The science of racism

Regarding the nature of intelligence or its definition, in the last decades at least, there has been an increasing recognition in both academia and other relevant professional fields that traditional measures of intelligence are narrowly weighted toward detecting potential for academic success and severely lacking in terms of assessing more general cognitive function. Is it not chauvinistic to assume that individuals all possesses more or less the same level of cognitive capability beyond the narrow aspect we generally and rather crudely conceive in terms of academic intelligence?

That is probably an assumption very typical of humans, but also likely a very flawed one. We know there are statistical outliers on the mentally ill and criminal end of the spectrum whose cognitive maladies have little to zero correlation with what we narrowly conceptualize as intelligence. Why should we blithely assume, therefore, that there are no outliers on the other extreme that exhibit a cognitive clarity that also lacks much if any correlation with conventional measures of either level of education or intelligence? Eastern spiritual traditions, for example, have long preoccupied themselves with developing aspects of cognitive function that have little to do with what we have generally conceived intelligence to be.

Is it not then possible that the continuum from criminal minds and the mentally ill to those outliers on the other extreme who may have been traditionally considered prophets, sages, or saints is in fact a continuum that, although it correlates little if at all with traditional measures of intelligence, does correlate with a more general level of cognitive function that comprehends extremely low to extremely high levels of cognitive coherence and clarity? Could it be that, as referred to in my previous post, the general elevation in the collective awareness and information processing habits of the world needed for eliminating the sad consequences of racism might require just such an increase in cognitive coherence and clarity?

In that case, we would need to look well beyond mere means of informing the public through traditional educational means or the mere teaching of logic and critical thinking. Neither of these approaches affects cognitive clarity and coherence at any kind of remotely fundamental level. Rather, they simply address the same narrow aspect of cognitive functioning we have traditionally been labeling as intelligence. Lest we become discouraged, however, this needn't indicate that such a change is impossible, but we must indeed reach far outside our traditional boxes to find the means. What remains to be seen is whether the political will exists to find them. If we do find them, might we also find that they have been right under our noses all along?

What I find rather interesting - and digusting - about racism, is that racists tend to say that someone with, lets say, 1/8 african heritage is black. I think this is insulting, because they say that 7/8th of European blood is less important than the last 1/8th. And where do you think that that supposed "intelligence gene" ist going?
The whole idea is simply ridiculous.

SusanneTS782085 wrote:What I find rather interesting - and digusting - about racism, is that racists tend to say that someone with, lets say, 1/8 african heritage is black. I think this is insulting, because they say that 7/8th of European blood is less important than the last 1/8th. And where do you think that that supposed "intelligence gene" ist going?
The whole idea is simply ridiculous.

Why is it an insult to be referred to as a race that one actually is? Whether it be 1/8th or not, one still is part of the race. I'm not African American, but if I was 1/2 Irish, 1/4 Scottish, 1/8 French, 1/8 african - I would be perfectly fine with someone referring to me by any of my hertiages. I hate to say but your post sounded a slight bit racist. To me your post says, that you are ashamed of your own hertiage. Racism sadly is still alive and well. What I believe has happened is that nowadays there is more of an unspoken racism, as racists are acting more PC in public.

Racism as we know it here in the U.S. is derived from the purchase of slaves in the mid 1600s. Slavery had been a fact of human existence, of course, for millenia, but in Rome, Greece, pagan Europe, Asia and the Arabic world, the sole justification was the strong defeated the weaker, and the spoils of victory included enslaving the losers. As the Enlightenment spread through European civilization, slavery by conquest began to take on an unfavorable hue, and a more compelling reason for maintaining the economically valuable African slaves was needed. What better reason than their supposed inferiority? Prior to the sale of slaves to the colonies, European civilization had little concept of the superiority of whites over blacks. All that emerged later.

Also, it's interesting that none of the evidence alleged to support racial differences relating to intelligence is genetic. It's all phenotypic, and, as the other Robert commented, is related to the narrow topic of academic performance.

I suppose that if someone were truly interested in identifying a putative link, a genome-wide gene association study comparing people >1 sd above the mean intelligence (however defined) with >1 sd below the mean could uncover such differences, should they exist and should the sample size be large enough. Then, the task would be to attempt to determine whether any of such genes or SNPs show differential expression according to the recognized Y-chromosome haplotypes. But, I wonder why anyone would want to do this. The differences among individuals are larger than the differences between so-called "races." Any difference is bound to be small, should it even exist.

