Ted Chiang is a really smart guy, obviously benefitting greatly from his Asian genes, but he seems to have a deliberate blind spot in his essay specifically regarding family cultural attitudes about schooling. Academic success is VERY strongly correlated with children doing homework, and expectations by the parents of children succeeding academically. Asians are infamous for this, and black families are not. Black families mostly have only one parent these days. Fixing the genetics is a start, but culture also needs to be fixed. But we can't do that, since it's obviously racist. Too bad, so sad, nothing can be done.