Why do black people have the lowest average IQ's?

Question

http://catbread.wordpress.com/2006/08/26/black-people-have-the-lowest-iqs/
Do you think it's like this guy says? Because of unfullfilling childhoods on average or do you think it's genetic. I don't think it's genetic because we're all just humans afterall.

for those that wondered where i got the information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_and_race
I know I sound stupid, but there are facts to back it up.

Answer 1

Hi. They don't. The tests have been biased for years. If you took an IQ test based on, say, survival in an urban environment and black history, I'm afraid you'd fall way below the curve.

Answer 2

Man, you just opened a can of worms. Actually the graph is total bs. Ok? So now start over. Suppose so-called black people, whites, yellows, reds, purples and so on all grow up in the same environment, have the same opportunities, education, health care and etc. there tends to be no difference at all between the races. It's all very subjective. You will have a certain percent of over and under achievers in each group. A lot of these so-called statistics really just show the bias of the compiler and do not accurately reflect anything but the prejudices of the society as a whole.

Answer 3

Honestly, low IQs span across all races. Blacks were enslaved by racist whites for hundreds of years and not allowed access to educational materials for a long time, and once they were the information provided was questionable and in some respects still is today. The 'facts' shown on that site do not really seem like facts at all-there are lots of households where the father figure is not around and they are not all in the black community & 2/3 of all welfare recipients are white!
Also-One_sera_phi_M: there are plenty of minority families that place an emphasis on education and contrary to the popular belief of white america- most black parents do not push their kids to become rappers and sports stars. However, if your child displays excellent abilities towards these fields there is nothing wrong with helping them to nurture these talents.

Answer 4

That is a VERY controversial subject.

If it is true, and we are in no position to speculate on its veracity as we do not have access to the raw data, a few explanations are possible.

One is that, because of slavery, any african american slave who was showing a bit too much smarts would have been singled out, called a trouble maker and possibly killed, depriving a population of their most brilliant elements. Basically, that would be survival of the dumbest.

The problem with this is that after a certain period of time, any population will randomly restore its average characteristics unless it becomes loked in the genetic -- like the size of pigmy people.

Another, and possibly more troubling, possibility is that the averag african american is denied proper access to educative facilities. Childhood is a critical period to establish one's true potential, and denying a huge segment of the population access to proper education at that time may hamper their progress. If people wereto say to a kid that he is stupid, he may put the cause of every little failure on his "stupidity" and just plain give up, becoming stupid simply because people convinced him he was.

As a consequence, this study may simply show that inequalities in proper access to education -- racism in its most despicable form -- is depriving society of some of its most brillant minds by preventing them to ever develop their full potential. Racism makes racism victims less smart.

And that is a very sad thing.

Answer 5

like many minorities, they are NOT encouraged to excel in academics. many afro-american parents are trying to get their babies to be the next basketball or football star or rapper than they are concerned about their child's IQ. It's NOT genetics. that's just absurd. but it IS a lack of encouragement. I mean, after such a long time of opression, would YOU be fighting to be a part of the white man's world? or would you just want to sign that million dollar check or handle that multi-million dollar endorsement. ALL parents need to place more emphasis on education, because education is the key to ending ignorance.

why do you think that the government only SAYS that they want to do something about the education system. their not really doing anything about the education system. they're creating a system that oppresses those students in the minority and giving all the funding that is raised to white schools or schools where the majority of students are white...

There was an advertisement on the freeway in South Texas stating that Texas Lottery provided 8,000,000,000 dollars to schools in Texas in 8 years. that's 1,000,000,000 dollars each year. My question is: who gets this money? NOT THE SCHOOLS MADE UP OF MINORITY STUDENTS. that's for sure. A few days prior to seeing this billboard, I saw some students (Mexican-American) trying to raise funds for their organization. if that 8,000,000,000 was REALLY true, why are these students NOT seeing any of this money. It is truly a shame.

Answer 6

That graph, even on a quick look, has so many faults as to be worthless. To start with, I'm amazed that each distribution has exactly the same shape. Having said that, it comes from Wikipedia, so that probably sums it up. IQ is actually a rather poor indicator of "intelligence" anyway.

