Fun With Quizzes

Charles Murray's Crayon set.

Noted intellectual racist Charles Murray has a wonderful new quiz out to see if you are a real Muriken or whether you are a Chardonnay sipping Coastal Elite.

Here's Roy Edroso's take, including Tbogg's revelation that according to this quiz, he's Cornell West.

Here is the quiz itself, if you want to take it, and you know you do.

I scored a 52, based largely on - wait for it - my time in Los Angeles struggling to be a writer.  Ironically, those years where I worked crappy jobs, wore an ugly uniform working retail and had my feet ache at the end of the day makes me a real Muriken, despite the fact that I literally lived in Hollywood.  Similarly, the fact that I go fly fishing with my son in Litchfield County?  Real Muriken!

According to his scoring, am I perhaps a lifelong resident of a working class neighborhood?  Um, no.

Am I a first generation middle class guy with working class parents?  Again, no.

How about a first generation upper-middle class guy with middle class parents?  I think we can reverse that.

Most accurate descriptor would be a second or more upper middle class scion who gets out a lot.  But that score range is from 0-43, with a typical score a 9.  I scored a 52, well out of the typical range.  And I didn't "get out a lot" I tried to become a screenwriter and failed.  I then taught for six years at really low wages in a small town before coming to my current job and seeing my salary increase to a decent, though not extravagant, living.

So we have learned that I'm either not who I think I am or Charles Murray is just as crappy a social scientist as we all think he is.