One of the world’s most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night [2007] after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that “equal powers of reason” were shared across racial groups was a delusion.
James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unraveling of DNA who now runs one of America’s leading scientific research institutions, drew widespread condemnation for comments he made ahead of his arrival in Britain today for a speaking tour at venues including the Science Museum in London. [ …]
Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson’s remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: “It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint.”
Source of this and following quotes:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fury-at-dna-pioneers-theory-africans-are-less-intelligent-than-westerners-394898.html
Right: the law decides whether the truth can be said by an eminent scientist. Human Stupidity, Dogmatism and political correctness in its pure form. Like the pope who would prohibit Galileo to show proof that the earth is round and moves.
But Galileo was counterintuitive: we all see that the earth does not move. But there is a wealth of intuitive anecdotal evidence in favor of difference between the races
- medieval sailors reported primitive tribes in Africa, but highly developed civilizations in Asia. That was right before white colonialism, which could not be blamed for the differences
- African Nations, even experimental nations like Liberia, for some reason never function and prosper. So Dr. Watson’s sincere concern is justified.
- In the US, states, cities and districts with high percentage of blacks tend to have more crime and poverty.
- Second and third generation kids of war fugitives from Korea or Vietnam in the US do not need any affirmative action. On the contrary, Asians are taking over the nation’s top Universities. So why do 10th generation Blacks need affirmative action, and even that seems not to work?
Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”. He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”.
His views are also reflected in a book published next week, in which he writes: “There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.”
The furore echoes the controversy created in the 1990s by The Bell Curve, a book co-authored by the American political scientist Charles Murray, which suggested differences in IQ were genetic and discussed the implications of a racial divide in intelligence. The work was heavily criticised across the world, in particular by leading scientists who described it as a work of “scientific racism”. […]
Especially by leading sociologists who invent such gems like “race does not exist” or “race is only skin deep”. Any child can disprove the first statement, and any forensic expert can tell you the race of a person by a single bone. An expert on race and intelligence J.P. Rushton’s comments on Watson on NPR
It is important to state that Dr. Watson is not a racist. There is no glee: “hey, we have proven white supremacy”. No, he is sorry for the results, but true scientists are interested in reporting the truth, not what people want to hear. And he is truly concerned about finding the right policy for Africa. Obviously the last century of Africa policy has not yielded good results.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “It is sad to see a scientist of such achievement making such baseless, unscientific and extremely offensive comments. I am sure the scientific community will roundly reject what appear to be Dr Watson’s personal prejudices.
Actually, the scientific proof for the “Bell Curve” is overwhelming. And with the overwheliming anecdotal evidence cited above there should better be some good scientific proof for Keith Vaz unfounded statements.
Astonishing to see how popular racism has become. Every single white supremacist (admin, monk, Captain Obvious, et al) were young whites blindly using long-refuted data about differences in IQ among whites vs blacks (throwing ‘orientals’ in, a racist term) as if that were all the races we need to study and compare. The target, of course, was Africans. Gee, that never happened before!
Let’s take a bird’s eye view for a second. In practical problems solving situations, at work, at school, at small businesses, government institutions, and countless other cites, people with IQs ranging from 100 to 125 comprise the overwhelming set of groups accomplishing something substantial each day. Success is rarely predicated on individual IQ, rather how the group works together, how they communicate, make adjustments, and how motivation and self-discipline play in those outcomes. Comparatively, the racial arguments are specious. If history tells us anything, is tell us that cooperation has proved to be the single greatest asset in the survival of our species. Individual IQ is rarely a determining factor in the success. Genius plays a precious role at nodal points in human development. Alas, in all the important criteria involving success and existential happiness of subgroups of virtually any size, individual IQ has not been a predominant factor in the success of groups. The human species at it’s best balances competition and cooperation, and allows for individual expression that does not harm the larger group. None of this is taken into consideration by the white supremacist arguments herein, who treat their self-supporting ‘data’ like their cocaine of the self-delusion of superiority. Typically, white supremacists are historically myopic, using anecdotal comments made in the 7th century about “the dumb Africans” as their longitudinal ‘proof’ of white supremacy. If you are a white supremacist, you will seek data that supports your beliefs. Test bias? What’s that? These are old, old arguments, the same old arguments that supported the horror of slavery. I saw the bad data used 40 years ago, the same bad data being used now as if somehow the data became “good” data because 40 years had passed. Admin, Captain Obvious and Monk above are young white supremacists who “know everything” already, so they are not to be convinced to consider challenging their own point of view. That would require intellectual honesty and humility that is a decade ahead of them, at least. For the time being, let one tenet of statistics and data analysis be stated: correlation does not imply causality. AND statistical design to ward against test bias is the greatest challenge in any clinical situation, a thought that has never entered the mind of our young, ignorant racists, who speak withe the confidence of the mindless. But that is what constitutes the voting block of the GOP, a plurality of neo-fascists. Welcome to the modern intellectual landscape of America. Very sad. Astonishing to see how popular racism has become. Every single white supremacist (admin, monk, Captain Obvious, et al) were young whites blindly using long-refuted data about differences in IQ among whites vs blacks (throwing ‘orientals’ in, a racist term) as if that were all the races we need to study and compare. The target, of course, was Africans. Gee, that never happened before!