Generally speaking, intelligence is "nurture" rather than "nature". The socio-economic status of the parents has as much to do with it as anything. Educated parents realise the benfits of education so are more likely to encourage their child, they are likely to spend more money on books and toys, diet is probably better, a more stable home environment, less overcrowding and so on and so on.

Answer 7

Let's assume you are sincere in asking the question...the first task of a researcher is to check the validity, integrity of the data used to reach this hypothesis. I can tell you that the same has been said (lower IQ) for women, for blond women, for short men, for tall men, for blue eye people,...I hope you got my drift.

Your hypothesis is so full of crap that I am just stopping right here.

Answer 8

You did not quote wikipedia as you should have, according to your own reference here is what it says," Most variation in IQ in the U.S. occurs within individual families, not between races." (www.wikipedia.com) I think you are looking for attention, but you really should be careful how you quote certain sites.


Plus the graph is a bell curve...come on now.

Answer 9

First thing first.. There are obvious issues about IQ tests.. They are very bias on what they determine as being "normal"

With different income and lifestyle (which is very indicative to money), what we would consider normal is not always the same for everyone else. If you cut yourself on your finger, most people would choose, to get a band-aid. But in some situation, band-aid might not be a household item and people might not know what band-aid is..

Secondly, education does make a big difference. I have seen public education which does not teach people to think abstractive and "critical thinking". So to look at IQ question with abstractive questions and to see abstractively and critically.. Well, you get the picture. And places of public education (especially inner city)
do not equip students to think critically.


If you look at it sociologically, you could see why.. It is not genetics or totally unfulfilling childhood.. It is somewhat unfulfilling childhood but rather socioclass stratification..

Being an Asian American, I was given the opportunity to learn in a high-income class public school (go live in Long Island.. The Top 50 most expensive property tax area in the US? 36 were in LI). My mother and father had a minimum of Bachelor degrees (my mother has a master now).. Education was important in our family and my parents made decent income... Though a broken family (no father figure most of my life), the economics and opportunities has given me the resouces to bloom.. BTW, I was considered below average in kindergarten and graduated top 5% of my class in HS and got into Harvard (though I took a full ride at University of Buffalo).

Whites have the biggest spectrum of income in the US.. There are many who are poor and those who are rich beyond rich. In general, white makes more money than blacks or latinos. They have as much resources (in general) for children to nurture and grow.. It is not so much that parents are there to nurture but rather have the socioeconomics to provide education opportunities. Does this guarantee higher IQ? But it gives opportunities to higher education.

Latinos do have a strong family center but have lower income. They tend to provide by number (hence most of them work at an earlier age). They score lower than Asians or whites because education is not always the primary focus for the child. Do not get me wrong, there are many Latin American families that believe in education but it seems to stop around High School graduation (Consider cost of higher education to working and having income right away)..

Blacks are not given economic resources to give opportunities for higher educaiton. It is not so much that blacks are abusing the welfare system but rather most of the black population are centered in inner city school which has the worse graduation rate and lack proper education period... Though black families care to be nuclear, there seem to show some tendencies of broken families. Not so much due the fact that they are broken and welfare but the black on black violence and crime. When you are poor and your family are poor, they will look for any means of income (not necessarily welfare)... It seems to highly exaggerate "those other means" including drugs (though white suburb children are the higher drug consumers). And those crimes could destroy any family.. Plus, survival mode does not emphasize education for success... So when education is not stressed due to economical stresses, it is unlikely they will learn and seek higher education..

I am not saying here that crime and baby father/mother relationship is the norm.. But rather that economics could stress the importance and functions of education (good and bad ways)... IQ tests are made by Adminstrators who has doctorate and never consider economy of education as a factor... What you think is normal is not always the same in other people's lives (let alone other countries)...

But to generalize unfulfilling childhood due to welfare is ridiculous and not see the economy as a whole ... It is a consideration but that is not the only reason... To be honest, it is insulting for any blacks to be seen that way..

Answer 10

Umm yeah not all colored ppl are stupid!! I don't think that just because you're a different color that meens you have a lesser learning average. It's b/s!! It's like saying only brown squirrels like acorns!! How would you no that?? Yeah you wouldn't!!