# Blacks and Intelligence **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 5, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975 "2009-07-05T14:00:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Honesty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f04885/32.png) [@Honesty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honesty)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975/81 "2009-07-12T08:36:11Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > But when you wonder why blacks (as a whole) have not achieved the same sort of socioeconomic advance as minority immigrant groups that came after them… That’s a question that has escaped white people in the United States for the last 150 years. It has become clear to me and, perhaps a few others, that the inscription on the foot of the Statue of Liberty is a promise to Europeans not to Africans. Unfortunately, it is precisely this concept that neither the latte-sipping liberal nor a flag-waving Republican can intellectually grasp. Not because either is stupid or inferior, but because both will themselves to blindness and ignorance of reality. - Honesty ---
**Author:** ![Honesty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f04885/32.png) [@Honesty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honesty)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975/82 "2009-07-12T09:04:03Z")
> [@athelas](#): > > Before someone claims that “race is a social construct,” let me present this genetic [map](http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2008/08/genetic-map-of-europe-again.php)of Europe that manages to separate out not races but _different European populations_ based on principal component analysis of SNPs. Any single allele has little predictive power, but many together can be extremely powerful (and most interesting traits, including the inherited component of intelligence, are multifactorial, relying on more than one gene) I read the article and paper in full. For those who didn’t read it, scientists examined short stretches of DNA that encode for protein (and hence traits) and were able to sort out Europeans to their respective countries with high confidence with this data. Now, given the degeneracy of the genetic code, it is unclear to me how this equates scientifically sanctioned use of “race”. Let me give you an example: Let’s say the amino acid sequence for insulin is: Met-Val-Iso-Leu-Aln. 1. Black: Have a SNPs that changes “AUU” to “AUA” 2. White: Have a SNP that changes “AUU” to “AUC” 3. Asian: Have a SNP that changes "AUU to “AUA” 4. Cheetah: Have a SNP with a frameshift: deletion of 3 nucelotides 5. Horse: Have a SNP that changes "ALN to “UAA” Despite the changes in 1, 2, and 3, the sequence of DNA still encodes for the same protein (Met-Val-Iso-Leu-Aln). Both 4 and 5, while different, binds to the insulin receptor just as well as the wild-type form. In fact, if you were to inject cheetah insulin to the human and vice versa, you’d have identical insulin activity in both organisms. So again what’s the difference? - Honesty ---
**Author:** ![Sablicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Sablicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sablicious)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975/83 "2009-07-12T10:42:18Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The secret to happiness is often said to be good health and poor memory. Touche! ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975/84 "2009-07-13T02:23:56Z")
> [@ashman165](#): > > Easy to see the dark side is not. Try harder, you must. > > Shouldn’t the clue have been when used the word “true”? I mean really, that’s a good keyword that the statement following will be conflated, made up, or, um, something. As in, you know, no no no, not _that_ intellect, I mean the _true_ intellect - the real one that I know about which you’ve been led to believe isn’t there. No, the word “true” indicates a partisan of one view or another, but there are multiple possible perspectives on this issue, so the use of the word “true” in any context does not actually identify the particularl bias involved. > [@orcenio](#): > > I’d say it was aimed at **athelas** then grew into a generalized rant at the modern-day sub-culture of internet racialists. Fair enough. > [@orcenio](#): > > My reasons to a label gnxp a “race realist” site needs not to go any further then their own self descriptive stance on [biology/race/genetics](http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2006/06/happy-4th-birthday-gnxp.php). OK. I am not impressed with the site, in general, (probably because blog sites are not really laid out in coherent fashion, Talk Origins, notwithstanding), and I did miss their little “history” lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975/85 "2009-07-13T05:35:59Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > My understanding of genetics – and perhaps someone can correct me if I’m wrong – is that genetic drift tends always to the middle. That is, if you have two unusually smart parents, the tendency will be to have a child not quite as bright as the parents, while two unusually stupid parents will tend to have a child not quite as dense as the parents. That is assuming that being really smart and being really stupid are recessive traits. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975/86 "2009-07-13T05:42:12Z")
> [@Sablicious](#): > > Touche! Yeah, I would be willing to drop my IQ by a standard deviation or two for better health and a really hot body. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-intelligence/501975.md?page=4)