In 2006 Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at LSE, suggested that Africa’s plight is to be blamed on low IQ. There was fury in March 2006 when Frank Ellis, a supporter of the Bell Curve, at the university of Leeds suggested that women and blacks were inferior to whites. So it is no suprise that the latest person to throw their hat into the ring, a Dr Watson on tour in the UK, has suggested that “black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that “equal powers of reason” were shared across racial groups was a delusion” and “Western policies towards African countries were wrongly based on an assumption that black people were as clever as their white counterparts when “testing” suggested the contrary.” Hmm…
Now here’s the crunch. Right in the middle of black history month you can imagine the knee jerk responses that will come with this. Racist. Eugenics. Different types of intelligence, etc. I think stripping emotion away from this (if that is possible) a balanced reaction should be given.
If you are part of an environment which rates high IQ’s as a measure of success then of course this matters. This is exactly what the authors mentioned above focus on. Researchers have suggested that in the US those with the highest IQ tend to be Jewish, followed by Asian Americans, then “white” Americans with African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans languishing near the bottom. So the measure of capitalism and success then is definitely correlated. It is easy within this context to then suggest that blacks are inferior, lazy less intelligent.
The irony of studies like this totally ignore those whites or any other racial and cultural groups which fall outside of this. Lets take for example the celebration of Asian Americans or Southern/South East Asians cultures in the UK . Often celebrated as hard working and succesful and intelligent. Held up as examples of what success could be people often forget that there are many uneducated in China, India, Japan, Korea whether through class or social policy or whatever. On the flip side we have the most educated and advanced Africans or Caribbeans coming from affluent families making their advances in many of the leading colleges in the US or UK.
All in all there has been some scientific research done. Whatever the motive, science has to be dealt with science. Such research will be loaded with assumptions and a certain baseline. That is what needs to be challenged. Heck if you are a parent, or a politician or a leader in an environment where there are educational challenges, would it not be better to focus on empowering and educating those kids in lateral (and horizontal) thinking and reasoning. Heck I have higher than average IQ but in the grand scheme of themes is that what is really important?
In conclusion one of the saddest things in this, is that whether we want to attribute it to the effects of colonialism, tribalism or any kind of ism, many of the inherent problems preventing advancement in Africa, can only be solved if true leadership can stand up and pour nonsense on the many assumptions made about countries on the continent.
1. Civilization and modern learning really began in Africa. History testifies that ancient civilizations like Egypt and Niger were the founders of so many of the basic principles that have brought about today’s society and learning. The area of the Nile in Africa was the cradle of civilization. Mesopotamia was inhabited by blacks. There have been theories that some Greek philosophers were either black or heavily influenced by black culture.
2. I think many times we get derailed because we start competing with one another and comparing each other’s work. I really believe that the ultimate objective in life is to produce one’s contribution and add it to the mosaic of other people’s contributions so that together we all have one beautiful production. It’s not about who is superior or who is the best but it’s about everyone contributing to add to the value of what we all have.
What do you think?
do not ignore the obvious.
This is why some folks ought to stay away from statistics. Check out “Heckman selectivity” basically says its not possible to make such claims from data.
Dr. James Watson: Truth-teller
What about the Truth
European IQ = 100
African IQ = 70
With all the name-calling. What about the Truth.
Is is True. Is it False.
One of the problems is that IQ is a measurement that applies most strongly to western technological world and fails entirely to measure any other quality. What speaks most clearly is what comparison is made and why. To make the comparison of IQ and economic success tells the story. So much of what makes us human and what makes life worth living has nothing to do with these measurements. These measures quantify the obvious and leave all the more qualitative factors without comment. It has been proved to my satisfaction that with encouragement the most ordinary of us can achieve great things in our lives. The assumption that the adoption of a western style materialistic economic system is by implication the only intelligent thing to do is flawed in itself, i.e. if they could they would, seems arrogant. Is there not one glimmer of a possibility that other life styles with more sympathetic philosophies and technologies might be something that the west might relearn from others?
Having lived in various countries in Africa (Liberia, Senegal, Gambia, Togo, Ghana and Benin) for at least two years, I can say with certainty that the black race is inferior to the white race. These people haven’t produced a single invention or advanced technology in the history of the human race–this reveals something about their collective I.Q. It is not racist to state the facts.
LOL..@ Panda. So your experience in 6 countries proves inferiority.
Would someone be able to make the same assumption if they went to Serbia, Ukraine and what about those of lower class whites who don’t achieve academically or socially?
And what of George Washington Carver, Benjamin Banneker, Lewis Latimer, Garrett Morgan? Or have you not read about these.
