Re: BELL CURVE CRITIC EXPOSED?

Bearcat (bcat@netcom.com)
Sun, 5 Feb 1995 00:25:58 GMT

John McCarthy (jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU) wrote:

: For the purposes of TBC, "race" is defined as the ethnic and/or cultural
: group that a person considers him/herself to be part of. A white child
: being raised by a black family is thus defined as being black.

: "Intelligence" is the quantifiable ability to function within the
: framework of society.

McGuffin:
: But if this is your definition of race, how can racial differences
: in IQ be genetic?

: This is a nice, concise question.

: IQ tests could show that the average IQ of people who identify
: themselves as being of one race was larger than that of people who
: identify themselves as being of another race. It might also show that
: the IQs of children and parents are correlated and that this
: correlation could not be explained away as environmental [...]

: It would be nice to have a definition that didn't depend on
: self-identification, but neither the theory nor the data for such a
: definition is likely to become available.

: Lacking such a definition, scientific progress and good public policy
: depends on making use of such information as is available.

If science and "good public policy" depend on conclusions that
were derived via pseudoscience, I don't see how this will result
in any progress whatsoever.

: The public
: policy I have in mind is to not infer that all differences in outcome
: *must* be consequences of racism.

Would you acknowledge the effects of racism on the
self-esteem and cognitive development of children who are
victim to both racism and the residual economic impact
of racism?

- Bearcat