Thoughtless for the Day

At long last, the final post about Race and IQ!

If I stood before a group of my fellow and said that White males are overwhelmingly more likely to become serial killers than any other group, everyone would quietly nod, sip their lattes and go back to thinking about whether they should ask for the mug or the tote bag the next time they pledged money to NPR. If I stood before the same group of people and casually mentioned that Blacks, on average, score lower on IQ tests then members of any other ethnic group, I'd be dragged to the parking lot where dozens of Volvo drivers would take turns running me over in the safest possible way.

This is because most of us who walk upright and have mastered the art of eating with a fork find the idea of a racial or genetic component to IQ to be utterly repugnant. Where did the idea come from, anyway? I mean, is there any evidence to support the idea that the difference in IQ scores between racial groups I genetic in origin?

Yes!

But is there any good evidence that the difference in IQ scores between racial groups I genetic in origin?

No. Not really.

In his
series of posts on Slate that inspired this series of posts, William Saletan cited MRI scans which showed that the average, Asian-American child's brain is larger than the average European-American child's brain, which happens to be larger than the average African-American child's brains [Insert Inverse Brain-To-Penis Ratio Joke Here]: The bigger the head, the bigger the brain, the smarter the child. Phrenology is back!

The problem, as Saletan admitted to in a mea culpa that was later devastatingly commented upon by Stephen Metcalf was that Saletan's piece had relied upon the very unreliable work of J. Philippe Rushton and Arthur Jensen. Rushdon is the head of the Pioneer Fund, an ultra-creepy eugenics research organization. For a comprehensive beat-down of Jensen, be sure to read Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man.

So, here's what you need to take away from all this ethnobabble:

I wouldn't be offended if scientists - real scientists. Not some joker in a white lab coat from the Louis Farakan Institute for Mocking Honkies - were to conduct a study on why the vast majority of serial killers tend to be White males, so I think it's perfectly acceptable for scientists - real scientists. Not some joker in a white hood from the David Duke Institute for the Promotion of Bullshit - to look into why there's a difference in IQ scores along racial lines. But I wouldn't want a Black person to look at me and think "Holy shit! The odds are that he's a serial killer". And I sure as shittin' would never look at a Black person and think "The odds are that they're dumber than me."

Unless that Black person is Sherri Shepherd.

OK. Can we get back to tiny plastic Roman soldiers now?