and that conventional racial categories are biologically weak and historically contingent. Critique of the Implicit Association Test: He explains the IAT, describes his own result, and argues that the test has limited reliability, weak predictive power, and poor evidence that it measures actionable unconscious prejudice. Evidence for declining explicit prejudice: Shermer cites Google search data and broader social trends to suggest that explicit racist, sexist, and homophobic attitudes have declined substantially over time, even if prejudice has not disappeared. Systemic inequality versus individual bias: He distinguishes between measurable disparities produced by long-running institutions and policies and the claim that all racial disparities stem from subconscious individual racism, arguing the former is more defensible. Hope for incremental moral progress: The episode ends by reaffirming MLK’s ideal and Shermer’s belief that education, urbanization, and generational change will continue reducing racial prejudice over time.
Key Arguments: Race is not a biologically robust category; human genetic variation is greater within populations than between them. The persistence of racial inequality in the U.S. is better explained by social, political, and economic history than by simple claims of innate racial difference. Many anti-racism/CRT advocates are reluctant to engage in open, critical discussion, which Shermer interprets as tactical or ideological rather than scholarly. The IAT may detect task familiarity or cultural associations, but evidence is weak that it measures unconscious racism or predicts discriminatory behavior. Media coverage amplifies racial conflict, making race relations appear worse and more central than they may be in everyday life. Explicit prejudice has declined substantially, as reflected in trends in public attitudes and online search behavior. Some disparities between Black and white Americans are plausibly tied to systemic policy and long-term structural factors, not just individual bias. Moral and cognitive progress over generations supports cautious optimism about a more inclusive future.
Data Points: Age of emancipation / civil rights context: About 150 years since the Civil War and over 50 years since the Civil Rights Act - Shermer uses these milestones to ask why America is still not race-blind Podcast audience size: About 100,000 listeners per episode - He mentions this while describing his outreach to potential contributors and guests Honorarium offered to contributors: $500 to $1,000 - He offered payment for articles in the Skeptic issue on race Bell Curve-era IQ gap: 15 points - He cites the historical Black-white IQ score gap described in the 1990s literature Flynn effect: About 3 IQ points every 10 years - Used to argue that cognitive test gains are environmental and cultural Long-term IQ gain: About 30 IQ points over 100 years - Derived from the Flynn effect discussion IAT studies reviewed in one meta-analysis: 426 studies on 72,000 subjects - Cited to argue that changes in implicit bias rarely translate into behavior IAT predictive validity: Little to non-existent - Shermer summarizes meta-analytic conclusions that the test poorly predicts discrimination Searches containing racial slur plus jokes: 20% - From cited Google search behavior research Obama-night searches involving Obama + KKK or slurs: About 1 in 100 searches - Used by Shermer to illustrate hidden prejudice in search data Retirement neighborhood search behavior: 7 times as likely for racial slur jokes; 30 times as likely for anti-gay jokes - Used to show demographic clustering of prejudiced searches Google Trends decline for racist joke searches: From 80% to 10% of peak - Cited from Steven Pinker’s reporting to show declining explicit prejudice Google Trends decline for sexist joke searches: From 60% to 18% of peak - Used alongside racist and homophobic search trends Google Trends decline for homophobic joke searches: From 51% to 3% of peak - Evidence for declining explicit prejudice over time
Pivotal Quotes: "We have reached a point where the very definition of CRT has become a political hot potato." — Stephen Bechner: His guest contribution describing how CRT is fought over by both supporters and critics "For centuries, the arc of the moral universe has been bending toward justice as a result of changing people's explicit behaviors and beliefs, not on ferreting out implicit prejudicial witches through the spectral evidence of unconscious associations." — Michael Shermer: His conclusion about the limits of the IAT and his broader moral-progress argument "Race and racism, as manifested in slavery, segregation, lynchings, Jim Crow, profiling, and police brutality is America's original sin." — Michael Shermer: His framing of why race talk remains emotionally and politically charged
Implications: Listeners are urged to distinguish real structural inequities from weak claims about hidden bias, and to favor evidence over ideology. The broader takeaway is that progress is real but incomplete, and future gains depend on education, institutions, and open inquiry.