SCORE!
Esprix
Not that I’ve read many of the posts in question, but I thought this little tidbit was interesting:
Am I mistaken, or does every Asian suffer from Down’s Syndrome?
Actually, in his strange way, GENE came close to getting the “mongoloid race” bit correct–or, at least, correct from the perspective of the ethnologists of many years ago.
Mongoloid was originally used by ethnologists to identify the people of Eastern Asia. When (I forget his name) was coining terms to describe various levels of intelligence, he reached into the ethnologists’ bag of words to identify a person who was “high functioning” but who was not sufficiently intelligent to get along in “real” Western society. The comparison was deliberate, as ethnologists had “determined” that the “Mongoloid race” was highly functioning, but simply weren’t up to the standards of European Civilization. (How they asserted that in the face of what Westerners already knew of China, I don’t know.)
So, while the notion of biological race has been thoroughly discredited and we have a better understanding of the capabilities of people with Down Syndrome, if one’s education is stuck around 1920, “the Mongoloid Race” makes perfect sense.
Similarly, GENE’s comment that “white trash” was a racist term is correct–but probably not at all in the way that he thought it was.
I thought it was because the physical features of a person with Down Syndrome (flattened nose, epicanthal fold) makes him or her have some physical similarity to East Asians, and that the name was developed that way.
Hmmm…
Looks like Gene ain’t no more since 9/15.
Carry on.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=87407
Hence my “score” comment. Sadly, I whooshed some folks.
Esprix
Captain Amazing, I think you are correct as to what initiated the comparison. My memory was that the comparison was accepted based on the racial concepts of the time. Gould talked about the selection of the name in The Mismeasure of Man, but my copy is not available right now.
Of course, tracking down some detail on the issue, I notice that “mongoloid” is not used for old intelligence measurements, anyway.
Mongoloid was the term used by the ethnologists while the psychologists used to use the word mongolism.
I believe the term “Mongoloidism” was only used to refer to Down Syndrome, which, while it does cause mental retardation, isn’t the only cause of mental retardation. The old intelligence categories were
140+“Very Superior” or “Genius”
130-139 “Superior”
120-130 “Gifted”
110-119 “High Average”
90-110 “Average”
80-89 “Low Average”
70-79 “Borderline”
50-75 “Moron”
25-50 “Imbecile”
below 25 “Idiot”