Whilst I can give credence to valid scientific studies on IQ or any other measures of intelligence, to consider a whole race inferior based on a personal experience is well…scientifically speaking, a bit dumb. Even if this assumption was anywhere near the truth does that mean that Asians, Jews which achieve better than whites on IQ tests are then superior to all other races based on that. Sheesh!!
google cia factbook.
google: history of africa.
google: history of spanish, UK, british, french empires.
africa was all but a colony of europe until 1945. most of these so-called nations did not exist until the 50s, 60s.
where did the computer, microprocessor, cell phones, fiber optics, spaceflight come from.
it certainly was not from africa. with an IQ of 70, nothing will ever come out of africa.
note the Hispanics of north america, south, they speak spanish, spanish is Not a native language of the amercas. it is the language of spain.
Nature has Never, Never and will Never create Equality.
Nature does Not create Equality
Nature will Never create Equality.
It’s a simple truth of the world.
If we follow your line of thought about inventions then how do you account for the lack of inventions you mention coming out of south east asia, which according to much research on IQ shows them as the one racial-socio-economic group with the highest iQ.
Of course nature does not create equality, but to equate a whole race with some kind of random number IQ level of 70 begs the question who was tested on this and using what means. As for nothing coming out of Africa, if that was the case why did Spain spend so much time trying to plunder it of its natural (both human and mineral) resources?
Incidently my last IQ test, something which I personally find regressive showed me at 115.
Consider metholdology. How do we establish an Intelligence Quotient? Through scientific means? Objectivity testing?
Impossible.
All IQ tests are hindered by cultural relativity, and in the main are ethnocentric and culturally biased.
What is considered common sense in one culture does not translate to another in the same context. Therefore indicators of intelligence are relative to cultural need and expectation. IQ testing is notorious for its socio-political impact and an exceptional vehicle for eugenics. Herrnstein & Murray did intellectual racism very well in 1994’s The Bell Curve. For some reason, a year later Herrnstein dropped dead. Oh well. What an incredible shame.
race has nothing to do with it. one can not determin a countries iQ. scoure by what stertistics say for one reason they can not test everyone i wonder how many people in africa or spain or anywhere else for that matter actually takes part in iQ. tests i know u think im a fool yes i know they take them from exsams and stuff like that but in africa how many kids actually go to school to take an exsam or anything those stertistics are a load of bull as far as im concerned.
P.S don’t say anything about the spelling i do appologise.
Dave permit me to repost my response to this issue which I used on a mail group with friends when this news broke last year…it’s long and a big ramble but shows ho much the issue jarred on my nerves…Here we go
Genetic Determinism
When biology is used to answer sociological questions, the kind of answers you get may not be correct representations of the truth. It’s like using phonetics and grammatical constructions to answer mathematical questions or using physical laws to answer chemistry questions and believing that is the only right answer.
Dr Watson belongs to a group of science that believe every human social and behavioural question can be answered by the genes- also known as genetic determinism ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_determinism). Their predecessor “eugenicists” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics ) are the guys who believed in developing a strain of the human race that is perfect by killing of all foreigners, gays, mentally challenged, handicapped etc. This group gave the scientific justification for the holocaust.
After Dr Watson and his team successfully mapped the human DNA, they have worked towards proving their theory right hence his recent outburst despite not having any sensible or conclusive evidence.
Social scientist have constantly proven that while certain traits maybe hard-wired into human beings, who we are and what we become is made up of the experiences we are socialised into. So if the son of the smartest guy in the world is raised in an intellectually unstimulating environment, he has chances of grown up dull as opposed to the child of a dull man who grows up in an intellectually stimulating place.
Slavery mentality
His attempt at answering the question of Africa’s development by boiling it down to a genetic defect is one up from the same kind of pathetic thinking that allowed the slavery to happen and persist supported even by religious institutions (the thought that one race was superior to others even though they didn’t have the genetic evidence to prove anything). It’s the same logic that was used against the native Americans and the Chinese slaves that they initially used before settling on Africans. If only the native Americans or the Chinese slaves had the kind of physical strenght and resilience of the black man, how different perhaps the structure of world as we know it today would be.
