[joseph20]

The Bell Curve

[CatoRenasci]

Your posts make the same point differently - there is a tendency, which is in evidence on this thread, to equate a statement describing, or a chart aggregating, the results of intelligence testing that demonstrates that the IQ distributions of blacks and the benchmark 'white' population differ significantly and show the 'white' population has a higher mean and median and clusters more closely about the mean, with a statement that any individual black is less intelligent than any individual 'white'.

Whatever one thinks of the tests, the results are incontrovertible that the black population taken as a whole has a lower mean/median IQ than the white population. Of course, it's also true that Ashkenazi Jews, the Chinese and Japanese have higher mean/medians than 'white' people. It's not 'racist' to note those facts.

There is also apparently an interesting phenomenon involving men and women: while the average for (white) men and women is the same at 100, the women's distribution is said to cluster more closely about the mean. What that means is that there are more men and fewer women at the extremes -- more men at the genius level but also more men who are mentally retarded. This could go a long way towards explaining some of the disparity between men and women in the professions requiring brilliance or something close - the hard sciences and mathematics.

Now, none of this means that any individual man is smarter than any individual woman, or that any individual white, Jew, Chinese or Japanese person, is smarter than any individual black person. Nor does it mean that cultural phenomena are irrelevant in determining how members of any population or subpopulation develop their natural talents which affects achievement significantly (perhaps as much as raw talent).

Instead of focusing on demanding that every group be 'equal' what would make more sense is to encourage the cultural traits that enable individuals in every group to achieve at the highest level possible for that individual. Bill Cosby, an obviously intelligent black man, is right that it is up to blacks to foster a culture that encourages achievement instead of handicapping blacks out of the gate.

[Hardastarboard]

Everyone seems to have forgotten about the book “The Bell Curve”, including Steven Rose, the gentleman quoted at the end of the article.

[Constantine XIII]

How's the buffet?

[barb-tex]

Havent we danced around the Bell Curve for decades and haven’t we devised methods to discredit it? Move along! Nothing new to see here.
barbra ann

[Solitar]

According to those Bell Curve statistics, American Blacks with over 130 IQ are very rare. They exist, but with only one in ten thousand in their population at that level, there may only be about three thousand in America. And since females average about four points lower than males, there are even fewer American Black females with an IQ over 130. Thus people like Dr. Condoleezza Rice and Justice Janice Rogers Brown (D.C. Circuit Appeals Court) are one in fifty thousand in their population and there may only be about one thousand in America -- of which only a few managed to make it through all the university and political hurdles to have positions such as they have. Over 140 IQ there may only be a hundred Black males and twenty Black females.

We should not pass up the opportunity to promote those Blacks who are very bright and very conservative -- such as Rice for VP or President in five or nine years and Brown for Supreme court as soon as one of the present justices dies or retires.

[wideminded]

Where did you get that graph? It's not really from The Bell Curve, is it? It would seem to place the bulk of the black population among the near-retarded, which is not plausible. The shape of the graph for whites is also not correct.

[WizWom]

Well, I knew someone would find that.
The Bell Curve has it’s detractors, as did the study which produced that graph. But a difference of more than a full Standard Deviation is significant. It really is there.

Now, what makes people angry is that too many people interpret the fact “(American) blacks are less intelligent than (American) whites” as “Blacks are worth less than Whites” - which, of course, is true from a business perspective, that is, a businessman incurs more cost from having unintelligent workers, and a simple color bar can, unfortunately, be used to estimate cost.

Now, a business could get around the color bar completely by issuing an IQ test as a prerequisite for employment, and denying employment based on any result under 100.