Let’s take a bird’s eye view for a second. In practical problems solving situations, at work, at school, at small businesses, government institutions, and countless other cites, people with IQs ranging from 100 to 125 comprise the overwhelming set of groups accomplishing something substantial each day. Success is rarely predicated on individual IQ, rather how the group works together, how they communicate, make adjustments, and how motivation and self-discipline play in those outcomes. Comparatively, the racial arguments are specious. If history tells us anything, is tell us that cooperation has proved to be the single greatest asset in the survival of our species. Individual IQ is rarely a determining factor in the success. Genius plays a precious role at nodal points in human development. Alas, in all the important criteria involving success and existential happiness of subgroups of virtually any size, individual IQ has not been a predominant factor in the success of groups. The human species at it’s best balances competition and cooperation, and allows for individual expression that does not harm the larger group. None of this is taken into consideration by the white supremacist arguments herein, who treat their self-supporting ‘data’ like their cocaine of the self-delusion of superiority. Typically, white supremacists are historically myopic, using anecdotal comments made in the 7th century about “the dumb Africans” as their longitudinal ‘proof’ of white supremacy. If you are a white supremacist, you will seek data that supports your beliefs. Test bias? What’s that? These are old, old arguments, the same old arguments that supported the horror of slavery. I saw the bad data used 40 years ago, the same bad data being used now as if somehow the data became “good” data because 40 years had passed. Admin, Captain Obvious and Monk above are young white supremacists who “know everything” already, so they are not to be convinced to consider challenging their own point of view. That would require intellectual honesty and humility that is a decade ahead of them, at least. For the time being, let one tenet of statistics and data analysis be stated: correlation does not imply causality. AND statistical design to ward against test bias is the greatest challenge in any clinical situation, a thought that has never entered the mind of our young, ignorant racists, who speak withe the confidence of the mindless. But that is what constitutes the voting block of the GOP, a plurality of neo-fascists. Welcome to the modern intellectual landscape of America. Very sad.
Did you read any of the IQ literature I liked to? Your false statements stem from politically correct science frauds like debunked Stephan (?) J Gould, or the criator of the Lewontin fallacy. Serious honest scientists know the 100% truth about racial IQ differences. It is pretty cleear that IQ is 50% to 80% heritable.
But if you only read the politically correct main stream press lies, you might get to the conclusions you arrived at.
Anyone who does not believe in basic racial differences in IQ should look at Detroit or Zimbabwe – that’s proof enough.
Laurence, you underestimate the human mind’s self-hallucinatory skills, provided it’s been trained for a long time and deep enough.
Someone called what equalitarism demands of people “trained incompetence”.
We currently have a lot of people convinced that men and women have the same intelligence; even more are convinced that they have the same way of being intelligent; and more yet that the IQ man-woman gap explains all what’s different between men and women.
Then you have the entirely conscious who use terms like “chick logic” and “chick intelligence”, see how intellectually productive women very usually show little sexual dimorphism (are “masculine”) and so forth. But that’s exceptions. How many do you think have read Schopenhauer’s booklet On Women?
Astonishing to see how popular racism has become. Every single white supremacist (admin, monk, Captain Obvious, et al) were young whites blindly using long-refuted data about differences in IQ among whites vs blacks (throwing ‘orientals’ in, a racist term) as if that were all the races we need to study and compare. The target, of course, was Africans. Gee, that never happened before!
Let’s take a bird’s eye view for a second. In practical problems solving situations, at work, at school, at small businesses, government institutions, and countless other cites, people with IQs ranging from 100 to 125 comprise the overwhelming set of groups accomplishing something substantial each day. Success is rarely predicated on individual IQ, rather how the group works together, how they communicate, make adjustments, and how motivation and self-discipline play in those outcomes. Comparatively, the racial arguments are specious. If history tells us anything, is tell us that cooperation has proved to be the single greatest asset in the survival of our species. Individual IQ is rarely a determining factor in the success. Genius plays a precious role at nodal points in human development. Alas, in all the important criteria involving success and existential happiness of subgroups of virtually any size, individual IQ has not been a predominant factor in the success of groups. The human species at it’s best balances competition and cooperation, and allows for individual expression that does not harm the larger group. None of this is taken into consideration by the white supremacist arguments herein, who treat their self-supporting ‘data’ like their cocaine of the self-delusion of superiority. Typically, white supremacists are historically myopic, using anecdotal comments made in the 7th century about “the dumb Africans” as their longitudinal ‘proof’ of white supremacy. If you are a white supremacist, you will seek data that supports your beliefs. Test bias? What’s that? These are old, old arguments, the same old arguments that supported the horror of slavery. I saw the bad data used 40 years ago, the same bad data being used now as if somehow the data became “good” data because 40 years had passed. Admin, Captain Obvious and Monk above are young white supremacists who “know everything” already, so they are not to be convinced to consider challenging their own point of view. That would require intellectual honesty and humility that is a decade ahead of them, at least. For the time being, let one tenet of statistics and data analysis be stated: correlation does not imply causality. AND statistical design to ward against test bias is the greatest challenge in any clinical situation, a thought that has never entered the mind of our young, ignorant racists, who speak withe the confidence of the mindless. But that is what constitutes the voting block of the GOP, a plurality of neo-fascists. Welcome to the modern intellectual landscape of America. Very sad.