From title #109 at
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-P81pQcU1dLBbHgtjQjxG_Q--?cq=1

Incompatible Cultural Phenotypeness Separate Human Groups, Not Intelligence

Oct 31 2007, in PhysOrg Forum

A. Watson Retires From Cold Spring Harbor Lab

Quote:

Watson was widely condemned after The Sunday Times quoted him on 14 October as saying that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours--whereas all the testing says not really." Watson subsequently apologized, but the damage had been done..." end quote

B. Culture And Intelligence

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-P81pQcU1dLBbHgtjQjxG_Q--?cq=1&p=247

The core (wordnet.princeton) definition of "intelligence" is "the ability to comprehend, to understand and profit from experience". These surviving abilities are different for the different phenotypes within a genotype, therefore each phenotype has its own meaning of "intelligence".

Intelligence is to culture approximately as essential amino acids are to proteins. Culture evolves in response to circumstances only by use of intelligence and to the extent and scope feasible by the extent and scope of intelligence.

C. It's Culture, Not Intelligence, Watson...

Watson's statement is not backed by data and is scientifically incorrect. It could have been made by a chemist but not by a biologist. Intelligence and Culture are Biology, not chemistry.

A modern updated biologist can state that the Curtain that seperates between USA, China, Russia, Muslim world etc., is the Phenotypic Cultural Curtain, the primary darwinian striving of each phenotype to survive at all costs...

But it shall come to pass one day that humans will understand their biological nature and biological environments and cooperate rather than fight for survival...

Dov Henis

To be sure genetic differences related to geography are present, but how these support a concept of race is not clear. The Y-chromosome and the prevalence of SNPs and other features have been used to track the ancient migrations of peoples. Interestingly, the farther from Addis Abbaba, the less diversity in the Y-chromosome is seen. The least genetically diverse people on the planet are probably the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego because the are the descendents of people who came out of Africa, across Asia to North America and then to the tip of South America. The most genetically diverse are those who inhabit the Horn of Africa. Most of the differences in Y-chromosome diversity undoubtedly relate to genetic drift as small populations pushed on into new territory. Relatively little selection has occurred except in the area of adaptation to climate--skin color, for example, which balances protection from skin cancer with loss of folate. Some other areas of the genome continue to evolve, namely the immune system response, but other than those it is my understanding that the human genome is stable.

Scientists such as Watson seem to develop an interesting kind of amnesia. Within my lifetime, white people were behaving every bit as beastly toward each other as any repressive regime in Africa. Nazi Germany and the USSR provide little support for a theory of the superiority of intelligence of white skinned people.

IsItNovemberYetTS1038682 wrote:

SusanneTS782085 wrote:What I find rather interesting - and digusting - about racism, is that racists tend to say that someone with, lets say, 1/8 african heritage is black. I think this is insulting, because they say that 7/8th of European blood is less important than the last 1/8th. And where do you think that that supposed "intelligence gene" ist going?
The whole idea is simply ridiculous.

Why is it an insult to be referred to as a race that one actually is? Whether it be 1/8th or not, one still is part of the race. I'm not African American, but if I was 1/2 Irish, 1/4 Scottish, 1/8 French, 1/8 african - I would be perfectly fine with someone referring to me by any of my hertiages. I hate to say but your post sounded a slight bit racist. To me your post says, that you are ashamed of your own hertiage. Racism sadly is still alive and well. What I believe has happened is that nowadays there is more of an unspoken racism, as racists are acting more PC in public.

I agree with Susanne there. If people with (to keep her example) 1/8 African heritage were referred to as BOTH black and white, I wouldn't have any problems with it. But usually the person is considered just black, and NOT white.
Hope IsItNovember doesn't consider my use of the word white "racist", but their post lacks a term to group all the European groups mentioned, and at the same time African is not divided in subgroups - why the difference?
I'm also not sure why it was assumed that Susanne is 1/8 African, when that isn't anywhere in her post...
And before I'm accused of being ashamed of anything, let me disclose that I'm 1/4 Italian, 1/4 German, and the other half is probably mainly Portuguese with a bit of Native.

