Look back behind the tank. It’s wedged in there.
No, absolutely not. Employment is a matter of individual qualifications and any group based arguments have no relevance to individuals. There are highly qualified people in every group. I work with them. I am serious when I say I was practically raised a small black child myself and I am familiar with the typical skills and culture.
I fundamentally believe that there are supremely talented people in every group anyone cares to describe. At the same time, I am firmly convinces that the white inteligencia doesn’t stand up to the fact that some of their ideas don’t make much logical sense. In some respects, I think they know it at this point and can’t force themselves to the logical conclusions even if it is the academically honest thing to do.
That can be analyzed lots of different ways. It could be that traditional white ways of thinking don’t apply well to other groups but the fact remains that we live in a white dominated society so the results still aren’t promising.
I was in academia at one time and I listen with the most open ear to race based arguments made hear. I sense some denial because the evidence is so extreme that blacks as a whole can’t do as well at any intellectual task as we define it as as whites. That could come from any number of causes but the consequences are the same for any blacks living today. I have also sensed some serious contraditction in the Out of Africa Hypothesis that few seem willing to admit. Whites, Asian, and other groups should be only directly descended from one or few groups in Africa and the other remained behind. Standard arguments seem to admit that fact and yet resist the fact that Kenyans may have remained behind and developed an advantage in some things such as running.
This is all academic to me. I don’t have any particular tie to it emotionally. I just think that academics skip obvious conclusions and details when they confront the politically charged idea of race.
We’ve seen vastly different events in the same arguments. I do not recall anyone claiming that Kenyans are not very good at the marathon. Although, as I recall, it is not “Kenyans” who excel, but the particular group, the Kalenjins who happen to live in Kenya. Most of the objections that I have seen raised have been to expanding the claims to “blacks” are great runners, when it is not some vast and poorly defined “race” who do well in marathons, but a specific population–which is quite consistent with any standard argument regarding “race.” (The sprint question, from the other side of Africa, is a lot more contentious, given that the variables–including an accurate knowledge of ancestry for the really fast sprinters–are quite disparate. There have been those who have argued that there cannot be a clear superiority from that (ill defined) group, but most of the opposition to such statements has, again, taken the form of not generalizing from that group to some nebulous “race” of “blacks.”)
The issue isn’t that there aren’t differences between races; there clearly are (skin color, for instance), but whether those differences are a logical basis for treating people differently.
Throughout history, they have been, which is why reseach on racial differences is such a touchy area. Too many people will latch on to any sign of difference as a sign of inferiority. They’ll do this in any case, but the point is not to give them any more ammunition.
BTW, IQ tests were never designed to measure native intelligence, so extrapolating intelligence from them is a mistake (they were designed to see if a student was keeping up with his peers).
And yet, we all somehow know that blacks are supposed to be stupid and good at music.
What a deliciously textbook example of unquestioned white arrogance. Here’s a thought experiement that may help you understand the perspective of those who don’t share your reverence for your people and their presumed competence, rationality, and objectivity.
Imagine that a group of Zulu scientists and scientists from surrounding, cooperating tribes decided to develop a test to diagnose autism. According to the test’s developers, it measures the capicty for giving and recieving affection an individual has by asigning him a numerical score based on his test results. If that score is below a certain point, he’s diagnosed with autism.
Eventually, the test is used to score people’s capacity for affection even above the autism level, and the higher a person’s score is, the more loving that person is said to be. In fact, it colloquially, and then officially, becomes known as the the love test, and the score it awards is a person’s Love Quotient.
Soon, the sub-Sahara African scientists decide to dispach the test to the world, and compile the results of all the world’s populations, and find that whites have the lowest LQ, dramatically so, and thus are the least loving of all the races. They even try developing other tests that measure one’s capacity to love, but whites keep coming out on the bottom.
Would ANY white person in the world take these tests or their results seriously?
I agree with you. Actually I would guess that most people would agree with both of us deep down because the messages are not contradictory. My main beef is that this type of subject is not handled by science the way other things are. Countless studies and real world results on test indicate that there are some deep-seated differences and yet the results are written off as generic “nurture” almost every time without hardly anyone delving deeper to find just what those factors are exactly. In many circles it is taken as a big faux pas to even mention that there are some clear differences let alone discuss the factors that may be causing them. It could be anything from diet to early parenting style to anything else as far as I know but it seems to me that understanding the causes could only help close the gap in areas where the differences seem to linger.
I once came across a white supremicist site and although they didn’t have a message board they did have something I did find disturbing. A ‘Kids Section’. In the kids section, on thing they had was this little art program that was pretty fun.
John Rawls’ veil of ignorance at work.
Not if you’re questioning the abilities of rest of the world, rather that white people’s ability to make meaningful tests that measure abstract concepts.