In my opinion, it’s more than an academic question. Because the West can and should raise up black people if at all possible. Which we (westerners) have been trying to do for many years with mixed success.
If it turns out that part of the problem is genetic, then what I would propose is this: Study people who have high intelligence from their genes. Those genes must be affecting their body chemistry in some way. Develop foods and food supplements that produce similar effects. We know that there are foods and food supplements that can help you grow taller or stronger or thinner or fatter. If science focused on it, I think there’s a good chance we could find stuff that makes you smarter. Then distribute it widely in Africa or among anyone else who wants it.
It seems like we (Westerners) are afraid to consider the possibility that blacks are less intelligent because of their genes, and it strikes me that this fear may interfere with a solution to the problem.
But who will explain why blacks throughout the entire world are overall less successful than their white (and East Asian) counterparts, whether they are the majority or minority; whether they are new immigrants or original natives; whether the country is at war against drugs or not? You don’t have much to stand on when you focus your argument on blaming the United States.
The notion that “whites in the United States would not be able to handle science’s answer on the matter” might make you feel better, but it’s just a statement tossed out there as rhetoric, and is equally discardable.
Here’s an idea: How about we stop caring how to define any groups and learn to recognize individual achievement? We create special opportunities if you got cheated by circumstances–whether you were black or white. And we don’t give a rat’s patoot what your race categorization is, was, or will be. Let science do whatever it wants. What your population’s average is as a whole has no bearing on you as an individual because there is plenty of overlap.
My question, as a white male, is: will special interest groups go for that? Trade race-based affirmative action for elimination of racial categorization, for instance? You would still get a preponderance of special privilege to the underprivileged. You would just get one step closer to getting rid of race as a concept. Wouldn’t that be nice: Judge you not by the color of your skin but the content of your character; not some scientific (or unscientific) average of a whole population but your specific talent. Hmmmm…
If it is okay to study potential “intelligence genes” in individuals, why should population-level genomics be unacceptable? Does it matter if we’re talking about disease suceptibility, blood-type frequencies, hormone levels, or intelligence?
People have been explaining this for quite some time now. Some people don’t want to listen to/accept those explanations because they are so confident that answer comes down to genetics even though they don’t have any evidence. But that doesn’t mean that the question of why there are disparities is a true mystery. It’s not a mystery to me.
It’s “telling” that the intelligence debate seems to betray a certain fixation on race that coincidentally mirrors the theories circulating around in the days of slavery.
I never said that it is. Population-level genomics wouldn’t produce results that say “blacks are dumber than whites”, though.
The “problem” is that lots and lots of blacks all over the world seem to be suffering very heavily from poverty, anarchy, crime, and other social ills.
Perhaps you’re right. Science is well and good when it stays within its bounds, finding useful solutions to accepted problems and fiddling around with abstractions. But when it messes about with political and social issues, particularly if it so frequently appears to support the position of a discredited but still-fearsome ideology, it’s out of its depth, and that sort of research shouldn’t be pursued. I mean, you can’t divorce the abstractions of science from its momentous sociopolitical implications.
Are there some inheritable bases for various sets of problem solving skills? Obviously yes.
Might these skill sets vary between families, clans, and various other genetically differentiatable population sub-groups? Sure. And within them. Is there a debate about this really?
Is there utility in having tests that measure various problem solving skill set abilities that predict future performance, and advises about strengths and weakness that an individual might have? Also obviously yes. Is this really debatable?
Is there any possible usefulness in trying to force fit those tests that we have and their limited predictive value and meaning onto the sociologic groupings that we call “race”? None. Other than as proposed, to attempt to justify some already held belief set.
There are a number of groups who benefit. The first group is the group that wants to prove that if you are poor it’s your own damned fault. The second group is the group that wants to prove that black people are simply inferior. The third group is the group that wants to prove that there’s no helping black people 'cause they’re just stupid anyway. And the fourth group just wants to feel all noble for helping the poor benighted savages, and the more poor and benighted they are to start with the better they can look in the end.
That’s true. But it seems like the suffering of blacks is greatly disproportionate. Anyway, the solution I proposed would benefit everyone.
See my first post in the thread.
Because the particulars of the problem will inform the solution.
For example, suppose it were discovered that blacks are less intelligent than whites, but it has nothing to do with their genes. Instead, suppose it is learned that black children simply receive less stimulation in their first year of life.
In that case, we (westerners) start cranking out mobiles and shipping them to Zimbabwe.
If that’s how “we (westerners)” would chose to frame our intervention, then I’d have reason to believe “we (westerners)” are the stupid ones, not the black people in Zimbabwe.
So unless the problem were framed that way, you can’t in any way study what makes some people less intelligent than others, and come to a solution like that?
I suppose so. Having people say that any investigation into the genetic basis of intelligence differences across genetic groups (a) is definitely motivated by racism and (b) definitely will not return any results…that does make any effort towards injecting more comedy into this discussion rather futile.
Although, I’d bet, you never expected the Spanish Inquisition.
But it doesn’t really affect my main point, which is that “intervention” is appropriate and that the problem should be studied in a critical way to find the best “intervention.”