white-controlled media and publishing houses ignore whats convenient for them and acclaim what they want. For instance, all we hear is African slavery. Hardly anyone in news/publications mention in depth, if at all, White slavery that began with English hoarding away Irish and Moor slaves. With the irish, they were stolen off the streets of Ireland/England and termed as ‘vagrants. They were also taken from dregs of jails and shipped off to Australia and the caribbean and Americas. I must say a job well done to these such elements–mny of whom lack the IQ to see the obsoloscence in fabricated and biased arguments of the sort. The good news is, unfortunately, it won’t change….for it is they who seek to hide their low IQ–the ‘whites’ who engage in these deliberate distortions just ’cause they can. Liberia like many other nations within and outside Africa subsist as ‘success’ stories , if that is at all true, cos they have puppets put in there and are allowed. Talkin of sex drive etc. Homosexuality and Lesbianism and sadoi masochism started with the whites and this ‘high- IQd’ monstrosity has been exported along with many other lascivious practices of them to the rest of the worl. Talk about ‘sex’ drive and its derivatives above reflecting ‘low IQ’. what aconvenient travesty!!
It’s amazing to see the many comments above which are skewed in common sense, historical depth and partisanship–my euphemism for racial bias. There has been talk of ‘Asians(in this case ‘East Asians’) rating highest, followed by Whites(European-Caucasian) and lastly people of Africa/African extraction. It’s appallling and sad that nothing about the bias of these so called scientists and the lobby groups they represent arent taken into account because if, as many have alluded above,ridiculous notions like climatic conditions, ‘sex-drive’,brain size and most interestingly, development/lack thereof were sine qua non to IQ, then What about the squalid living conditions in the Indian ‘subcontinent’, parts of rural America(USA), South America, Eastern Europe and central Asia including ‘Indo-China’ and Indonesia and Bangladesh and Pakistan?!! In case those involved in this monstrous notion never knew/knew but pretend not to, African so-called ‘underdevelopment’ , if at all the term is applicable and accurate is caused, for the most part, due to the Anglo-American ploy of the past 60 yrs to dominate any emerging so-called third world nation with promise and ensure they are crippled economically by seeking to implore on them using cunning and greed, the IMF and World Bank loans, which are made with cut-throat conditions eg, devaluation of currency, relinquishing of all natural resources of the nation in question and pledgingas collateral, the people and their henceforth, ever rising taxes to them. thus begins the decline of these African, Asian or South American natioins (which are now biting their own in Europe at long last).
IMF for one, bribes also the leaders of these nations to not bother paying back the loan. Also there is the issue of regime change using the secret Intelligence services of the anglo-american establishment to overthrew democratically elected governments/leaders who dont comply and thus continues the anarchy in these countries, so far as it serves anglo america well, even while they preach democracy. Look at Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Indonesia, Guatemala, el Salvador, chile, Iraq, etc. each time a revolutionary with conscientious intention came, they were deposed. And people here dare to measure development by the socalled development or lack there of in a continent’s persona. If africans were that devoid of brightness/IQ, how come an African American invented the traffic light, hair relaxer, gas mask, etc(Garrett Morgan) and another began the precursors to what(with contributions from others) evolved into today’s cell phone. The list goes on. The earliest forms of embalment go back to Congo, including musical instruments and the fact that the first human ever to get the Nobel prize for Literature in ’86 was a Nigerian.
Check who controls the media and these ‘think tanks’ / NGOs and you’ll be spot on, provided you’re not racist
Now I’m going to tell you all the truth and yes i an black now for one race to tell another race there power is bad no matter how you put it look at who down africa not africans there land is been striped apart by people who do not belong there and they buy land that’s not there’s and when you and if you want me to get on the gene thing here it is the only thing that separates any race from another is colour. And we know what makes one colour different from another the other a small gene but do it really matter? We are all humans and you want to know what a true flaw is worrying about things tht don’t matter when there’s kids dieing politics steeling money and working for cartels a money problem that. Can’t seem to be fixed because we have raised a whole generation of people who care more about iphones and facebook than there own blood which is every person on the face of this soon to be bone dry place challenge earth because we stripe the land of everything our greed is far beyond living conditions we are like a pleuge.and we care about colour once god forgive our souls hope we can repent before that first trumpet blows and to that person that’s gonna say we are in a new age I’m gonna tell you this hells not new and neither is the devil and he has been out within since the beginning so say what you must he is there and worrying about colour is just another one of his tricks we know how to be saved the rest is up to us i hope that we don’t keep following this colour lie
Question: Why is it that all successful Black people prefer to live in largely White neighborhoods? Why don’t they live in Detroit?
Emmanuel – Your writing itself is an indication of the lower Black IQ. Suggest a refresher course in spelling and grammar – if you can pass it.
Great paper by Rushton and Jensen about James Watson and racial differences in IQ and other fields. James Watson’s most inconvenient truth: Race realism and the moralistic fallacy
Found the link at this article http://unamusementpark.com/2012/03/motives-part-3-the-new-racism/:
Because “races are equal” (false premise), all different outcomes boil down to discrimination. (false conclusion)
A nice article bemoaning James’ Watson’s recanting his true statement about Problems in Africa.
http://human-stupidity.com/stupid-dogma/racial-differences-intelligence/james-watson-scientist-persecuted-race-intelligence
Regarding those who think there is no evidence for racial differences in IQ, I recommend to read all the 12 articles about Race & Intelligence plus the lively discussion in the commentaries at the end of each article.