Why is there so much discussion of racism with no definition of what the word means? Why is the focus on discrimination between White Americans and African Americans of color? There are many forms that racial discrimination takes, e.g., Western Samoans and New Zealanders have some mutual animosity. Northern and Southern Italians dislike one another. Hutus and Tutsis. Sunni and Shiites (religion). Japanese and Koreans. German Jews and Sephardic Jews. So much energy was wasted by well-intentioned people without defining what they are talking about. It was reported that Chimpanzees have 97 percent of the identical makeup as humans. What does that say about all of the different humans?

I've commented on this here:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/mindx/show_thread.php?rootID=130347#id130347

William Saletan wrote a series of articles on Slate late last year indicating that the evidence actually supports what Watson said, and the challenge for society to come to terms with it (basically there are differences in average scores between groups, but there is overlap).
http://www.slate.com/id/2178122/entry/2178123/

On Watson And Racism

JulianTS1051918 wrote:William Saletan wrote a series of articles on Slate late last year indicating that the evidence actually supports what Watson said http://www.slate.com/id/2178122/entry/2178123/

There Is No "Cultural Phenotypic Comparative Intelligence"

No matter who William Saletan is and how many articles he wrote on "evidence" re comparative intelligence and where they are printed, There Is No "Cultural Phenotypic Comparative Intelligence". Plain and simple. There is no such thing. There cannot be such a thing.

Every scientist who practices scientism will tell you this. It is elementary biology. Watson simply does not know elementary biology, or is incapable of comprehending it.

Read the following quotation. Read it slowly, carefully and critically. Intelligence, like every "specific" physical property (f.e. specific weight or heat etc.,) is a specific cultural phenotype characteristic. Plain science....

Quote from http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-P81pQcU1dLBbHgtjQjxG_Q--?cq=1&p=109

It's Culture, Not Intelligence, Watson...

Watson's statement is not backed by data and is scientifically incorrect. It could have been made by a chemist but not by a biologist. Intelligence and Culture are Biology, not chemistry.

A modern updated biologist can state that the Curtain that seperates between USA, China, Russia, Muslim, African world etc., is the Phenotypic Cultural Curtain, the primary darwinian striving of each phenotype to survive at all costs...

But it shall come to pass one day that humans will understand their biological nature and biological environments and cooperate rather than fight for survival...

Dov Henis

End quote

IsItNovemberYetTS1038682 wrote:

SusanneTS782085 wrote:What I find rather interesting - and digusting - about racism, is that racists tend to say that someone with, lets say, 1/8 african heritage is black. I think this is insulting, because they say that 7/8th of European blood is less important than the last 1/8th. And where do you think that that supposed "intelligence gene" ist going?
The whole idea is simply ridiculous.

Why is it an insult to be referred to as a race that one actually is? Whether it be 1/8th or not, one still is part of the race. I'm not African American, but if I was 1/2 Irish, 1/4 Scottish, 1/8 French, 1/8 african - I would be perfectly fine with someone referring to me by any of my hertiages. I hate to say but your post sounded a slight bit racist. To me your post says, that you are ashamed of your own hertiage. Racism sadly is still alive and well. What I believe has happened is that nowadays there is more of an unspoken racism, as racists are acting more PC in public.

Of course I do not know Susanne's motivation, but what I also find disturbing is that people are often beeing seen as how much the deviate from being white caucasian. This feature is then generalized over the more dominant inheritance.

Let me clarify this. Thus to use your example, being 1/2 Irish, 1/4 Scottish, 1/8 French, 1/8 african is called "political correct" Afro-american. I would say this person is at least 3/4 white caucasian (we do not underscore differences between Nigeran and Kenian roots either, and regional differences between Irish and Scottish are much less than those within Africa).
If someone had no African roots, than it is looked at his/her Asian roots, next their Latin roots, and finally only if all forefathers are white caucasian, someone is white caucasian - while only the latter group is often subgrouped ... .

This notion of of the predominant descent being black > asian > hispanic > caucasian implies racism,

albeit political correct in the American style.

But I could well envision that in fucture, we will look back at this race-calling being even more full of prejustice than currently political forbidden terms like blacks and negro.

To use a high profile example, Barack Obama is 1/2 white http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-obama-grandmother22-weboct22,0,3825578.story and 1/2 black, yet is considered an Afro-american candidate and not a caucasian one.