Our Implicit Racism
Sadly, because of the events of the past, most of the world has been socialised to believe the black man is intellectually inferior and only attached to negative things. Sadly that is the implicit association most of the world have with black meaning even us black people in lots of cases are racist against ourselves and we just need a Dr Watson to validate our self hate. If you need to understand this last point a little more, follow this link https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ to a study done by a group of Harvard sociologists on our implicit associations. Take the test called Race IAT ( http://www.understandingprejudice.org/iat/ )and see how much of an implicit racist or not you are. Another recommended read is http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2006/12/defining_a_raci.html
Multiple intelligence
The evolution of humans understanding of intelligence has advanced from the days when the IQ test which judged intelligence by logical reasoning. Howard Gardner, another Harvard professor, in his Theory of Multiple Intelligence ( http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm) identifies that there are many forms of intelligence and that people have varying strengths and combinations of these. His list of intelligences are Verbal/Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Musical/Rhythmic, Bodily/Kinaesthetic , Interpersonal, Intrapersonal. There are many of these different of these intelligences where what is accepted as Western culture is significantly flawed as compared to African or Eastern cultures. There are areas in which black people express massive genius when compared to other races. I can expand on this if anyone finds it unclear but people like Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali have been hailed as Bodily/Kinaesthetic geniuses. Our African culture that values community and sharing is an expression of our superiority in interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence as compared to the individualistic culture of the West. Where problem arises for us is when we are made o value our intelligences less and allow the negative part of their cultures to erode things we should ordinarily hold in high esteem. My summation therefore is Dr Watson is wrong about any genetic predisposition of dumbness in the black man because he doesn’t even understand what intelligence is. Different experiences and perhaps different genes would control any man’s proficiency in any of the intelligence areas. Saying we are under-evolved in all of these areas is an act of selective reasoning which is faulty.
On the issue of policy
The truth is ” countries don’t have friends, they have interests “. No policy formulated by Europe or the US about African development have been for the interest of Africa, THEY HAVE BEEN ENTIRELY FOR THEIR OWN BENEFITS. If any European country is worried about China’s influence in Africa, it is not because they care about us Africans, it is because China is challenging them over what has been their traditional exploitation ground. Dr Watson says their policies would never work for us because we are not smart enough. The truth their policies have been effective in achieving what they set out to achieve – CONTROL OVER US THAT THEY LOST WITH THE END OF COLONIALISM. Where I blame our leaders is not that they have not been smart enough to see through these nasty policies, I blame them because THEY HAVE NOT TAKEN THE TIME TO DEFINE AND ARTICULATE WHAT OUR INTEREST IS FIGHT FOR THIS TOOTH AND NAIL. The advent of China on the scene has thrown the game open which is why the US and Europe are foaming at the mouth. What needs to happen now everywhere there are Africans is an effort to articulate what our interest is and to worse the hands of our leaders in ensuring they work for this.
Yes, I like this! Its important that we begin to think more critically about what Africa’s problems truly are. It is true that Africans have very low IQ, but I personally believe there is more to the problem than IQ. I have always believed that God has a sense of humor. I have always believed that his design of the world “power” imbalance was a perfect plan. At times I see my self asking “is civilization truly African?” Is Africa better of with civilization or more distracted with Civilization? Any way thats just a digression. I believe the problem is misplacement of the African identity. The IQ in africa is sufficient enough to stabilize its affairs if the peoples culture is centered on individual integrity. Nigeria for example claims to be the most educated ethnic group in America, one of the most blessed country in Africa, yet culture of curruption and lack of integrity has kept the country in the dark for decades. For africa to be great we need to go back to the basics and thats what I love about this blog!
“Multiple intelligence”
A theory that has no evidentiary support however. Maybe if Gardner actually decide to test his ideas, we could learn something. He doesn’t.
It is Spearman’s g that has dominated psychometric study because it is g that is the most predictive of real life outcomes. Multiple Intelligences has shown absolutely zero predictive ability. It’s an idea floating on nothing but the hope of those who are pleased by the thought of it.
1. The average IQ of black Americans is 85. The average IQ of sub-Saharan African nations is 70.
2. The one standard deviation (15 points on the standard IQ scale) that separates blacks and whites in the U.S. is seen on every standardized test in existence. These include the Stanford-Binet, SAT, ACT, GRE, NEAP, CAT, WISC, Otis-Lennon and Raven’s Matrices.
3. Despite being a widely repeated supposition, test bias does not explain the IQ gap. The predictive power of IQ scores is is just a strong for blacks as it is for whites and asians. Correlations between IQ and scholastic achievement, income, social status, longevity and numerous other life outcomes does not indicate that blacks are being “underscored” on IQ tests. Remember that the essential purpose of IQ testing is to help predict future success. If IQ had no predictive power it would be useless. As it stands, IQ is more strongly predictive of all of the above mentioned life outcomes than parental socioeconomic status, income and education. If IQ predicts just as well for blacks as for other races, it can not be said to be “biased.”