It is often forgot, that there is no doubt that Blacks score much lower in IQ tests. The only discussion is if this is genetically caused, and even for that the evidence is overwhelming. Were it not for politically correct “research” that manages to “prove” absurdities like that “race does not exist”
In these discussions EgalitarianJay fiercely defended the opposing view, forcing us to look at the counter-arguments in detail.
Every effete intellectual who does not believe in Watson or Rushton should move to Detroit.
Some of the “evidence” you guys keep quoting to show that blacks are less intelligent is based on skewed logic. Yes, African countries were “primitive”, while Asian ones had great civilizations even before Western colonialism. This could be to do with intelligence, or it could be to do with a number of geographic or historical factors. For instance, the big mammals found in Africa are less suited to be used for farming than the ones found in Eurasia. Or perhaps the extremely fertile tropical environment made it less necessary for people to come up with ingenious irrigation schemes etc…
As for African countries “not working”, Botswana in Africa is doing extremely well. It has one of the highest rates of growth in the world, and it is a solidly middle-income country with the same level of prosperity as Mexico or Turkey. In any case, (most) African countries’ failure to prosper can again be explained with factors other than intelligence, for instance people identifying with family and tribe rather than with the nation (since nations are a new concept).
Isn’t that circular reasoning, or something of that kind?
When you say things like
“This could be to do with intelligence, or it could be to do with a number of geographic or historical factors. ”
you don’t take into account that the “number of factors” is what has determined the difference in intelligence.
Those factors have their weight, and they all influence intelligence.
I can agree with the statement that intelligence depends in large part on genetics. There is ample, credible evidence of that. What is equally undeniable, is that no ethnic group has a monopoly on intelligence or stupidity. It all depends on your genes. There are Blacks, Whites, Asian et al with intelligent genes as well as with “stupidity” genes.
A more interesting issue might be the comparative level of intelligence, or stupidity in each ethnic group.
Jack! What advantages?? Jack, I am white and I too want these advantages you speak of. Please tell me what I am entitled to. Do I get hiring preference as a white man? Did they cancel the many federal diversity programs and start a white inclusion program? Are whites given preference in college admisssions? Financial Aid? Grants? Is there a NAAWP now? Can I have pride in my ethnicity without being called a racist now? Did we stop blaming the white race for all the problems in the US? Did the media stop smothering us with “white guilt”? –oh, can I say “us” now or is that racist still? Did we stop the ethnic cleansing of every historically white country? Did we end mass third world immigration into historically white countries? Am I not slated to be a minority in my own country within a couple decades? Is there one “white” country that is not being colonized by foreigners? is that still racist to want to preserve my white heritage ethnicity and culture? Or do white people still have the advantage of diversity being forced on them? Can white people choose to associate with other whites now or is integration still forced on whites? Is there still an ongoing genocide (yes, current immigration and demographic trends meet the UN definition of genocide) of white people? Am I racist for calling BS on your white advantages? Or just “ignorant”? You don’t sound like an average whiteguy who is in the trenches struggling everyday. Besides sounding elitist, you sound removed, like a spectator. I think you are a pampered richboy who probably feels guilty about having everything handed to him. You are decieving us when you imply you have advantages handed to you on a platter because you are white. Your advantages are a result of your money not your skin color(if you really are white and not an agent provacateur). Please don’t speak for all of us less fortunate white people(vast majority) when you want to advocate social justice. Speak as a rich boy and condemn all your fellow richboys instead. We are being steadily disenfranchised as it is, and don’t need your dishonest confessions of a “white priviledge” we have yet to benefit from.
There are so many ignorant people out there. If you really want to learn about differences between races take a sociology class with a decent teacher. I am a young white man and the advantages handed to me on a platter are very apparent once you know how to look. Don’t get me wrong, I am a biology major and am not trying to dispute the genetics of the issue. But the moment you start to make assumptions about society as a large based on science you don’t understand you are doing nobody a favor. I for one will not take these “facts” for face value. Not from a country that constantly reinforces that fact that I am better because I am white and gives me all sorts of advantages. Learn more about the structure of the society you live in and who funds the research you are reading. It makes a big difference. Ignorance clouds your mind, and a little modesty can go a long way towards the path of wisdom.
Your example of the Japanese reminds me of how Japs were brought into Brazil to be indentured servants (close to 200,000 between 1908 and 1941) following the abolition of formal slavery there. These Japanese indentured workers were treated like shit, and never has any generation of their descendants been offered any reparations. Yet today their descendants are highly overrepresented in elite universities in Brazil, and underrepresented in the prisons. Go figure.
