Bregunn writes:
Again, I’m sorry but there is no vast amount of evidence supporting an intellectual equivalence among the races. From IQ tests, high school graduation rates and sat scores to attendance numbers at elite universities, employment levels in cutting edge science and tech companies and peer reviewed science publications, Africans lag behind Europeans and Asians by quite a distance in all of these and surely many more not mentioned. This pattern is consistent and long standing, I have yet to read a satisfactory explanation other than an innate difference in intelligence and/or aptitude.
I would agree with this to a great degree. Certainly in US society, the following would seem to be markers of intelligence:
- high school graduation rates
- PISA scores
- SAT scores
- college attendance rates
- college graduation rates
- representation at top universities
- employment in high intelligence fields
- professorships
- peer reviewed publications
One could argue, I suppose, that the reasons some races do better than others in these variables is because they try harder, are richer, come from better cultures and so on. That argument would mean that all the races in the US have the same intelligence level, but some races just try harder than others, have more money or have a better culture, hence their success. However, that does not seem to be a good argument.
Furthermore, we note that IQ scores line up very well with every variable above, adding weight to the notion that they can be considered markers of intelligence.
This implies that there are in fact differential intelligence levels among races in the US at the moment. The lineup looks something like this:
IQ Jews 116 NE Asians 108 White Gentiles 103 US average 100 Filipinos 97 Indians 96? Hispanics 93 American Indians 90 Polynesians 90 Blacks 90 Note: Scores normed at US average.
Those IQ scores line up pretty well with the other variables above. In particular, on all variables above, a familiar Jews – NE Asians – White Gentiles – Hispanics – Blacks continuum is seen.
So the notion that there are racial differences in intelligence among US races is simply what ought to be a noncontroversial fact. Yet this is what Jason Richwine of the Heritage Foundation said, and he was fired over it, and a huge hullabaloo resulted. The man simply stated the truth. Certainly it should not be against the law to state the truth. You should not be fired for stating the truth.
What is still up in the air is what is making some races smarter than others. Perhaps it is genetics, perhaps it is the environment, perhaps it is both. No one really knows, and there is ferocious arguing on both sides. Liberal Race Realists may be agnostic about what is causing these differences or may take one of the positions from genetic to environmental to both, but they must agree that there are real cognitive differentials among races.
From a liberal point of view, one could certainly argue that deprived environments, poverty and lousy cultures are making some races smarter or stupider than other races. I would not have a problem with an argument like that if these liberals would first argue that there are intelligence differences in the first place, which seems obvious.
One thing that Liberal Race Realism does is we acknowledge that there are behavioral and intelligence differences between the races at the moment. We may be agnostic about what is causing them, but these differences are surely important in all sorts of ways.
