# Why do black pupils in the US underachieve academically when one factors out poverty?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-pupils-in-the-us-underachieve-academically-when-one-factors-out-poverty/482948>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 25, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-pupils-in-the-us-underachieve-academically-when-one-factors-out-poverty/482948 "2009-01-25T20:13:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 871

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**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-pupils-in-the-us-underachieve-academically-when-one-factors-out-poverty/482948/871 "2015-03-22T16:34:06Z")

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> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> What is it about _genetics_? The same questions apply to any theory. You are marking “black” as “African ancestry”, even though most black people in America have mixed ancestry. We might as well say “~99% of basketball players have European ancestry”… and we’d probably be correct! Most black people, most sprinters, and most basketball players in America have European ancestry.
> 
> But because we _culturally_ identify them as black, they seem “different” than the majority, and it seems to some like we have to explain it as something intrinsic to their supposed difference. But they’re not really that different, even genetically – most African Americans have some European ancestry, and many white Americans have some African ancestry.

Ah, a page from the Dribble. There’s no such things as race. :rolleyes:

Reread the thread. Gotta run.

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