On a board called Freethought Forum (in this case “Freethought” must mean “Freedom FROM Thought”!) one of the administrators is a Jewish dissimulator who repeatedly uses the same informal fallacies in an attempt to “refute” the reality of race. Jews tend to have a high, but strangely skewed intelligence which expresses in a telltale extreme verbosity. Anyway, when it was pointed out that there was no wide-scale Japanese rioting or rapine following the recent earthquake, so unlike the behavior of Blacks following Katrina, she claimed linked to an article about a single case of serial rape in Japan. It’s utterly fallacious to imply that one serial rapist invalidates the overwhelming general rule, and most likely she knows she is lying through her lemon-sucking teeth (or fingers, as the case may be). Even smart people can fall for the same old tricks if they’re sufficiently cowed by taboos, especially tribal taboos imposed by the most powerful tribal-ethnic group.
Correction: I meant to say that if you have any sense, you’ll take Road B.
‘I am a black American, and I was speechless when I first read about this. So, if I am a straight A student in college (and some of my college peers that are white or even Asian are not), am I suffering from a genetic defect called intelligence?’
Hah, in a sense, yes: for very intelligent people can be remarkably adept at using their intelligence to bullsh!t themselves and/or others to buy into wishful thinking over blatant truth.
Your problem here is that you’re failing to see that race differences in intelligence are probabilistic rather than absolute. Most Blacks are less intelligent than Whites, but this does not imply that every Black is less intelligent than every White. Analogously, men tend to be taller than women, even though some women are taller than some men.
You’re walking down the street with the supermarket as your ultimate destination. You arrive at a juncture on your journey. From here, you can go down road A or road B, with one fork no more distant than the other to your destination. Down road A there’s a gang of young Black men ambling in your direction. Down road B there’s a group of Korean women having a nice walk together. There are Black men who make solid citizens and good fathers, and there’ve been a few Asian women who turned out to be sex murderers so perverted they’d make Ted Bundy look almost like a normal guy. Even so, if you’ve got any sense, you’ll take Road A.
I’ve come across a mild-mannered pit bull on more than one occasion, but even so, pit bulls are an aggressive breed.
ummm THANK YOU! this study is broad strokes, no one should feel held back as an individual based on this, yeah, there is an IQ gap between the races, however im white and i can tell the person that wrote this comment probably has me on the whole intelligence thing (and hes black). not to mention that there are so many other factors that affect IQ, im confident that i could take a young gangster off the streets of compton and if this boy wanted to change, if he changed his diet and began nurturing his intelligence he could achieve a higher IQ score than a white counterpart. intelligence is effort and training as much as it is genetics
IQ has been studied for over a hundred years on tens of millions of people. All US army recruits, for example.
There is not much that can be done to increase IQ. It has been tried.
IQ can be depressed, by bad nutrition and bad childhood environment.
And High IQ people can have terrible schooling that might even maintain the IQ but keep them ignorant and uneducated.
But nobody has found ways to lift people beyond their maximum IQ, which often is quite low.
There are also ways to educate low IQ people into professions where they can be efficient, like handymen, manual skilled labor etc.
Like the army recruiting slogan “Be all you can be”. But not more then you can be ………..
So you could get your boy off the street, and turn him into a good car mechanic. Or a good plumber. Or if his IQ is lower, into a good office boy, construction helper, ……….
Or if he is a high IQ top gangster, then you can get him into better professions. Like banker ……
Not a “good car mechanic”, really. Your average mediocre slow-minded mechanic most of us have grown accustomed with, instead.
There’s no good car mechanics who don’t have an at least 110 IQ, and I have to say the really helpful ones I have met have an IQ higher than that, including one or two super-helpful who had IQs higher than 130.
Let’s say mason or cropper, or food chain worker. Low IQ people are a plague, the plague of car repair shops.
‘Do you really think those anecdotes are evidence for a difference in intelligence between the races?’
Uh, there’s rather more to work with than a few anecdotes. Stereotypes, for the most part, turn out to be empirically true, especially if they resurface across a very wide range of times, places, and conditions. Frankly, if Blacks were basically the same as Whites or Orientals, Black societies would reflect that. The empirical fact of the matter is that they never do. You think IQ correlations are problematic? OK, then examine (overwhelmingly) Black societies and communities. The correlation with low human development is absolute. You could protest that this is an artifact of applying Eurocentric standards of human development. Okay, yet when we apply the same “White supremacist” standards to Asians, Orientals actually outperform Whites by many of the same measures! There is no Black Taiwan any more than there is an Oriental Detroit.
This blog has articles on sex differences in intelligence, but whatever the nature and extent of these differences, they are much smaller and less conclusive than the intelligence differences between Blacks and Whites. For example, even at ultra-elite CalTech (mean student IQ ~140) with its emphasis on traditionally masculine fields such as physics, engineering, and higher-order mathematics, along with unbending standards, women now comprise close to 40% (!) of the enrolled student body, whereas Blacks remain at under 2%. Obviously the university, although unyielding to the PC lowering of standards, is inclusive enough to accept anyone who can honestly make the cut or there wouldn’t be so many women there. Yet, as it turns out, very few Blacks can meet the standards.
What I find to be particularly disgusting about racialism is the fact that racialists act like we should expect society to be equal across the board if races are equal. White Supremacists made society unequal. That’s a fact. It didn’t just effect Africans it effected Native Americans and other groups as well. How many Native Americans are there in CalTech?
It isn’t politically correct to believe that racial discrimination plays the primary role in racial disparities and that environment can explain group differences in success. Racialists just want to argue for a genetic component so they can use nature to justify holding racist views and advocating racist ideologies. That’s all it is.
