Facts on Race and IQ, or destroying racism

To tackle a controversial topic, I want to say that it is quite possible that difference races have different characteristics as a general mean by virtue of differences in DNA, and this isn’t really possible to refute. Race is a biological aspect that goes to genes and how different genes cluster into racial groups. I haven’t seen convincing evidence that African people for example have genetically lower IQs than European people, which is a claim that racists like to make; I did review a study on this which seems to indicate this is true, but the study did not take into account familial and societal differences so it can’t be taken as definitive proof.

However, for the sake of argument I’m going to assume it is the case that people of African genetic lineage do have, as a general statistical mean, genes that code for lower IQs than people of European genetic heritage. Why am I assuming this? So we can examine the issue honestly.

We already know that IQ is around 50% heritable from one’s parents, possibly even more than 50%. And we all know that IQ is very important. Anyone who disagrees with these two claims is simply wrong.

My motive here with this topic is to destroy racism, I will be open about this. So how would we go about destroying racism, which I consider highly immoral and irrational, while stipulating to the above points about the genetics of IQ?

The racist argument is that people of races with statistically lower IQ are inferior. Let’s take this argument to its logical conclusion: anyone with a lower IQ is inferior, and anyone from a group that can be shown to have statistically lower IQ by virtue of genetic differences must also be inferior. Do these two arguments hold?

No, they do not hold. To address the first argument, people have a wide variability of genes including genes that code for the part of IQ that is heritable. Some people are born with more natural intelligence than others, but does this make the lesser intelligent people inferior? It makes them less naturally intelligent, certainly. But we know that intelligence, while being important, is not the only defining factor of what makes a person good or bad, superior or inferior to use those labels. There are other genetically codable factor like personality (five factor model is still the most accepted right now), emotional intelligence, and mental/emotional stability (propensity for or against certain mental illnesses like schizophrenia which are highly heritable).

Personality includes things like creativity, industriousness, openness to experience, outside the box thinking, sociability, conscientiousness, loyalty, and resistance to ideological thinking. Each of these is very important in how good or bad, “superior or inferior” a person is. Emotional intelligence is very important as well, and there are tests for EQ although they are not as researched and used as are tests for IQ; emotional intelligence relates to how honest one is with oneself, how well one is able to deal with misfortunes and offenses in life, how much wisdom as opposed to strict scientific knowledge and critical thinking a person has, and to what degree a person is able to relate to others and to understand themselves. Resistance to mental illnesses is also very important and it would be interesting to see a genetic comparison of European versus African (or any other) races in terms of genetic propensity for certain highly heritable mental illnesses, especially considering the relatively high rate of mental illness in the west (although much of this high rate is due to societal factors).

Clearly, IQ is only one aspect of who and what a person is, only one aspect of their value. It is a very important aspect but so are the others also very important. And we also need to consider physical health and the genetics of disease, obesity, and physical apathy. Which races have better genes for physics health and energy? I don’t know, but that’s important too.

Now onto the second argument made by racists, namely that a person can be judged in terms of their IQ based on their being a member of a certain race. This argument also fails, because while statistical means are important it is a methodological error to pre-judge an individual data-point based on a wider statistical distribution. You learn this in Statisrics 101 classes, it is a fundamental principle: if I say that a group of 100 people is 80% likely to be X, this does not mean that I can take a random person from the group and know or claim they are X. There is always a distribution curve, and you have to look at individuals specifically to know where they stand.

I’ll add a further important point here, that even if we stipulate certain groups (of race for example) are more likely to have a lower IQ, this doesn’t factor in the other half of from where IQ comes, namely environment. Culture, family, educational access, lack of trauma in one’s life particularly in early life, lack of genetic propensity for addictive behaviors, all of these are just as important when it comes to IQ. This is the case even if IQ is more than 50% heritable, because the heritability of something only lays the general groundwork and the actual phenotype can be modified to a tremendous degree by outside influences. We also know that our experiences also change our gene expressions, so that a person born with naturally high IQ can end up with low IQ if their life experiences are very bad or they have no access to education, just like we know that a person with naturally low IQ can end up with high IQ if they are put in an environment that values learning, intelligence, and gives them the tools and incentives to pursue that.

Culture and society and family and education all have a tremendous impact on IQ. It is a grave mistake to assume that genetics is the final deciding factor for where a person ends up in IQ.

Now that I’m done decimating the bulk of the racist arguments, I’ll make one final point that relates to the first racist argument I laid out above, namely that lesser IQ people are inferior. If this is the case then the racist must not only reject other races he deems intellectually inferior but also must reject, even more so, people within his own race that are intellectually inferior. Therefore the logical result is that have IQ tests for everybody and anyone who scores low is rejected from the society/group, just as racists want to reject other races than his own from the society/group. So what the racist is really taking about is an IQ selection test to purge anyone of lesser IQ. But do you ever hear them saying this? I don’t. Their argument is that their race is superior on the basis of the genetics of IQ, for example, and they aren’t interested in turning that test back upon their own race. If they agree to do so they are at least being consistent, but again they made the grave error of over-prioritizing IQ at the expense of other very important factors as well as the grave error of ignoring the extremely significant contributions of environment to how IQ as a phenotype actually unfolds over time in the life of an individual person.

In short, racists are idiots, and their “arguments” are nothing more than excuses to further their racist in-group agenda and irrational bias. But if it is really the case that the genes coding for IQ do cluster into racial groups, as I’ve stipulated here for argument’s sake, this really means that we should be expanding the role of the environment with regard to influencing those genes as much as possible to produce increase in IQ for everyone. There are plenty of low IQ people in any race, including in the preferred race of the racist, and this doesn’t merit rejecting those people rather it merits tuning up society and culture so that we compensate for those differences in our genes.

I’ll close with the point that genetic differences between individuals of any race will always be greater than are genetic differences between races as statistics mean groups. So the racist is just an ignorant piece of garbage who wants to turn his particular irrational and pathological fantasies against anyone who isn’t part of his little in group, and will use a fact such as the importance of genetics to this debased end.

So your entire “argument” is an ad hom, personal attack? WOW! Great argument, very impressive, you’re REALLY smart!..

Yes. That was just mean, X.

It is an ordeal for the racists. They are the minority here, okay? You cant insult them. Theyre human.

We should give them free parking spots with special signs. Really, the last thing we should do is challenge them.

Do you have any other goals than “triggering” “racists”?

Im so sorry I hurt you. :frowning:

Such misunderstandings, sad times.

I wish you inner peace with your skin color. Be supreme. And dont mind meanies, okay? Ur strong. Ur vry strong.

Just pointing out it’s a weak argument to hinge the central point on personal attacks.

Perhaps the best you and Void can come up with though?

I know, we should be petting you on the head instead. But logic is all we can give you now.

So so sorry
never meant to hurt. :frowning:((

Haha.