Today was a pretty damn good day. I finished my research paper, found a great Indian restaurant (damn do I love Indian food), and did well rock climbing.
My paper was an overview of the research done on racial differences in IQ. After the days of research needed to understand the arguments and data, I feel like I have a pretty good beginner's handle on the information. So there are academics arguing that the standard deviation in IQ scores between Blacks and Whites is due to genetics. And basically, they're full of shit. The evidence doesn't support the claim so they misrepresent findings and cite poorly conducted studies. Also, because most credible scholars won't touch this sort of stuff, the articles of these guys (everyone I read was a white male) are mostly a compilation of a few like-minded researchers work, each one of whom has also been discredited.
Here's a "finding": Sub-Saharan Blacks have an average IQ of 70 (mentally retarded). Hmm, could that be untrue?
Plus, if all that wasn't bad enough, they are funded by white supremecists. The Pioneer Fund, whose founders were honored for their role in Nazi eugenics, is a major contributor to these researchers.
So, while I guess it's possible that racial genetic differences exist, I have learned that it's really unlikely and that people claiming otherwise, are doing it either out of ignorance, bigotry, or duplicity.
Besides that, my little brother went back to Minnesota this morning. While I was happy to have him here, after 20 days, I was also happy to see him leave. He's more daft about reading peoples emotions than I am. It's really hard to get along with someone who never realizes when to shut up.
I have a couple days off for Thanksgiving, hopefully I can go to concerts for a few nights straight. I miss live music like crazy.
My paper was an overview of the research done on racial differences in IQ. After the days of research needed to understand the arguments and data, I feel like I have a pretty good beginner's handle on the information. So there are academics arguing that the standard deviation in IQ scores between Blacks and Whites is due to genetics. And basically, they're full of shit. The evidence doesn't support the claim so they misrepresent findings and cite poorly conducted studies. Also, because most credible scholars won't touch this sort of stuff, the articles of these guys (everyone I read was a white male) are mostly a compilation of a few like-minded researchers work, each one of whom has also been discredited.
Here's a "finding": Sub-Saharan Blacks have an average IQ of 70 (mentally retarded). Hmm, could that be untrue?
Plus, if all that wasn't bad enough, they are funded by white supremecists. The Pioneer Fund, whose founders were honored for their role in Nazi eugenics, is a major contributor to these researchers.
So, while I guess it's possible that racial genetic differences exist, I have learned that it's really unlikely and that people claiming otherwise, are doing it either out of ignorance, bigotry, or duplicity.
Besides that, my little brother went back to Minnesota this morning. While I was happy to have him here, after 20 days, I was also happy to see him leave. He's more daft about reading peoples emotions than I am. It's really hard to get along with someone who never realizes when to shut up.
I have a couple days off for Thanksgiving, hopefully I can go to concerts for a few nights straight. I miss live music like crazy.
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Thank you for asking about them. That just reminds me that I need to go back and respond to comments instead of updating my journal (yet again), but it's easier to be escapist than show sincerity and gratitude every now and again.
You should post your research (or at least a synopsis) here when you're finished. I'd certainly be interested in reading it.
One thing I remember reading is the Intelligence Quotient was, originally, meant literally...as the ratio between what you DO know scholastically to what you SHOULD know scholastically (at a specified age)...so as a basis for determining academic scale, that makes a lot of sense.
In the last decade, though, so many new tests have popped up attempting to scale different aspects of intelligence, and I think thats where things get cloudy, as intelligence is so difficult to define in the abstract :-) Plus, brain research is showing that different aspects of intelligence is dramatically subdivided into lobes (I.E. the language center of the brain has been subdivided into very specific sections including written language understanding, heard language understanding, spelling, word usage, ETC.)
As for genetics, I have heard of the comparative analysis you are referring to. It is interesting as it is not just done between human to human, but human against other genomes...looking for heavily conserved genes between species (I.E. the hemoglobin genes are nearly identical between humans, apes, and mice.)
The reason I mentioned it was that I have heard some of these white supremacist geneticists trying to make arguments about the inferiority of other races based on genetics...which cannot legitimately be done.
Although there are diseases more prevalent in different human races (I.E. sickle cell anemia is more prevalent in those of African or Caribbean descent)...they seem to be pretty evenly spread about, meaning ALL the races have their own little prevalence of genetic defects that followed them down the division.
Since the complete mapping of a number of genomes, it has become apparent that genome size has no bearing on organism complexity. I.E (boy, I sure do use I.E. a lot)...um...for example (thats better)...
Fugu pufferfish = 3100+/- genes
Drosophila Melanogaster (fly) = 13,379 genes
Human = 20,000-25,000 genes
Tetraodon nigroviridis (another pufferfish) = 27,918 genes
Arabidopsis thaliana (flower) = 28,000+/- genes
Rice = 37,544 genes
These are actual genes and do not include the large segments of garbage nucleotides found in nearly all species (although the Fugu pufferfish and most bacteria have almost none...indicating something naturally selected for a very compact genome.)
So, there really are no legitimate comparisons that can be made based on genetics to the superiority, or inferiority, of one race to another based on genetics.
Besides...white supremacists suck :-)