The issue with this whole thing is that people can’t acknowledge trait differences between races without assuming that means the whole race is better and so is therefore racist. Go look up skin cancer statistics in USA by race. White mans skin cancer rate is crap compared to others. Does that mean black people have superior skin when it comes to defence against skin cancer? Absolutely. Is it racist to acknowledge it? No. Is it racist to deduce that because black people have better skin protecting against skin cancer, that they then as a race are better as a whole? Yes... so acknowledging this difference is fine and not racist but any one that shows an advantage towards white people, or not black people, is immediately racist.
We are different, we have different genetic advantages/disadvantages due to our environments. And that’s the point... different, not superior/inferior as a whole. I don’t doubt that there are cognitive differences between races. In fact I’d be shocked if there weren’t. There’s fruit/food abound in Africa all year. Europe has winters. Different environments different needs. The idea that the only difference would be skin colour is just laughable.
Quite,
But back to the IQ thing.
I have always maintained that IQ does not measure intelligence at any fundamental level. The use of the word "Intelligence" is probabally a very unfortunate choice of name for all the reasons that this thread demonstrates.
"AB" or "Ability Quotient" might be more appropriate.
However, what it does do is measure a range of cognitive abilities. Some clearly achieved through education, and some which are more likley to have a genetic and therefore inherited aspect which are considered desirable (Essential even) to be able to perform satisfactorily socio-economically in a northern European culture based industrial style of society.
These tests have been
designed to generate a mean score of 100 for this population As such ones score in the test over the range of 70-130 (Say) is a pretty good predictor of how well an individual will perform both socially and economically in this type of society.
If we have a group (Africans) who consistently perform poorly across the board in the test compared to Europeans (In the US the mean score for AA is around 85 AIUI) then it doesn't mean that they are somehow inferior or less intelligent. But it
DOES mean, that as a group, across the board, they will tend to perform poorly socio-economically in northern European style industrial societys (And they do) because they simply do not possess the cogitative skills required to perform well.
conversely If we have a group that consistently perform rather better than the European mean (Asiatics), then again, it doesn't mean that they are superior or more intelligent. But it DOES mean that they will tend, as a group, to perform rather better across the board than your average northern European. (And they do, as indeed do Jews)
The nub of the entire argument however is over whether these differences are fixed somehow, genetic and and immutable (IE Black people will always as a group perform poorly whatever action is taken) Or genetic though mitigateable (Say systematically treading all people with dark skins for chronic vitamin D deficiency) ) or whether they are more cultural and therefore leave the possibility of overcoming the differences through education or through some other means.
But as ever, if nobody is willing to actually carry out a proper investigation on the matter then we will never know.
Incidentally.
I don’t doubt that there are cognitive differences between races. In fact I’d be shocked if there weren’t. There’s fruit/food abound in Africa all year. Europe has winters. Different environments different needs. The idea that the only difference would be skin colour is just laughable.
An anecdotal story from the days of Empire.
I cant remember when i read this. but the way the story goes. A African Colonial administrator new to the job had caught one of the locals committing some minor offense and had sentenced him to a short period of jail time. Like 14 days or something.
He was shocked at how the African convict took this, the poor man sank into a deep depression and basically began to waste away.
Eventually he realised why. For whatever reason the African simply couldn't see 14 days ahead and that the prison time would soon be over, he had concluded that this was going to be it for the rest of his life.
Now this is just an anecdote and I do not imagine it would apply quite so extremely across the board.
But I would imagine that if there are major inherited cogitative differences between northern Europeans and Africans, the ability to look
far into the future might well be one of them. Survival in this environment involves being able to plan a year, or even more, ahead in a way that simply isn't necessary in an equatorial environment.
(Incidentally, people who commit violent crimes typically do so spontaneously and with little thought for the future consiquences of current actions (!) )
)