4. Another strong indicator that test bias does not explain the IQ gap is that when one examines how blacks and whites score on individual test questions, they overwhelmingly show proportionality in the percentage who get the answer correct in relation to those of the same racial group. In other words, the answers that whites tend to get most right are also the answers that blacks tend to get most right. When you order the answers of each race by the number of answers correct, the order is remarkably similar for each race. This indicates that IQ is not testing something that blacks are exposed to “differently” than other races.
5. Tests that are LEAST likely to be effected by actual bias show the LARGEST IQ gap between the races. Verbal tests show a smaller test score gap than tests of mathematics or abstract reasoning. It’s a perennial fact for example that the gap between blacks and whites is always larger on the math portion of the SAT than the verbal portion. This suggests that to the extent that test bias effects the IQ gap, it makes it smaller, not larger.
6. We can further extend this to tests of abstract reasoning. The most strongly predictive IQ test and the one that correlates most strongly to a range of other tests is the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. It consists diagrammatical pattern recognition and does not contain any words. On this test, blacks still trail whites by one standard deviation.
7. Reaction time tests. This represents the ultimate attempt to remove “cultural bias” from testing. In these tests, the subject is asked to press a button when a certain object appears on a screen (a number, letter, color etc). A small child will get as many answers correct as an adult with a Ph.D. However, when reaction times are measured and plotted, some people respond faster than others. It just so happens that this response time correlates with IQ at about .5. On these tests as well, blacks trail whites by roughly one standard deviation.
8. Blacks from wealthy families do less well on standardized tests than whites from poor families. On the SAT for example, blacks whose parents earn more than 80k/year do worse than whites whos parents earn less than 10k/year.
9. Transracial adoption. The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study consisted of black, white and biracial (black and white) children adopted at young ages and raised in well-off, white families. Their IQ scores at age 17 achieved the common one standard deviation gap between blacks and whites. The biracial children had average IQ’s almost exactly at the mean of those two groups.
10. Studies on over 700 participants show that individuals with larger brain volumes have higher IQ scores. About two dozen studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the volume of the human brain have found an overall correlation with IQ of greater than .40. Rushton (2000; Rushton & Ankney, 1996) summarized the world database using the three methods on which there are a sufficient number of studies (autopsies, endocranial volume, and head measurements), as well as head measurements corrected for body size. The results in cm3 or equivalents were as follows: Whites = 1,356, 1,362, 1,341 (Mean = 1,364) and 1,329 and Blacks = 1,223, 1,268, 1,284, and 1,294 (M = 1,267).
Nature
It’s all about Nature. watch a pro-football game, pro-basketball game.
They are charles Darwin natural athletes.
Sit through a Math, Science, Engineering, computer programming class.
Would an idiot ever pass these classes.
Would a slow-prone athlete. Ever make it to the Olympcs or play football or basketball.
Equal opportunity will Result in Un-Equal results.
google: Nobel prize winners in sciences.
google: intel, AMD, microsoft, yahoo. can a retard ever create a computer company.
google: cia factbook, look at africa, europe, asia. compare europe to africa. compare japan to philippines.
how come philippines (IQ 85) is poor. Japan (IQ 105) is Rich. Blame Nature.
Nature. It’s all about Nature.
Nature has Never and will Never create Equality.
Truth for world.
If true about their lower IQs it explains alot of my experiances with them in life. I know they messed up my school something fierce, prevented teachers from teaching.
Nature. of coures, man, woman are made by Nature.
Nature made Man. Nature made the cosmos.
Nature does not and will never, create Equality.
That’s true for a million, billions years.
nature creates equilibrium, man sometimes brakes it
true is only significant for past events
Ahh nature, nurture, genetics, eugenics, genes, IQs etc. These discussions hold little value except strengthen and harden our relative positions. As an Africa that was raised in Africa and has lived in America for 10 years (by the way IQ=139), I will tell you that for many years I have obssessed over this issue of our race as compared to others, our place in the world, our lives, children, society and future. Most of these studies done about IQ are done with a lot of zeal and intensity, not with a view to help humankind but inorder to add another nail in the coffin that is meant to confine the African. Yes, it maybe true our average African IQ is 70, and African Americans 85, Japan 105 etc. To me, it is an opportunity! How can a people, and a continent beset by so many historical injustices, disease, famine, war, conempt from other races etc be just one standard deviation away from white IQs? And this with the our low literacy rates, schools without facilities, libraries without books, homes without power, food, sega nintendos, crossword puzzles, scinece projects, summer camp etc. To me it means that if I work hard to raise the intelligence of my people (by more than one std dev), we can run this world (juan valdez, josh stein etc are you there?). I don’t care how much time and money are wasted in proving that Africans are behind. Heck even a five year old will tell you we are behind because we lack all these essentials. Work together Africans, unite, create projects together to improve education, nurture and develop natural and intellectual resources and you will these fools like juan valdez. You can only laugh at their zeal to bring others down to their level. I suspect he is poor and blames blacks for the problems he has.