Engineering, as it hinges on visuo-spatial intelligence, is “masculine”. Physics and mathematics are sex-neutral, like the humanities and arts.
The perceived difference is due to the huge standards of standards occurred in the humanities and arts over the last century, nothing else.
Like you don’t find great female mathematicians, you don’t find great female writers. No difference, despite the popular misconception.
Tell me about the female equivalent of Harold Bloom. Or confidently keep waiting for one to pop up.
I am a black American, and I was speechless when I first read about this. So, if I am a straight A student in college (and some of my college peers that are white or even Asian are not), am I suffering from a genetic defect called intelligence?
Good for you! You are successful. You are among the rare black Americans who are highly successful in academics. Against genetic odds, and against cultural peer pressure not to “behave white”. Congratulations.
It is all statistics. It is not as simple as ‘” All Asians are bright'” and ‘” All Blacks are dumb'”.
On average, there will be more Asian super-achievers then black super-achievers. There is no need for affirmative action for the offspring of the Chinese railroad workers, nor for Vietnamese war fugitives’ offspring.
There are elite Universities overcrowded with Asians, but none overcrowded with blacks. And this should be caused by slavery a couple of centuries ago?
The difference is in the averages, but also at the very extremes. No black physics and math nobel prizes in sight, and no white 100 meter dash world champion in sight either.
I thought I’d go around to some of the other Race and Intelligence articles you wrote. James Watson has been turned into a martyr by the hereditarian community for his prominence as a scientist. Being one of the founders of DNA his opinion holds weight in the scientific community by name alone. It was revealed however that Watson’s opinion on the race and intelligence controversy is based on reading a book sent to him by Richard Lynn. He formed his opinion without looking at any of the other counter evidence.
I watched him mumble through an interview with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and it became apparent to me that he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about concerning this debate. Remember that Watson is not an authority on intelligence and there is no genetic evidence supporting this position for him to look at.
This is not the first time Watson has gotten in trouble for saying something controversial. He has a reputation for saying many weird things in supporting of eugenics theories such as believing that if gay genes were ever discovered a woman should have a right to abort her baby if it is discovered that there is a high probability that the baby will be a homosexual.
None of that disproved Watson’s opinions and I don’t think he should have been punished for an opinion but as a prominent scientist it is considered to be important for you to be careful what you say to the media as it reflects on your reputation and giving credibility to fringe theories is regarded as intellectually irresponsible.
Now about your anecdotal evidence. On the surface it might seem as though the theory of race and intelligence is reasonable due to global inequality however that presumes that in all situations society adheres to a racial hierarchy which is simply not the case. For instance regarding African history during the Age of Discovery Europeans did encounter primitive tribes throughout much of the continent but they also encountered complex societies and the ruins of ancient civilizations which were known to Europeans during the Greco-Roman period as well as to muslim traders during medieval times. Due to the slave trade it became important to Europeans to find an justification for the exploitation of Africans by denying these ancient civilizations had been built by Blacks which resulted in alot of racist literature about African culture and distortion of the historical record on Africa.
You should read Jared Taylor’s book Guns, Germs and Steel for explanations on why there was inequality in cultural development across geographic regions to begin with. It’s important to remember that there was a time when everything was equal for a long period and there are environmental reasons why societies evolved at different rates that has nothing to do with differences in intelligence.
European colonialism plays a huge role in the functionality of modern African countries. The global market has been structured to favor 1st world countries and the exploitation and control of African resources has made it very hard for modern African nations to be successful. Famine, disease, war and political corruption do not have intelligence differences as their root.
As for crime and poverty in majority Black areas in the USA that is very easy to explain. Institutional racism is at the root of this disparity. Slavery, Segregation and Jim Crow led to the economic disenfranchisement of African-Americans. The proliferation of drugs and guns in the inner cities led to problems with gang violence which is why there are high crime rates in urban areas which effects Hispanics and poor Whites
as well as Black communities.
As far as Asian-American success vs. African-American success academically we can look at culture as the cause. Asian countries benefit from the philosophies of Confucianism resulting in cultures that value education as a means to attain success in life while African-Americans do not have such a culture to inspire them. You need to change the culture to see success which Affirmative Action cannot do.
The Admin mentioned adoption research as powerful evidence in favor of racial differences however the Minnesota Transracial adoption study had several methodological flaws which hurt its reliability as a legitimate test of the genetic hypothesis for the racial IQ gap. Among them cited by Nisbett were: (1) The study held neither race nor expected IQ nor adoptive setting constant. (2) The Black children were
adopted at a later age than the others, which would prompt an assumption of lower initial IQ for them. (3)
The Black children’s mothers had lower educational
levels than did those of the other two groups, which also would prompt an assumption of lower initial IQ. (4) The “quality of placement” was higher for
White children than for other children.
There is plenty of evidence that refutes the notion of racial differences in intellect and morality. When controlling for family and neighborhood quality along with standard Socio-economic variables the Black-White IQ gap disappears (see Brooks-Gunn and colleagues, chapter XX). Intervention programs can significantly boost Black IQ. Studies show that the Black-White IQ gap is shrinking at an accelerated rate
(see Flynn and Dickens 2006a and b). Direct studies of the genetic hypothesis which analyze the effects that White ancestry have on Black Americans shows that there is no correlation between European genes and high intelligence in Blacks (see Nisbett 2005). Also there was an adoption study that showed that Blacks could actually outperform Whites on IQ tests when adotped into White middle class families (Moore 1986)! Taking all of this into account there is simply overwhelming evidence supporting the Nil Hypothesis for the genetic contribution to the racial IQ gap.
