Nobel Prize scientist - Black people are dumb

[Lestat]

The guy chose a very bad way to make a point, and perhaps he IS a racist. But what's that got to do with whether or not it's true (i.e., there's no reason to think races have evolved equally on intellectual or other fronts)?

[andyfox]

"I don't see how looking at facts and drawing conclusions can be racist."

That's exactly what racism is: drawing onslusions from facts in an illogically prejudiced manner. That blacks score lower than whites on IQ tests is a fact (if indeed that is the case). That their lower test scores mean lower intelligence and that this lower intelligence is genetically caused are conclusions one would expect from a man who states that people who "have to" work with blacks would already know they're stupid.

[tpir]

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Here's what I don't get about these sorts of scuffles:

What is the point of doing research into intelligence differences between the races? What's the agenda? Where does one go with the results? I don't see what the use is of trying to look into the question "black people are dumber than white people." It's a thorny question to look at purely scientifically (how are you defining black, dumb, and white?), and there are such obvious negative drawbacks even to "succeeding" that I wonder what people are hoping to accomplish with this information that makes it worthwhile. Because I don't see the point. Science is almost never just knowledge for knowledge's sake; there's a lot of careful choice that goes into what gets looked at and taken seriously. So, why?

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So we can single out the high IQ genes and start cloning super-smart super-soldiers. Duh [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Lestat]

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First, can't this easily be verified or proven wrong through testing?

Secondly, does it even matter if it's true? Can or should something like that ever be said? And we think religion is a touchy topic?...

I've often wondered whether certain races were either slightly ahead or behind other races on an evolutionary scale. I'm white, and it wouldn't surprise me (or offend me), to learn that Asians are more intelligent than people of my race.

I mean, the guy makes a point... There's no reason to think that all races evolved equally at the same pace over time.

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What you're missing is that there are no "races." Groups like "white" and "asian" comprise a large number of ethnicities. The "white/yellow/red/brown/black" divisions have little scientific basis, they take a single trait (skin color) and categorize a huge number of ethnicities on that basis alone.

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I'm confused. Are you saying that humans can't and don't diverge through geographical separation? If Asia has the longest civilized population of humans, I would expect that their intelligence quotient may have devoloped more rapidly than the rest of us. Is that a wrong assumption to make?

[andyfox]

It's not the "politically correct radical left." It's in the mainstream; I'm sure the vast majority of Republicans would consider Watson's conclusions shameful. This is a man who has said that he would allow women to abort fetuses if they discovered the child would turn out homosexual; that we should genetically get rid of "ugly people"; and that anyone who has black employees already knows they're stupid.

[tame_deuces]

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So we can single out the high IQ genes and start cloning super-smart super-soldiers. Duh [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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One thing is for certain; the last thing you ever want is super-smart soldiers. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[andyfox]

I would take his conclusions with several grains of salt because he's prejudiced. He's taken an extremely dubious chain of connections (the idea of race; the ability of IQ tests to measure intelligence; the correlation of lower IQ test scores with a genetic causation) and concluded that blacks are genetically stupider than other races.

Scientists are not immune from bigotry. It's not that he's chosen a very bad way to make his point. He's always made his point in a way that shows his racism. And that should give one pause about which causes which: has his research led him to conclude something which appears "racist; or has his racism led him to conclude something that his research doesn't justify? Dr. Watson has also suggested that skin color affects sex drive, which explains, according to him, the existence of the "Latin lover."

[jogsxyz]

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The cities are running failed school systems. This information may help in solving this problem.

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How? And in what way is doing this brand of research superior to looking into the schools directly?


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We do know inspirational teachers can motivate black students. Hollywood loves making movies about these teachers.

[gumpzilla]

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We do know inspirational teachers can motivate black students.

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. . .

[Lestat]

I normally agree with you Andy, and maybe you're more familiar with this guy than I am (first thing I ever read from him). But I think this is such a touchy subject that people willingly turn a blind eye to some very legitimate questions. It makes sense to me that certain races may be more or less intelligent (on average), than others.

Not sure if you're old enough to remember the Jimmy "the" Greek debacle. I mean, the guy chose a very poor way to make a point, but I never understood what all the fuss was about! Blacks ARE built differently and therefore, are physically more inclined to excell athletically in certain sports. What's so wrong with acknowledging that? Am I a racist?