Interesting, though saddening, discussion. It seems to be the perennial racist bugbear (fifty cents please) that so-called Blacks will ever be on an equal footing with the lighter shades of mankind. C’est dommage. I agree with Hagar that the gap, if it in fact exists, is merely room to grow, rather than a permanent vertical challenge. Hazah! If you believe what these determinists say, then you don’t believe in miracles. And if you don’t believe in miracles, then you discount the Bible.
Take it easy.
Yeah, take it easy. That is what we all need to do. Take a deep breath and take it easy.
Then consider why capitalists (including black capitalists) do not invest in modern factories in Africa. Mines, yeah. Africans can dig. But they do not have sufficient wherewithall to keep something as complicated as a factory in running order. You liberals can dance around this assertion with everything but an honest view of its reality: you can assert that if only foreign aid would address this issue…. it has. And it didn’t work because the low IQ of Africans could not make it work.
And please don’t throw your misunderstanding of a low mean IQ at me either. There are Africans with high IQ’s. But high IQ’s are extreme rarities in cultures with low IQ’s and fairly common in cultures with higher mean IQ’s.
Now, take another deep breath.
true-false
real-fake
evidence-no evidence.
it’s all about the truth.
for there to be development in africa, we need the truth.
google: cia factbook
africa is poorest place on earth.
lowest life expectancy.
lowest per capita income on earth.
how come, want the truth.
it’s all about the IQ of 70
i am an African who has travelled the length and breadth of my continent, and i must say that Africans on the massive whole have poor minds. The lack of common sense capability and execution leaves our continent to the woes of corruption, famine, disease and violence.
Juan Valdez you fool, how can you be so ignorant. If it is only our genetics that determines our intelligence, then why are the average IQ’s of African-American’s superior to that of those of the same genetic variety who inhabit their war torn continent Africa? Why, if what your uneducated mouth says is true, do they not have the same intelligences, they are the same race, are they not? You fool. War, environment and malnutrition, are these not factors that determine our intelligence, should these be taken into consideration? Does this prove that natural selection is not behind everything? For you apparently not. There is no vast intellectual superiority between races, it is an illusion created by vast differences in life quality. Open your eyes.
most whites dont understand that African and European culture arent fully compatible and the results of European incursion has been severely detrimental to all Africans. African culture relies on totally different premises, culture, language, math and interaction with nature. For example it was stated by some scientists that ancient black egyptians possessed technology that isnt fully understood to this day such as interaction with free energy generators and knowledge of interdimentional physics Dating back between 10 and 50 thousand years ago.interesting that there is all this debate over energy today. How does this relate to iq well if one race isnt harmonized with another races systems that race will fail in that system and in addition the subjecting race will fail to understand what it has and continues to destroy to both races detriment. the iq tests arent applicable by any standard. For one you lack the control environment even by european standards and secondly the iq test is knowledge based. An average african family would fail to present a mind game book to their child if their wondering where their next meal is coming from. Interesting enough my black father is an electrical engineer who helped create guidance systems for aircraft along with indians, asians, whites, and other blacks hmmmmm the worlds best and brightes all in america hows that for brain drain? Another question i would present would be if blacks are intellectually inferior why were all of the racial laws passed in the united states and in colonial africa limiting black access to anything you can think of? wouldnt nature have allowed whites a predetermined dominance without the use of force and the repressive laws?
(i am a nigerian with an IQ rating of 145–undistinguished for the average of my family. My younger siblings have consistently scored above 150).
i am fascinated with whites who appear obsessed with the “evidence” that the black race(the entire race not just some individuals of the race)is inferior to himself. Research work has shown that whites preoccupied with the claims of white racial superiority tend to be underachievers. Y’now if you happen to be an underachiever with a paleface it is ego-boosting to learn that there is an inferior black man next door even if the IQ of this particular black man runs to the heavens above yours. Perharps the humbling point which “superior whites” miss is the fact that population averages are not the same as individual scores–there are blacks at all high levels of IQ ratings that whites have ever achieved. So before you begin looking down on the black man next door remember that the claim of superior average for white populations which low IQ whites like yourself love to identify themselves with may not provide you adequate cover in confrontation with this particular nigger, for averages are in the final analysis paper statistics in a world of real people who come in different shapes and sizes(and IQ scores).