Alot of Rushton’s research is pseudoscientific so promoting his book as being everything you need to know about racial differences is not a good idea.
‘He formed his opinion without looking at any of the other counter evidence.’
I doubt that! Even so, 1) I have looked at the counter-evidence, and to be kind, it is desperate dissimulation at best; 2) The assessment that Black Africans tend to be relatively unintelligent was shared by Arab explorers going easily back to the 7th century as well as Greeks and other ancient peoples going back before the time of Christ. Do the White racist conspirators ultimately get a hold of a time machine, or what?
‘I watched him mumble through an interview with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and it became apparent to me that he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about concerning this debate. Remember that Watson is not an authority on intelligence and there is no genetic evidence supporting this position for him to look at.’
What makes you a credible enough “authority” for your assessment to be taken seriously? One example of genetic evidence is a vastly lower incidence of genes associated with nearsightedness among S-S Africans, relative to Whites or Orientals. These genes are associated with higher IQ. The fact you didn’t know this strongly suggests you are just posting wishful thinking rather than arguing from a state of knowledge and experience in this regard.
‘The Admin mentioned adoption research as powerful evidence in favor of racial differences however the Minnesota Transracial adoption study had several methodological flaws which hurt its reliability as a legitimate test of the genetic hypothesis for the racial IQ gap.’
There were minor methodological flaws but these did not invalidate the overall result. There are methodological flaws in most studies, including studies by ‘egalitarians’, which are often far more glaring. Yet these tend to be downplayed or ignored by the same dogmatists who want to dismiss honest scientists out of hand.
‘Taking all of this into account there is simply overwhelming evidence supporting the Nil Hypothesis for the genetic contribution to the racial IQ gap.’
Saying it doesn’t make it so. The lack of any Black African Swedens or Singapores strongly indicates that you are wrong. The fact that Rhodesia was an orderly country – the breadbasket of Africa – but under Black misrule is a desolate rape camp is another good example of why you are wrong.
‘Alot of Rushton’s research is pseudoscientific so promoting his book as being everything you need to know about racial differences is not a good idea.’
He is an actual scientist, unlike some “commenter” who really doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The evidence is right there for honest eyes. Black people tend to be more robust and aggressive, more sexual, more impulsive, and less inhibited. It’s not only intelligence, although the fact of their lower average general intelligence is blatantly clear. One of the reasons Black inmates on Death Row are more likely to get off is that they are more likely to be mentally retarded, as determined by “discredited” (not) IQ testing. If what you are saying were true, high-tech factories would be getting built in Nigeria aboutu as much as, say, Japan and Korea.
Lailoken: I doubt that! Even so, 1) I have looked at the counter-evidence, and to be kind, it is desperate dissimulation at best; 2) The assessment that Black Africans tend to be relatively unintelligent was shared by Arab explorers going easily back to the 7th century as well as Greeks and other ancient peoples going back before the time of Christ. Do the White racist conspirators ultimately get a hold of a time machine, or what?
Egalitarianjay: The fact that he never critiques research opposing racialist theories and admitted he developed opinions after reading a book sent to him indicates that he’s only seriously looked at one side of the issue. 1) Tell me what you have read from the opposing side 2) Arab explorers at the height of Islamic civilization also had bad things to say about Europeans living in the “Dark Age.” The Ancient Greeks were actually respectful of Northeast African cultures they encountered especially Egypt. You should read “Before Color Prejudice” by Frank Snowden.
Lailoken: What makes you a credible enough “authority” for your assessment to be taken seriously? One example of genetic evidence is a vastly lower incidence of genes associated with nearsightedness among S-S Africans, relative to Whites or Orientals. These genes are associated with higher IQ. The fact you didn’t know this strongly suggests you are just posting wishful thinking rather than arguing from a state of knowledge and experience in this regard.
EgalitarianJay: I’m not claiming to be any kind of authority. I can however analyze a person’s argument and draw conclusions. I recommend that you look at the video yourself. Myopia is associated with extensive reading so people who read alot are often near-sighted which is why we associate glasses with smart people. Just because they have found genes for myopia at greater frequency in populations with higher literacy rates doesn’t mean that those people are innately smarter than others.
What you’d need to do is find genes that actually determine intelligence proper and see if those are found at a lower frequency in certain populations proving that the lack of those genes equals lower intelligence. The search for IQ genes is ongoing but even racialist hereditarians will admit that the casual proof they seek isn’t there.
Lailoken: There were minor methodological flaws but these did not invalidate the overall result. There are methodological flaws in most studies, including studies by ‘egalitarians’, which are often far more glaring. Yet these tend to be downplayed or ignored by the same dogmatists who want to dismiss honest scientists out of hand.
