Obvious, But Still Wisdom

Thomas Sowell : Race and Politics: Part III - Townhall.com

Sowell is one of my intellectual idols, it is a struggle for me to be objective about him. Just read the whole thing (short), but if you are REALLY pressed for time, he starts with the assertion that different races have had radically different outcomes at different times in history and ends with:

Causation and morality are two different things, however much they get
confused today by politicians and the media.

In support of that:

Nothing is easier to find than sins among human beings. But the fatal
misstep is to assume that those sins must be the reason for the
differences we see.

Precisely. What people do with no thought of doing good often results in great good for even those injured, and what people do with the greatest of intent often results in great evil, often for exactly those to be intended to be helped!

Those who see differences among groups as being due to environment,
rather than heredity, too often think of environment as the current
immediate surroundings. But a major part of any group's environment is
the culture that they have inherited from the past.

Our pictures are FAR from big enough -- as are our sense of time / history.