Early theorists suggested a link between low mental ability and prejudicial thinking, and gathered some strongly suggestive evidence to support that view. And interestingly, this connection between stupidity and prejudice once seemed obvious to social scientists as well. Intelligence is a scientific concept, something scientists can measure, and have for a long time. The Ferguson racists may be a lot of other things-hateful, insecure-but let’s not sugar-coat what most fair-minded thinkers believe in their hearts: A person of intelligence cannot embrace such authoritarian and racist views.
I’m talking about low intelligence, lack of mental ability, cognitive rigidity. I think that a lot of us are shying away from an obvious truth, that the kind of blatant racial prejudice we are witnessing in Ferguson, Missouri, has everything to do with stupidity.
