Re: Black People
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Peter,
Why can't we just say Azns are smarter than white folks and blecks r dumber?
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Because I don't think it's very helpful. I don't believe *any* social problems that are the consequence of monocausal explanations, and so it isn't *just* the IQ distribution in Afro-Carribean youth -- culture and environment are also important factors.
And there are other problems: the IQ curve doesn't tell you how smart any particular white person or black person is likely to be. The idea of race as a fixed and exclusive category is being seriously challenged by geneticists -- apparently, Africa was the country of origin for the whole of mankind, so presumably we've all got a bit of black in us if you go back far enough.
Also, I don't think it's helpful to us as a society. Send out the message that black people are dumber than white people, and you end up with the idea that studying and working hard is 'acting white', and that the only way a black man can make his aspirations real in the white man's world is by slangin' dope, or sticking a gun in whitey's mouth and taking his reparations that way.
I think the reason that Ashkenazi jews and Asians do so well in IQ tests is because they value education, intelligence and learning. Those races probably select those qualities (as opposed to spectacular boobies or a big badonkadonk) when selecting a mate.
Also, IQ scores improve the more that you do them, so if more black people can come around to the idea that valuing education is one of the ways that they can really improve the lot of their race, then that has to be a good thing. Simply telling them that they're dumb, it's genetic and therefore fixed, so they might as well give up striving now does it all a disservice.
The remarkable thing about humans, IMO, and why I'd happily let an infinite number of cats die in microwave ovens rather than killing a single cat-torturing paedophile, is that humans are the only animals who possess the power of reflexivity -- the ability to use the power of our consciousness to look at ourselves, realize that we don't much like what we see, and then decide that we're going to change ourselves and our world through study and problem solving skills.
And that ability is not limited to any particular race.
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