Episode 140: Talking with Charles Murray

Identity politics, and charges of systematic racism and white privilege, pose an existential threat to the American experiment and risk tearing our country apart. In this episode, I talk with Charles Murray - one of America’s greatest social scientists - who has now weighed in on this crisis with his latest book: “Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race in America” In it he argues that we must confront genuine race differences while at the same time defending our nation’s historic commitment to a melting pot and the goal of colorblindness. What good can come of bringing such uncomfortable realities into the open? Here Charles explains: “Ignoring them is destroying America’s most precious ideal, once known as the American creed: People are to be judged on an equal basis as individuals, not by national origin, social class, race, or religion. The ideology behind the charges of systemic racism repudiates this ideal, demanding instead that the power of the state must be used to favor some groups of people over others to advance social justice.” This is a challenging conversation about a difficult issue, but in listening to it you’ll learn that Charles is a careful and thoughtful researcher, and that he believes passionately in our American Experiment and that it survive and thrive. Charles Murray, Hayek Emeritus Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute burst into prominence in 1984 with the publication of Losing Ground, followed by The Bell Curve in 1994 and Coming Apart in 2012.