Race and IQ

["Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>]

At 10:31 PM -0600 12/12/96, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:

>All this "environment" stuff is rather easy to test and control for: take
>two groups of children -- one from one race, another from another race,
>who live in essentially the same conditions. Then compare the average IQs
>and check statistical validity of your samples.
>
>There was one study. They took a number of white adopted children and a
>number of black adopted children, and made sure that they controlled for
>other conditions such as adopted parents' income, etc.
>
>Guess what was the result of IQ tests of children?

Ah, but the rub is factoring in cultural factors which remain. As an
example, a black child raised under similar socioeconomic conditions to,
say, a Jewish or Chinese child will still be to some extent a product of
his culture.

(In fact, even a black child raised in a white neighborhood by adoptive
white parents will still have some a different learning experience than a
white child raised in the same environment. If not initially, eventually.)

I'm not saying this to "defend" any particular ethnic or racial group in
this IQ debate, just to point out that cultural factors are not so easily
separable in the way Igor describes.

(For the curious, I am persuaded that there are minimal differences in
"intelligence" between the several or many races, but that cultural and
sociological factors strongly affect upbringing, learning, interest in
doing well in school, ability on standardized tests, success in business
matters, and so on.)

--Tim May


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