Bellamy Vibes

At age 18, prefrontal gray-matter pruning and myelination remain incomplete, elevating the probability of failures in inhibitory control, risk assessment, and social-cue evaluation. The monkey noises and chest-beating directed at a camera outside Black students’ apartments exemplify precisely such a failure of discernment and consequence appraisal. Death threats constitute a more severe instance of the same functional deficits. Online outrage of this character routinely includes individuals well past the mid-20s, by which point frontal maturation is largely complete; the neural systems that support accurate interpretation of social signals are the same systems that underwrite the decision to refrain from issuing credible threats of violence. Prefrontal volume and overall brain size correlate with measured intelligence within populations ( r \approx 0.25 – 0.40 ), so the average structural difference is consistent with the longstanding one-standard-deviation cognitive gap between Black and White Americans. These differences are robust, measurable, and predictive of group-level disparities in judgment and restraint. That is why the record shows a White adolescent issuing an apology while Black adults issue threats of violence. No apology would have been sufficient. Antipathy toward White people endures. Level 1 translation (50% Black adults): White girls age 18 did monkey sounds and chest hits by the Black students’ door. Their front brain not done yet. They make bad choices more. Black grown people sent death threats. Their front brain average smaller. They make bad choices more too. White girl said sorry. Black people still mad. Sorry not enough. They hate White people.

Reparations aren’t needed because the progressive tax-and-transfer system already delivers large net fiscal gains to lower-income groups, where black Americans are overrepresented. A mean IQ of ~85 is linked to lower average earnings, so they pay a smaller share of income taxes while using means-tested benefits at elevated rates (SNAP ~3×, Section 8 ~3–3.5×, Medicaid ~2×). Higher crime rates (homicide 6–8×, robbery 5–7×) add further public costs. Extra race-specific payments would merely stack additional transfers on top of flows that already run in the same direction. Translation: Y’all already gettin’ reparations.

Congrats @zaralarsson on two, and @KyleLarsonRacin on three! 🎊

Payots in control.