From the biological point of view, influences would be equal. If there would be social - cultural - influences of skin colour in raising a child, his caucasian mother and grant parents, would dominate ...

...
So let's all vote for our white caucasian candidate: Barack Obama

John

"Intelligence, like every "specific" physical property (f.e. specific weight or heat etc.,) is a specific cultural phenotype characteristic. Plain science....

The core (wordnet.princeton) definition of "intelligence" is "the ability to comprehend, to understand and profit from experience". These surviving abilities are different for the different phenotypes within a genotype, therefore each phenotype has its own meaning of "intelligence".

Intelligence is to culture approximately as essential amino acids are to proteins. Culture evolves in response to circumstances only by use of intelligence and to the extent and scope feasible by the extent and scope of intelligence."

Right, and it seems that people of East Asian and European descent, on average, do better on analytical tests that reflect the skills that are important in a first world globalized economy. For instance, these tests are strongly predictive of academic performance, and East Asians, on average, outperform europeans which is consistent with what the tests predict. http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconvenient-truth_296.php

Also, note the differences in maturation rates that have been documented. East Asians and Blacks consistently fall at two ends of a continuum with Whites intermediate on 60 measures of maturation, personality, reproduction, and social organization. For example, Black children sit, crawl, walk, and put on their clothes earlier than Whites or East Asians. Also, by adulthood, East Asians average 1 cubic inch more cranial capacity than Whites who average 5 cubic inches more than Blacks. http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/studien/bericht-43536.html

Dov Henis wrote:"Intelligence, like every "specific" physical property (f.e. specific weight or heat etc.,) is a specific cultural phenotype characteristic. Plain science....

The core (wordnet.princeton) definition of "intelligence" is "the ability to comprehend, to understand and profit from experience". These surviving abilities are different for the different phenotypes within a genotype, therefore each phenotype has its own meaning of "intelligence".

Intelligence is to culture approximately as essential amino acids are to proteins. Culture evolves in response to circumstances only by use of intelligence and to the extent and scope feasible by the extent and scope of intelligence."

Julian wrote:
Right

Julian wrote:
East Asians and Blacks consistently fall at two ends of a continuum with Whites intermediate

A continuum ???

Intelligence, like every "specific" physical property (f.e. specific weight or specific heat etc.,) is a specific cultural phenotype characteristic. Plain science....

The term "A continuum" in our this context is, IMO, indicative of an innate racist approach.
Specific is specific is specific per each cultural phenotype. Scientifically there cannot be a "continuum of specifics". Each specific is specific. Plain and simple...

Suggesting,

Dov Henis

The information on maturation rates is summarised from 'Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2005). Thirty years of research on race differences in cognitive ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 11, 235-294.' You can download the paper from the following site:

http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushton_pubs.htm

Racism Is Racism Is Racism

When J.P.Rushton, even with the 'understanding' of E.O.Wilson, spends thirty years of research on RACE DIFFERENCES in cognitive ability or in any other ability, this is plain and simple RACISM and also plain and simple pre-Copernicus science:

- 21st century life sciences is genetics.
- Genetics is evolution of genes.
- Evolution of genes is driven and directed by culture.
- Human cultures are phenotypic groups within the human genotype.
- Extents of an ability are comparable WITHIN a single cultural phenotype, measured with the
specific phenotype cultural toolings.
- Extents of an ability in two or more cultural phenotypes are NOT COMPARABLE by
measuring with one cultural tooling. This is simply not scientific...

Dov Henis

(A DH Comment From The 22nd Century)
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-P81pQcU1dLBbHgtjQjxG_Q--?cq=1

"When J.P.Rushton, even with the 'understanding' of E.O.Wilson, spends thirty years of research on RACE DIFFERENCES in cognitive ability or in any other ability, this is plain and simple RACISM"

Rushton & Jensen are summarising the research. You consider it racist, but what is your point? Are you saying it is therefore incorrect? I note that they find East Asians (neither researcher is East Asian) have the highest average IQ. There is also research on differences in physical ability, see Taboo: Why black athletes dominate sports & why we are afraid to talk about it'. http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/straw_man_of_race.htm

"Evolution of genes is driven and directed by culture.
- Human cultures are phenotypic groups within the human genotype. "

Remember that a number of studies have also been done on interacial adoptions.

http://www.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/2008logical-fallacies.pdf

So how do you think you can measure and compare an ability in certain areas?

