I would not go so far as to say one race of people is somehow genetically more intelligent than another, but common sense tells us that talents and achievement have not been equally distributed across the globe and across different ethnic groups. This can be due to genetics, but can also be due to culture or envirnomental factors. Here are some examples.

For one reason or another, Black people seem to dominate certain sports like Sprinting and Basketball. Sure there are some fast non-Black people or good basketball players that are not Black, but if you watch the Olympics or the NBA, sprinting and basketball are dominated by Black people. I cannot say whether this is due to genetics, environment, social conditions, culture, or a combination of these factors. Nevertheless, the phenomenon is clearly present.

For one reason or another, Asian American Students students outperform other students. Sure you can find an Asian student with poor test scores, and non-Asian students who have excellent test scores, but on average, Asian students get the best test scores. Again, this can be genetics, it can be culture, it can be envirnoment, or a mixture of all these factors. Nevertheless, Asian students do better than non-Asian students.

Whether or not this is true is certainly debatable, but is it worth debating? Casting one race/culture/class/sex as being more intelligent than another is degrading to the parties declared inferior. I think scientific research of this nature does little to unite our world and can do a wealth of damage by encouraging stereotyping and a sense of superiority. Can't scientific research be used for a higher purpose than this? ... I hope so.



[edit on 3/12/2009 by sad_eyed_lady]

I've heard that even with cultural considerations taken into account, Asians still score better than any other group. Personally I don't care even if that is true, doesn't really affect me. So really, the scientist could have said "white people are less intelligent" and it might be true and I don't care. So to get worked up over this seems a bit childish, which some no doubt will. Statistics showing differences in height between groups aren't that controversial...

Originally posted by sad_eyed_lady
Whether or not this is true is certainly debatable, but is it worth debating? Casting one race/culture/class/sex as being more intelligent than another is degrading to the parties declared inferior. I think scientific research of this nature does little to unite our world and can do a wealth of damage by encouraging stereotyping and a sense of superiority. Can't scientific research be used for a higher purpose than this? ... I hope so.



[edit on 3/12/2009 by sad_eyed_lady]

I think that is the wrong approach. Lets say it is 100% true. How would we change the education system to adapt to that knowledge? Wouldn't it be better to know about a possible difficulty than to ignore it? They've found that race has an impact on how drugs are used by the body, wouldn't it be nice to know if a drug reacts differently in an asian person vs. someone else? If you know of difference you can work to negate the difference.

[edit on 12-3-2009 by ghaleon12]

Genetically we are all pretty fairly different in thinking.

It doesn't take a scientist to say women think more in emotions then men, or that men have a better advantage when it comes to heavy lifting. ( Yes I know there are always exceptions and steroids).

But the tricky thing here is, while I still concur a little with the article here, but it all depends on the persons perception of intellegence, which last time I checked is still one of the most difficult things to measure.

So all in all nothing is definite on the subject of "Intelligence".

This isn't really a new idea. In fact in the past most scientists thought this was true.

I don't think it has any relevance, look at all the great things black people have done. Whether they score lower on IQ tests or not, hasn't inhibited their abilities. I think this may be due to environment and stuff like that.

I know of intelligent blacks, I know of unintelligent ignorant whites... I know of asians that are completely bad at numeracy skills... and vice versa. Its not hard for us to go around and find a smart black person or hear of one... I certainly dont find it that hard... I dont find it hard to seek out those idiot "gangster" blacks and then again I dont have to go so far to find your local clan... burning the cross of our lord... So the theory that "groups are different in intelligence" is complete nonsense... its more so when folks dont take into account various circumstances that need be fairly applied.

This guy is 79year right? Well he sure as heck is an aging breed in his way of thinking.. and thankyou for that.

By the way if this guy was really the smart scientist as he proclaims to be or what not maybe he would have figured that the difference between the human groups such as africans and europeans are at most 0.01%. Whats more so our external differences such as skin and nose and hair texture account for 0.0012%. Did you know that there are more differences among human groups within themselves than to those other groups genetically? So its kind of obsolete dont ya think?

