Race and IQ: A High School Science Fair Project Ignites a Storm

American Thinker ^ | 02/14/2018 | Selwyn Duke

[SeekAndFind]

We don’t know the student’s name, but we do know that he hit a nerve — in fact, he hit a whole bunch of them. Identified only as a boy of Asian descent at C.K. McClatchy High School in California, the teen’s recent science-fair project, “Race and IQ,” propounded the thesis that differences in groups’ average intelligence influence their academic performance. He couldn’t win, though, because his project was removed after parents, staff and other students became “upset” and one girl said she felt “unsafe and uneasy.” The irony?

A project on evolution would no doubt have been well received — even though an assumption of racial differences is implicit in evolutionary theory.

In fact, The Sacramento Bee, which hasn’t yet evolved out of the progressive primordial soup, mentioned that the student’s thesis is associated with eugenics (which the Bee casts negatively), the science of improving the human race via selective breeding. The paper is likely unaware, however, that the term “eugenics” itself was coined by Sir Francis Galton — a cousin of famed evolutionist Charles Darwin — and that Galton made clear that in his eugenicist endeavors, he was merely building on his cousin’s work.

Philosopher G.K. Chesterton once noted that if people “were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal.” This is easy to understand: What are the chances that different groups could have “evolved” isolated from one another for eons — subject to different environments, stresses, procreation-influencing cultural imperatives and adaptive realities — and ended up identical in every worldly measure? Why, even if the peoples evolved isolated in identical environments, the separation alone would make the prospects of winding up completely “equal” a virtual statistical impossibility.

Whatever you believe about evolution, it’s clear that equality is not a thing of this world.

[ro_dreaming]

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980326&slug=2741766

Homosexuality is a sin, and the plight of gays and lesbians should not be compared to that of blacks, White told lawmakers.

“Homosexuality is a decision, it’s not a race,” White said.

White said he has thought about why God created different races. Each race has certain gifts, he said.

Blacks are gifted at worship and celebration, White said.

“If you go to a black church, you see people jumping up and down because they really get into it,” he said.

Whites are good at organization, White said.

“You guys do a good job of building businesses and things of that nature, and you know how to tap into money,” he said.

“Hispanics were gifted in family structure, and you can see a Hispanic person, and they can put 20, 30 people in one home.”

The Japanese and other Asians are inventive, and “can turn a television into a watch,” White said. Indians are gifted in spirituality, he said.

“When you put all of that together, guess what it makes: It forms a complete image of God,” White said.

[Boogieman]

“It isn’t common to then slap any person that fits little more than a skin color with that”

This is just more nonsense talk from you. Race is not “little more than a skin color”, that is just a leftist talking point you seem to have adopted. If that were true of race, then pathologists wouldn’t be able to identify the race of skeletal remains at a glance, but of course they can.

“Can I take a math class with ten kids, 7 that have poor math scores, 3 that have good ones, average that out...”

Certainly you could...

“...and then tie that to the 3 that have good scores, to hell with their individual scores?”

If you were doing this to hand out individual grades, that wouldn’t be the best practice, but this subsequent decision of yours would have absolutely nothing to do with the validity of taking an average that you spoke about in the first part of the sentence. Just as taking an average of any statistic of a racial group doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the nefarious motivations you want to accuse everyone of in order to suppress them from doing that or talking about it.

“If you guys (that believe in this) want to take the individual test scores of the people tested, and say “the average score of the group tested is X”, then fine.”

Which is exactly what some people are doing, but you have not said “then fine”, instead you have been making all sorts of ridiculous accusations about them.

“Where you guys abuse the hell out of this is when you then extrapolate out to assume that everyone of Y group will fall in Z range....”

Who is doing that? The only one I have seen doing that is you, in your attempt to make a straw man of the people you want to rail against.

[Boogieman]

“Saying that you should not rob people of their ability to not be prejudged based on something they had no part in, and that they should have the ability to prove their merit based on their own abilities and work, is “poltical correctness”, then the definition of PC must have changed.”

That’s not what you have been doing. You’ve been calling anyone and everyone who points out that a certain statistic exists “racist”, with no evidence that they actually are racist.

[VanDeKoik]

“Who is doing that? “

Ok. The “I’m going to play dumb” part of the discussion is fully engaged now.

So I’ll ask you one question. Simple yes or no:

Do you think that blacks(no distinction for anyone) are intellectually inferior to whites, full stop?

I don’t need a wall of equivocation and trying to use couched language, God knows I’ve heard all of it, just a simple YES or NO. Frankly, the BS innocent act you guys are pulling is getting old.

[VanDeKoik]

"who points out that a certain statistic exists"

I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.
I'm just pointing out statistics. I'm not SAYING anything.

Yeah, ok. So basically we got a group of people that have a fetish for pointing out that "certain statistic exists"....but that's all.

Here is a map I've been shown by lefties. I'm just pointing out that it exists.