I would have been convinced of the inferiority of the black race if there were a ceiling to IQ rating achievable by a black man relative to the white. Much of the arguments i have heard and read from “superior intelligence whites” don’t speak much of the superior racial intelligence they wish to portray with regard to themselves.
It appears to me that whites would justify their claims to superior intelligence better if they talk more about the implications of the purported higher scores of asians to their claims of racial supremacy and less about the lower scores of the impoverished and undernourished third world black for there is a nigerian saying–an intelligent man does not preoccupy himself with the faults of his inferiors he looks to his superiors to learn humility.
I would suggest the common rational problem solving differences are not that large a factor in the huge messes you see in Africa or the urban US. I would suggest that the culture which may even be part of their physical evolution is simply not interested in the mass bee-hive mentality that produces a successful modern economy. Whether that is a good strategy can be cause for debate.
i am a white man with an IQ rating of 545–undistinguished for the average of my family. My younger siblings have consistently scored above 550
(so we beat you easily, mister smart-ass “145′er”, and if you really are just a bit above 70 i think you get the point)
It’s interesting how people still so fiercily want to uphold something which is so far from truth. Why do we, in this world of “differences which we should live with and accept as the mosaic we are part of”, not accept the differences that are beneath the skin? It’s so childish to be misled by the “fact” that we supposedly are inequal in skin color but all equal inside. Such a hideous lie. I am for instance not an south-east asian, nor an askhenazi jew, but i accept that both those groups in the long run will have members who will perform consistently better on iq tests than those in my group, and that mine will do better than, for instance, africans.
People seem to fire up because they don’t want africans to be called “dumb”, and this i mean is another misfortunate thought in the debate, as the truth is “they are lower-achieving in tests”. This only means that physics, maths and engineering sectors will always be dominated by asians and whites, while there off course will be a few black people there but not as many as the other groups mentioned. Statistics is also about probability – the fact that africans have mean IQ around 70 some parts doesn’t mean that you cannot find a “genius” there, but only that you’ll have a harder time doing so than in for instance, china.
AND, to answer a few more unfortunate childishnesses displayed here;
POST 6: Go to serbia and ukraine and russia and you’l be met by countries where in poverty and pain after communist regimes you’ll find amoung the best math-knowledge in europe. How come also most advanced computer viruses also come from here? (i.e. it takes a criminal, but a quite wise one to make such a virus)
POST 23: the blacks in america are smarter than blacks in africa cause they’re half white! They are not the same race! (You probably consider Obama “black”, even though he’s just 50% african
)
POST 24: The best mathematicians ever were almost self-thought. Take Newton, Abel, Pascal, Gauss etc. etc. They did get some education by the best mathematicians at their time, but they also excelled at such a young age, that if they had only depended on “good education” or the standard one possible at the time, they’d not come anywere. Besides, Abel, one of the most famous mathematicians ever died 26 years old by tuberculosis. a poverty disease. The whole education and literacy debate is stupid – if you have the potential you’ll pursue it..
Furthermore, somebody confused level of education with intelligence – just because you’re black and have an education doesn’t disprove the fact that a chinese is “smarter” than you.
Finally, it’s yet more interesting to note how many of the supposed “blacks” in this thread start their post with, or mention in the first few phrases that they have a IQ of 115, or 145 or whatever. I am a white man and have an iq of 89. Guess you were lucky
hi massah doe.
Judging from your rambling response i am sure you did not read my post through. it seemed you felt really piqued that there are africans on this forum who can beat massah doe on the stanford-binet- and that was all that your response was about; and judging from the way you misuse YOUR native language (“misfortunate” !) i think i can guess why its so upsetting to meet “smart niggers”.
John Doe is a moron.
Who wrote these intelligence test. What remote tribe or area did they perform their tests on in order to derive a national IQ. Did they even go to every country in Africa and randomly sample individuals living in country? I doubt that. I find it hard to believe the wescheler or the Stanford binet are translated into Yoruba, Fulani,Mende, Zulu or what not. I would love to see the mean of IQ of America if i tested inhabitants of trailer parks in West Virgina or the mountains of Georgia.
Fact the highest IQ in the world is a Nigerian. Philip Emeagwali. He practically invented supercomputing as we know it today.
You act like Africa as a whole is not progressing. Nigeria is a rapidly developing country. In fact Goldman Sachslists it among the among the next 11.The Next Eleven (or N-11) are eleven countries — Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam — identified by Goldman Sachs investment bank as having a high potential of becoming the world’s largest economies in the 21st century.