Now if this guy saw another man walk down the street with a 0.0088% genetic difference but his external features were the same as those of europeans, do you think he would treat that many any different from other whites?

We could say the term race is "obsolete". I still can recognize the diversity in humans... the differences... and at the same time see through these race tags.

[edit on 12-3-2009 by Southern Guardian]

Another thought, why can there be disparities between races on a lot of things, but if you say that their is an intelligence difference, people tend to freak out for a lack of better words. Life span differences, height differences, ect. not that big a deal. How important is intelligence really, isn't it on the same level as physical attractiveness or some other attribute? What impact does it have to the purpose of life, none really.

As a God fearing man I think it is abhorable that a human could think a race of other humans were any less or more than a any other race. But I aint an evolutionist and I don't claim we evolve from lower species, I claim Created us all equal, so this is appalling...

"any less or more". So that applies to intelligence, but what about height or some other attribute. Does intelligence have something to do with God? I wouldn't say so, and any attribute that doesn't contribute to that search has no value. I'm not saying I hold any view, but just putting it out their as it is sort of interesting how we value and hold in high esteem the going-ons of the grey matter, perhaps too much so?

[edit on 12-3-2009 by ghaleon12]

I, as a non-black, in my --experience-- with black persons, have seen this common tendency from them to emotionally-negatively -react- . I know that I have emotionally negatively reacted to stuff in these chat forums, but those do not represent this (me) Super Avoidant chicken***t nerd in real life. All of my experiences in 'The System' if you will, i.e. institutions such as the military, hospitals, social work, social security, post offices, etc. etc. in which I encountered incompetence and unprofessionalism, have (well, you know.....) and I have always ernestly wondered if it was encultured. Take one of those unhappy persons I encountered, and, if he/she was raised up by for example, 'Ward and June Cleaver'-type of parents, would that individual be TOTALLY DIFFERENT? Or still be susceptible to those tendencies? I seriously, seriously, have always wished I could know the answer to that.

Originally posted by hotpinkurinalmint
I would not go so far as to say one race of people is somehow genetically
For one reason or another, Black people seem to dominate certain sports like Sprinting and Basketball. Sure there are some fast non-Black people or good basketball players that are not Black, but if you watch the Olympics or the NBA, sprinting and basketball are dominated by Black people. I cannot say whether this is due to genetics, environment, social conditions, culture, or a combination of these factors. Nevertheless, the phenomenon is clearly present.

For the most part that's because of two things
1. They have been nomadic in Africa for a very long time and have become well adapted to hunting on the savanah aka running fast and having light muscle.
2. They were bred to be strong and fast during the time that they were slaves.

Same reason many white people are huge, their ancestors had to wield big axes and swords and survive harsh winters. For the most part whites aren't as atheletic because we don't need to be and haven't need to be for quite some time. We've become adept at making other people/things/machines/animals do the work for us.
This is where the "intelligence" comes into play. Intelligence is such a hard thing to measure because it's an abstract concept.
(sweeping generalities ahead so bear with me)
White people are great at building things, planning, and overall controlling stuff. Over the years we got really good at making war and building citys, some of us are pretty decent thinkers as well.
Black people (remember, very broad generalities) often don't think about "deep" things as much as we do, they're great for quick tasks and they can usually learn anything really really fast. I'm speaking strictly from my experience here. They have a really strong cultural tie usually and they often let this define them.

I'm not saying ANY of this is a good or bad thing, it's simply unbiased observation.

Why do we have to lump everybody into races that bear little to no genetic differences? Why not take people by who they are and what person they make themselves out to be. Do we choose how we are born, where we are born, to what circumstances we found ourselves in interms of culture, race and religion?

I am my own man, everybody here is in their own individualism. Why not accept that fact? Is it so hard? Or is ones life so depressive and lacking in anything that they have to group themselves to celebrate something?