Nothing here is being said. Just pointing out that it exists. It's used to bash conservatives in the south.....but I'm just pointing out that it exists.

There is NO MEANING HERE. It is just being pointed out that it exists!

[Yashcheritsiy]

I’m sure when you have some data to substantiate your viewpoint, we’ll be all ears.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Exactly. And VdK’s essential argument style is *explicitly* PC in action.

[VanDeKoik]

“I’m sure when you have some data to substantiate your viewpoint, we’ll be all ears.”

Data against what?

I’m being told that nothing is actually being said, and that people are just pointing out that “some statistics exist”.

So since you guys have no stomach to state an actual point, while some of you seem to be congratulating yourselves for being “brave” about something, then you will have to excuse me if I just take this as the massive joke that it is.

[Keyhopper]

Just because all men are created equal........
Doesn’t mean they advance as equals

[PapaBear3625]

So since you guys have no stomach to state an actual point, while some of you seem to be congratulating yourselves for being “brave” about something, then you will have to excuse me if I just take this as the massive joke that it is.

Here is the point:

The Left's assertion is that there is no difference in median ability between races. THEREFORE, when blacks do not achieve statistical parity in admissions to college, or in hiring or promotion, then that is due to racism. Lawsuit after lawsuit argues this.

If there IS a statistical difference in median IQ, then that would explain the difference in admission/hiring/promotion, and would undercut the legitimacy of the various discrimination lawsuits.

There being a difference in MEDIAN IQ, does not mean that all blacks are dumber than all whites. It also does not mean that any particular specific black person can be assumed to be of low intelligence, just because he's black.

[Boogieman]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_bias

[Boogieman]

“So I’ll ask you one question. Simple yes or no:

Do you think that blacks(no distinction for anyone) are intellectually inferior to whites, full stop?”

What does “blacks(no distinction for anyone)” mean? If you can’t ask the question in plain english, how am I to answer it?

Do you mean “blacks in aggregate” or something like that?

[VanDeKoik]

“If there IS a statistical difference in median IQ, then that would explain the difference in admission/hiring/promotion, and would undercut the legitimacy of the various discrimination lawsuits. “

...

“There being a difference in MEDIAN IQ, does not mean that all blacks are dumber than all whites. It also does not mean that any particular specific black person can be assumed to be of low intelligence, just because he’s black. “

You cant have it both ways. The fandom behind this IS about seeing them all as collectively “dumber” and giving “rationale” to assume any one of thme “to be of low intelligence, just because he’s black”. It isnt about some want to blunt the left’s “everyone is racist” narrative by saying “the median IQ of blacks is X, as you can see they are quite inferior.”, and then expecting the left to say “Oh. Quite right. I guess we shall go home now”.

If you cannot prejudge or assume (because statistics) then the narrative being pushed falls apart. That is why another group pushes the even more extreme notion that blacks are stupid (look at my statistics), it is because of genetics (therefore it is hardwired in all of them), and thus you can get around the messy part of individual performance and just assume they ARE all stupid.

You simply cannot take a statistic that is obtained from the taking of a test by one group and then attribute phantom scores to people that did not. People are not interchangeable cogs like that. You certainly cannot make a sweeping conclusion about a groups “median IQ” in an arena where then some policy change is expected to occur.

[VanDeKoik]

“What does “blacks(no distinction for anyone)” mean? If you can’t ask the question in plain english, how am I to answer it?”

Jesus...

Do you thinks blacks are are intellectually inferior to whites? Yes or No.

[Boogieman]

No, I don’t think that.

I would say they have lower average IQ scores than whites (a difference that remains when controlled for income, country of origin, education level, etc), but that doesn’t necessarily equate to what you are asking in your loaded question. If we knew that an IQ test could actually quantify everything that we mean when we talk of “intellect”, then that might be true, but I don’t think an IQ test can really do that.

[PapaBear3625]

You simply cannot take a statistic that is obtained from the taking of a test by one group and then attribute phantom scores to people that did not. People are not interchangeable cogs like that. You certainly cannot make a sweeping conclusion about a groups “median IQ” in an arena where then some policy change is expected to occur.

I agree that the median IQ score of a group cannot be used to make assumptions about the IQ of some particular individual who happens to be a member of that group.

But when one side starts to get into statistics ("Company X hired 10% of white applicants but only 5% of black applicants, so therefore it should be fined for discrimination"), then the other side has the right to bring up statistics too.

[PapaBear3625]

Do you thinks blacks are are intellectually inferior to whites? Yes or No.

The question presupposes that there two groups, ("blacks","whites") which are homogeneous in nature, and thus subject to group comparisons.

Is every black intellectually inferior to every white? Of course not. Are there blacks who are intellectually superior to the average white? Quite a few. Are there whites who are intellectually inferior to the average black? Quite a few.

It doesn't mean that the median IQ levels are identical.

[Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi]

Look up Edward Banfield.

He had quite a bit to say about such things.