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Re: What Are the Race Deniers Denying?
Bob Whitaker (bwhit@conterra.com)
Mon, 11 Nov 1996 11:44:46 -0500
Ron Kephart wrote:
>
> Duncan@drmac.demon.co.uk ("Duncan R. MacMillan") wrote:
>
> > However, I might add, that once it is established that any attribute
> > (e.g. IQ) has different means for different races, however these races are
> > defined, then this attribute (e.g. IQ) can itself be used as another racial
> > marker for these same race groups, should you so desire.
>
> No, it cannot, because the assumption that the attribute of "IQ" is a
> "racial" i.e. genetically coded for attribute is not proven.
>
> In other words, it is probably true, as claimed in the Bell Curve,
> that people who are identified (or identify themselves) as belonging
> to black, white, and asian "races" perform differently on "IQ" tests.
> However, these "racial" groups are not biologically valid, so the
> "IQ" differences cannot be attributed to biology. The differences
> can be explained entirely by sociocultural factors.
>
> Suppose you found a significant difference in the attribute "height"
> between two "races". Does that mean that height can be considered a
> "racial" attribute for these two groups? Not if you discover that
> one of the groups, as it happens the one with the lower mean height,
> has on average lower income, and therefore poorer nutrition, medical
> care, etc., than the "taller race". In this (hypothetical) case the
> difference in mean height between the two groups is explained by
> sociocultural factors.
>
> Actually, it's not that hypothetical. Franz Boaz published a study on
> European immigrants and their children living in New York way back
> about 1911, I think, in which he showed that the children born in New
> York of immigrants born in Europe changed "races" due to different
> diets, etc. I can't recall the exact title right now, and the ref is
> in my office, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.
>
> The sad thing is that Boaz knew this in 1911, but we are still mired
> in trying to get the message out to people who apparently cannot
> live without the folk taxonomy. Sort of like the creation-evolution
> debate, isn't it?
>
> Ron Kephart
> University of North Florida
If you will check a phenomenon called mean regression, you will find
that IQ difference is in fact part of the RACIAL difference between
blacks and whites.
Franz Boas' theory that a raceless animal called Modern Man pospped
up 30,000 years ago is a joke.
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