You think Nigerians are and Africans are idiots.How come the Nigerians are busy emailing you western idiots and taking your dollars/euros whole heatedly. The are smart enough to sit back and run the spam programs in internet cafes.
The Ethiopians which you say are so dumb had one of the most advanced civilizations a few centuries ago while greeks and romans were barbarians.
Your scientific racism is laughable and is largely discredited. Most of these studies were done with a conclusion already predetermined to justify racism , slavery etc.
I myself have never taken an IQ test. I did take the ASVAB when i contemplated joining the US army at 18. I scored in 82% percentile. The test is highly correlated with IQ .My scores were not great but way above the mean.I was open to join the intelligence unit. I am of Nigerian descent.
Juan Valdez is a pathetic moron. Get educated of Africa and its history. The continent was destroyed by the slave trade and is still recovering.
John Doe, you can never have a debate with Africans about IQ, as they lack the ability to view things objectively. While a white man can accept that there may be other races more intelligent than him without getting all emotional, an African will never accept the fact that their race, as a whole, is less intelligent than others. I too find it amusing that many Africans here on this thread start their response by boasting about how high their IQ is. Anyone can type any number but that doesn’t prove anything….What a joke. If there’s a difference in physical attributes between the races, why shouldn’t there be any differences in terms of mental capacity? Look at places where blacks became majority such as Detroit, New Orleans etc. and see how these cities turn out. Find a developed country that is entirely run by black people. Nope, that doesn’t exists either…
Wow! I am truly truly taken aback, not so much by the post but by the comments here. You just couldn’t make this stuff up.
So I’m white, and how I got here I can’t even remember at this point after reading all these freaking comments, but here’s my take on things for what it’s worth:
I think IQ is just a result of superior education programs over time. Look at how rigorous many Japanese schools are. It’s intense. Jewish families often have their children follow in their footsteps to achieve superior education. I don’t think any race has really reached their potential in IQ, so even if white people could achieve a higher score than a black man, it’s really irrelevant because he’s probably never going to peak.
Even in America, black people deal with less income and racism, two issues which discourage continued education. In Africa itself, there’s even less income and more importantly, less schooling in the first place. How can you possibly relate IQ to genetics with that glaring fact? A lot of you guys seem to be using the argument that some countries are richer because they’ve got smarter people. I think it’s the exact opposite: a population is smarter because it’s got more money. More schools. More programs. And once again you can still have barriers.
Hispanics supposedly have a lower IQ in America, I wouldn’t know, but if it were true I wouldn’t be surprised because once again, take a look at their circumstances. There are a LOT of guys who are here illegally, have little money, working off-the-chart jobs making what they can.
Physically, look at what the races have done. Africans traditionally ran and hunted using speed, plus were in the sun more. Us white guys were way up north hauling around heavy loads and wearing heavy furs and armor, east asians ate a traditionally low-meat diet (you’ll notice that today many of them are growing larger due to a more western diet). Physically, we’re quite different, but we’ve all got exceptions that cross over. I think it’s a good thing.
If you were to educate Africa and give them the mental tools they needed to build with, there would be a difference. You can’t just give people handouts and expect them to grow, they’re just going to fall back into their old situation as soon as the handout is exhausted.
I think Africa is perfectly capable of growing and prospering, but it’s not the fault of IQ or “inferior genetics” that they haven’t. You’ve got poverty which is hard to overcome when you’re so far down with disease, war, the greedy ones in power taking everything, etc. The solution is not short-term aid like my (US) government has offered, as well as other places. That’s like placing a band-aid on a landmine wound. Schools need to open, people need to find areas which aren’t going to be caught in wars, corruption needs to end. In short, they need to get fucking motivated. Yeah, prosperity is hard to look at when you just need another meal but it would certainly pay off.
How? I don’t live there, I wouldn’t know.
massah wasabi.
your assumed name sounds african yet your thoughts put you in the class of massah john doe. So i presume that you also are a “massah”.
hope you can muster the attention span to go through this short lecture:
it is, unfortunately, the uniquely simple-minded naivete of Western scholarship which imagines that the totality of what constitues “human intelligence” can be adequately captured by “IQ tests”: inert theoretical-hypothetical problems posed on dead sheets of paper…no other people as so simple minded
as to commit this error.
It happens, by chance, that as a nigerian, i was born into a highly educated upper middle class familly in which my college education up to post-graduate level was a foregone conclusion at birth. Most black people do not share this priviledge for reasons which an elementary course in modern history will explain. But like many nigerian youths of my “privileged” social class, i can relate a number of embarassing incidents in which i was actually “outbrained” on the streets of Lagos by young school drop-outs whom i would ordinarily look down upon(just as you whites do) as my intellectual inferiors.