Egalitarianjay: The methodological flaws are actually major and have been acknowledged by the authors of the study themselves. There are also studies which indicate that there is no evidence for racial differences in intelligence. Look up some of Richard Nisbett’s studies. You can hear his statement in this video and read his article:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM6Ekv4L6h4
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/sloth/nisbett-on-rushton-and-jensen.pdf
Lailoken: Saying it doesn’t make it so. The lack of any Black African Swedens or Singapores strongly indicates that you are wrong. The fact that Rhodesia was an orderly country – the breadbasket of Africa – but under Black misrule is a desolate rape camp is another good example of why you are wrong.
Egalitarianjay: Your examples don’t lend any credibility to the racialist theory. Only a biological rationale can do that.
Lailoken: He is an actual scientist, unlike some “commenter” who really doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The evidence is right there for honest eyes. Black people tend to be more robust and aggressive, more sexual, more impulsive, and less inhibited.
Egalitarianjay: He’s been discredited by actual scientists who are experts on some of the fields he tries to draw evidence from such as evolutionary biology. Rushton’s work isn’t taken seriously by most mainstream scholars who have critiqued it. It is widely regarded as fringe and discredited. He’s basically trying to find scientific justification for racist stereotypes and has been called a quack by several professional critics.
There is such a thing as bias in scholarship. Just because a person has a degree and advances a theory doesn’t make them right.
I have honest eyes. I also have an honest brain. My eyes show me that the majority of people in the world are law-abiding citizens trying to live decent lives. I see this as evident where ever I go. The cultural decadence that I see is mainly caused by alot of people making bad decisions. When you talk about race you should consider the effects that racial discrimination have had on the communities of certain groups. I find environment explanations far more reasonable than the idea that evolution has caused people to go out and commit crimes or made some populations smart and others stupid.
If you are interested I can actually share some of the critiques of Rushton’s work that I have read and you can provide feedback. I have taken the time to actually read alot of what Rushton says so I think in order to have an honest dialogue proponents should read the arguments of critics.
Dangerous to apply averages to individuals. So what’s the point?
the scientific evidence is in http://www.charlesdarwinresearch.org/reb.html . This is the free abridged version of Rushton’s research. If you want real science, get the full version at your University library and then read the original research article. See also my article http://human-stupidity.com/stupid-dogma/racial-differences-intelligence/race-differences-in-intelligence-how-i-changed-my-mind
In this article I describe how research looks exactly at your hypotheses and then disproves them. By comparing, for example, Asian and African war orphans adopted, at very young age, into US white middle class families. At age 8 or 10, Asians orphans have a over average IQ and the black adoptees a really low IQ in the 80ies.
All your hypotheses are valid, but research can test them and they have all been disproven. Just it is not politically correct to cite or even to do such research. If you don’t have tenure, your carreer is over. They tried to get rid of Rushton, in spite of him having tenure and being an extremely prolific well published and highly quoted researcher.
Also, there seems to be an interaction between nature and nurture. If you look at Africa, or at US ghettos, it just seems that blacks create communities that are hostile to education and business success and thus exacerbate nature.
You say “black communities are forced into poverty”. How come? Hundreds of years after abolition! And why not Vietnamese, 40 years after they fled war and poverty?
i am 100% agree.In my over 30 y. experience in science field I do not know and I did not see any real PhD in Math, Physic or Chemistry. But I know PhD-holders in the humanities like community organizer , local fuhrer .
They are Homo Sappiens , but different. os
Do you really think those anecdotes are evidence for a difference in intelligence between the races? Surely that argument is of the idea that nature has nothing to do with intelligence and that it is simply nurture. Cities with large black populations have higher crime rates because the black communities are often forced into poverty. And Asians often do well at university because the background they come from encourages it more than white backgrounds for example. This isn’t science, this is taking evidence and arguing that it proves a ‘truth’ that doesn’t exist.
you can google it.. asians average 5 to 6 points higher on an IQ test.. scientist have given test to asians adopted by white familie,s and they average the same scores.. the most prosperous countries are predominantly white or asian. like the guy said, its not to hurt feelings, or to prove they are better.. asians also have bigger brains than whites.. she mad the comment on penis size.. the actual studies have shown that the more sexual drive of a culture, the less intelligent.. asians reach puberty later than whites.. africans develope the youngest.. these are things that are coincidental, but scientifically proven.. think about everyday life, and of those 3 races, who is most likely to make a big deal about a hot woman.. who is most likely not.. not saying that either of these things are the cause of the other, of more importance in areas where you may come from.. reproduction in africa being more important, because of the harsh living and odds of survival being lower…
its silly to hear about the head of a labor orginization, arguing with a nobel winning scientist.. who really knows more on the subject?? the guy discovered DNA sequencing 50 years ago!! i think he knows more about us than we do.. for centuries, scientist have been persecuted for their findings, that didnt fit what people of their time believed, but later realized to be truths..
James Watson’s enemies claim that genetics of race and intelligence is not Watson’s field of specialty. So he must not speak about the issue. This has a small shred of truth to it, but a genius like Watson can read a few papers to such a topic that is very close to his specialty and understand it quickly and thoroughly.
Even we can partially understand the research, when we drop the politically correct distortions to our understanding.
I still am sad that he backpedalled, to no avail. He should have insisted.
You know to tell the truth I have never wondered about any of that at all. This essay does though make one think that maybe there should be some honest and not politically correct research done. When you look at Africa it is not hard to see that what we are doing now surely is not working.