You are invited to look at "More On Forces-Matter-Life Unified Theory"

on Oct/29/2008 in Evolutionary Biology

http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/60/122.page#957

DH

Cheers, will have a read of that.

What am I?

This topic inspires such great responses. My work has been almost entirely in forensics for the last forty years or so. I am a Forensic Anthropologist and this discussion, this topic Is so very important and needs to be aired out in the public. Franz Boaz, the father of modern American Anthropology worked tirelessly for many years before his ideas on cultural development were accepted in the academic world. In 1903 he chaired the First chair in Anthropology at Columbia around 1903. Before that Anthropology was part of many programs, Anthropology in England is part of the History Department. The AAA American Anthropologist http://www.aaanet.org/issues/ (See $1,450,000 Ford Foundation Grant for the program: About RACE: A Public Education Project) Race has been very useful to some who hope to use it for personal gain. Stopping all racism is a huge task and may not be possible, at least in the short run.
The guidelines used in the science of facial recreations works from the forms of cranial development of the Mongoloid, Negroid, and Caucasoid persons and therefore make a good argument for typing of the three lines. The problem with this is that nature does not like to co-operate with a firm set of rules. The differences in the three skulls are significant and tell us a great deal about the persons who matched these sets. Once again this is not racial typing. After examination we place depth markers on the skull to represent muscle and skin thickness. At this point we have a drawing and start covering the skull with clay. It quickly begins to look like the person we drew as we make detailed adjustments. After a successful rendering we can notify local authorities that we have a case and that person is put into the newspaper. The oldest reunion I have done is 30 years. It was my first case and I did not know how the family would react. Later that day someone call and said, ‘‘That’s my Daughter.” She was approximately 19 years old and had been murdered with one shot to the back of the head. The family was very grateful and said they could have closure now.

Recently we discovered our 5300-year-old iceman, dubbed Oetzi,, had such unusual DNA that no one on earth presently could possibly be related. No possibility of race. We unearth such wonderful discoveries as Oetzi and the Kennewick Man in Washington State and spend ten years in court arguing whose relative he might be. He is another one we can't explain easily. AT 9600 years old we would still expect the man to be Native American or Mongoloid, from Russia over the Bearing Straits. Nope, he had a broken spear tip healed in his hip. He had a very muscular right arm from spear throwing. He also ate a diet rich in fish. The question or race still comes up but this guy was out of place no matter what. He was either from the Pacific Rim or perhaps even a resident of Ireland. How did this guy get here???? Some day we might know.
There are always life forms that don’t follow rules like Pirons. Just made from Proteins (No DNA). We don’t even know how these guys stay alive.
We discover Prions which seem to have no DNA. We also found bacterium that can live in deep volcanic submarine canyons which should not support life being in complete dark, very high water pressure and HOT!!!
Doing Taphonic and Histological detective work is still a thrill for me as I work backward to see what people were like and how they lived. I much too often end up with a mystery... or something that just can't be. Science will solve these mysteries later on; yet, I will still be pondering just how it is that we can date 140,000 years of Human history; yet, only have 5,000 years of recorded symbols and 3,000 years of script.

In America we have solved the mystery of sickle cell anemia and Valley Fever which are the results of racism. A objective view that speaks loudly is that white is superior to, not white. By relocating Africans and Native-Americans in slavery, we moved them to an environment where they had no immunity to these diseases that only Africans and Native Americans catch.
Another idea is that the Japanese are a species and all the rest of us a sub-species. This was the 20th Century Warrior ideal which allowed the subjugation of China, Korea, Burma and many other places. They were brutal too.
Then there were those Germans or the master race.

From a social value I think about my own 11 year old bi-racial Granddaughter, Karinda. Like most of my ilk, I think that bi-racial children are exceptional. My daughter is of Scot-Irish heritage and her Husband is of African descent. She is 5'8" 120Lbs and very athletic. I know she is just 11 but knowing she gets a hard time over being bi-racial gets to me. I tell her she is an American. And to be very proud of that fact.

I think that I have an idea how science will take on this quest of who am I and how I got to be like I am. I compare it to the scientific research of the greatest of mysteries... just how does an aspirin work? No one knows. I hope by the time they have figured that out we will have this race thing put to bed.