There is joke amongst ibo traders here in lagos(which illustrates a more sophisticated understanding of the problem of human intelligence than Western scholarship’s):
A white man conducting an iq test on the streets of lagos once asked a young ibo trader: son, what is 23456 divided by 65432?
ibo youth: duh, i don’t know
ibo youth’s father interrupting: son, the white man meant to say, what is 23456naira(the local currency) divided by 65432naira?
ibo youth: oh that is simple- and he proceeds to give the answer immediately!
LESSON: there is no such thing as the psychometrist’s culture unbiased iq test for human intelligence always exhibits a pattern of intellectual adaptation to the circumstances of life- its privileges and underprivileges. Human intelligenc exhibits social-context specific patterns of adaptation. The particular adaptations of intellect which in the context of “privileged” educated middle class culture produces the “high iq” scholastic nerd are the same adaptations which in the “underprivileged” lower class culture of the inner city produces the “street wise urchin”.
in my school days those of us who were in the exclusive group of “class nerds” were look down upon outside the classroom as “mugun”(read “simpleton”: my advanced learner’s dictionary defines a simpleton as a person of low intelligence who can be easily outwitted).
Poor inner city lagos youth regularly refer to the whites they encounter on internet as “mugun”. and personally i have never ceased to be amazed at how white people claiming superior intelligence fall regularly to the elementary tricks lagos youth devise to outwit them on internet! In lagos slums, internet became a killing field for whites as soon as the news spread around the city that white “muguns” were available for a free ride on internet. And when bad conscience assails the lagos youth he shrugs it off philosophically- a white fool and his money is better parted!!
To all of the (I’m assuming) white guys who delight in calling Africans stupid on this blog: please continue because your women love them (see Heidi Klum and Seal) Keep calling them monkeys while they take your women. There goes the superior gene pool….
But seriously, If you don’t like black people that’s fine, but trying to prove it with science or history seems pretty silly.
From what I’ve experienced, I really don’t think that African Americans are any less intelligent than others in the U.S. population. I believe that what sets African Americans apart from other Americans (and what makes them less successful and less productive) is that they’re more lazy and aggressive in general than others.
Living and working around AAs for the last six years, I have come to the inevitable conclusion that blacks are substantially less intelligent than whites, on average. So it comes as no surprise to me, upon doing research, that over a wide array of iq and standardized tests, blacks consistently score an average of a full standard deviation below the average scored by whites. Whether it is the SAT, ACT, Stanford-Binet, Wichsler, or any host of other tests, blacks underperform, regardless of income level and circumstance. The fact that there is a strong correlation between average iq and prosperity of countries also comes as no surprise. Any country in the world- in Africa or in South or Central America- where there is a high black population, the country is always very undeveloped, crime infested, and poor. Why is this? We all know the answer why, whether we want to admit it or not.
There also is often a correlation between loquaciousness and intelligence; black people, cognizantly or not, compensate for poverty of intelligence with an abundance of outspokeness and verbosity. White people tend to be more introverted and pensive.
If there really is a correlation between loquaciousness and IQ then Africans should exhibit even greater loquaciousness than Afro-Americans because according to the IQ tests we are some ten points below Afro-Americans, yet you find that we Nigerians are often amazed at the fluent loquaciousness of black Americans because we do not exhibit this trait(i can tell you that because i am a Nigerian!). So much do we(Nigerians)envy this trait that we’d often try(usually unsuccessfully) to imitate Afro-Americans in our speech.Afro-American “loquaciousness” is a cultural trait and not a low IQ diagnostic trait.
A “loquacious” Afro-American friend of mine once pointed out that White Americans can entertain the idea of a correlation between innate, genetically determined intelligence and national wealth/prosperity only because of a general ignorance of the large scale trends in World history. Anyone familiar with the history of rise and fall of civilizations will find it hard to credit the weak minded notion which implies that the genetically determined intelligence of the Greeks rose miraculously by a mass mutation at the rise of the Greek civilization to world political and economic power and then fell by a magical reverse mutation at the fall of Greek civilization to Persian(Iranian) power!
Now come on Jason! you could do better than that if you really are smarter than us niggers!
[...] of the most popular posts on my blog has been about the race and IQ. Since as early as I can remember there have been some very interesting debates around this issue [...]
IQ of 70 in black africa is a lie that has been spread by the internet.
This must be renounced by all. Africa does Not have IQ of 70.