A Troublesome Taboo
Matt Yglesias is wrong to defend the taboo against talking openly about race differences.
Written by Bo Winegard.
Like many of his fellow Americans, Matt Yglesias has noticed that black people are vastly overrepresented at the highest levels of competitive basketball.
He is not wrong. The overrepresentation is undeniably striking. As of 2023, approximately 70% of NBA players were black. A curious, scientifically minded observer might find this pattern fascinating—and naturally ask the follow-up question: why?
But not Yglesias. Apparently troubled by the invidious stereotypes that might result from examining the causes of black overrepresentation in the NBA, he confesses that, “I have not looked into it [the causes of different racial representation] and frankly I don’t intend to, because I am happy living in a society where it is considered unseemly and inappropriate to preoccupy oneself with such questions.”