# Black people are intelligent! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 2, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070 "2005-02-02T23:33:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/1 "2005-02-02T23:33:22Z")
Because a certain ornery fag is making a boneheaded point and needlessly offending our black Dopers, I thought that the scales need to balance. America would be immeasurably poorer without the contributions of black Americans. Despite centuries of oppression and prejudice, black Americans have aided in our nation’s progress and defense. Frederick Douglass, a fiery voice for freedom Phyllis Wheatley, a slave who became America’s first poet Benjamin Banneker, America’s first inventor Sojourner Truth, a former slave turned abolitionist lecturer and one of America’s first feminists Madame CJ Walker, America’s first African-American millionaire Matthew Henson, Arctic explorer Adn those are just a few of the most famous names. . . there are scientists Hyman Yates Chase Jewel Plummer Cobb Alfred O. Coffin Jehu Callis Hunter Ernest Everett Just Roger Arliner Young Benjamin Banneker Sister Mary Sylvester Deconge Annie Easley Evelyn Boyd Collins Granville Katherine G. Johnson J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. Scott Warner Williams Roscoe L. Koontz Samuel L. Kountz William A. Hinton Maurice Rabb Vivien T. Thomas Daniel Hale Williams **Astronauts** Mae Jemison Michael Anderson Ron McNair (died in the _Challenger_ disaster) **Authors** WEB Dubois Ralph Ellison Richard Wright Toni Morrison Zora Neale Hurston James Baldwin Maya Angelou Samuel Delany Octavia Butler Tananarive Due Steven Barnes Langston Hughes Nikki Giovanni **Composers and Musicians** Duke Ellington Louis Armstrong Thomas Dorsey WC Handy Leontyne Price Marian Anderson Kathleen Battle Scott Joplin among many others There is not a sphere of American intellectual and cultural life in whioch black Americans have not created an immense legacy. Much love to all. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/2 "2005-02-02T23:40:18Z")
You forgot Anita Baker! I’m absolutely outraged!!! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/3 "2005-02-02T23:42:54Z")
My friend Cathy is pretty smart too. I wanted to add Denzel Washington to your list, but I don’t have any truthful idea whether he has a brain or not. It’s hard to tell with actors. I avoid watching interviews because some actors are so much less attractive when they are rock-poundingly dumb (I will occasionally refer to this as the Brad Pitt effect). ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/4 "2005-02-02T23:48:26Z")
How could you forget Booker T. Washington, who figured out dozens of uses for peanuts and peanut oil, many of them non-food? And Harriet Tubman, who led countless escaped slaves north? And Mary McLeod Bethune, who established what is now Bethune-Cookman college? (Freedom meant nothing if blacks weren’t educated, after all.) Anyway. **Otto** is a jackass. That whole “I’m using an inflammatory term to show how wrong generalizations are” schtick was never a good idea, and now it’s just…well, stupid. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/5 "2005-02-02T23:48:28Z")
Anita Baker? I thought she was British. My error. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/6 "2005-02-02T23:50:44Z")
You forgot to mention **monstro**! ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/7 "2005-02-02T23:55:08Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > How could you forget Booker T. Washington, who figured out dozens of uses for peanuts and peanut oil, many of them non-food? He was an educator (and the first black man to dine at the White House). You’re thinking of George Washington Carver. [quote Anyway. **Otto** is a jackass. That whole “I’m using an inflammatory term to show how wrong generalizations are” schtick was never a good idea, and now it’s just…well, stupid.[/QUOTE] Well, his attitude pissed me off, so I wanted to show love to our black Dopers. > [@you with the face](#): > > You forgot to mention **monstro**! No need, all Dopers are assumed to be intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/8 "2005-02-03T00:09:39Z")
Don’t forget Mildred Taylor, who wrote two of my favorite childhood books - **Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry** and **Let the Circle Be Unbroken** - all about the Logan family in Depression-era Mississippi. She’s got more books about the family, but I was never able to find those. I think I’ll go order them from Amazon right now. (Parents, I _highly_ recommend her books for about ages 8 - 14. If they’re anything like me as a kid, they won’t be able to put them down.) E. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/9 "2005-02-03T00:18:55Z")
Granted, I’m not familiar with all the names you’ve listed but looking your OP over, it looks like you’re naming African Americans, not blacks. What about Dumas, Mandela, and other international blacks? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/10 "2005-02-03T00:25:05Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Granted, I’m not familiar with all the names you’ve listed but looking your OP over, it looks like you’re naming African Americans, not blacks. > > What about Dumas, Mandela, and other international blacks? ::: scratches head::: Aren’t African Americans considerd black? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/11 "2005-02-03T00:37:14Z")
Y’know, both this thread and the other one are just flat out ridiculous. Black people are human, with all that implies, and with their full quota of dumbasses, jerks, ordinary joes, and saints. Aren’t we _ever_ going to be able to get past this sort of shit? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/12 "2005-02-03T00:39:03Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > ::: scratches head::: > Aren’t African Americans considerd black? Most are, yes, but not all African Americans black nor are all blacks African American. ---
**Author:** ![recurriman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8dc957/32.png) [@recurriman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/recurriman)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/13 "2005-02-03T00:47:29Z")
Is this thread really needed? Is there actually anyone on these boards capable of believing that some ethnic groups are less intelligent than others? I say no. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/14 "2005-02-03T01:42:42Z")
I once heard a kid in class speculating about the African Americans in South Africa being oppressed. Er… all the people from Africa are African, and none of the ones who haven’t left are American. ---
**Author:** ![Nightime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Nightime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightime)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/15 "2005-02-03T02:16:01Z")
In one of the classes I’m taking now, we heard scientific evidence that there is no biological basis for race. Skin color is a spectrum, darkest in the areas with the most intense sunlight and getting progressively lighter as you go towards less intense areas. That’s it. How we came up with the idea of “races” from that I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/16 "2005-02-03T02:19:46Z")
Don’t forget Carl, my corporate IT tech with the mad networking skillz. He’s Jamaican, but he’s still black. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/17 "2005-02-03T02:22:13Z")
I’m pissed that there aren’t threads praising Asians, Hispanics, or whatever race that one kid in my neighborhood is. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/18 "2005-02-03T02:34:08Z")
I have been gone awhile. But not long enought for the courtesy of a link to be provided! Give me the racist link, fool! ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/19 "2005-02-03T03:03:27Z")
[QUOTE=gobear] He was an educator (and the first black man to dine at the White House). You’re thinking of George Washington Carver. [quote] :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: Yes, I was. Shame on me. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070/20 "2005-02-03T03:18:25Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > What about Dumas, Mandela, and other international blacks? Dumas was black? Interesting, I never knew that. I’d actually like to see a similar treatment given to Middle-Easterners. Besides stuff like the Bible or other religious texts, what has their impact on our society been? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-are-intelligent/288070.md?page=2)