Is this so racist? It's about IQ levels.?

Question

I stumbled upon this site in Wikipedia and read on. My question is this: is this racist or a fact?

These Wiki articles tell me that on average East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews are the groups of peoples with the highest IQs and those with the lowest are Africans (still living in Africa), especially Sub-Saharan Africa. These were the given results from univiersities and qualified persons. It states that on average African (living in Africa) have very low IQs (60-80) in comparison to East Asians who all score over 100 IQ.

To think of it, it makes sense in a way. How else would one explain the lack of technological milestones in Africa (even in the times before Europeans came to Africa, a popular excuse to explain this by some)? No scientists, no machines or inventors, no philosophers, no doctors, etc.

Please look at the links before labelling me as another ignorant racist because if you don't you will not be able to understand what I'm asking here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations#National_IQ_estimates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence_%28Average_gaps_among_races%29#World-wide_scores

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence

Just because I got it from Wikipedia doesn't mean its wrong. Its information summarized, thats all.

Ania... if we all came from Africa shouldn't we all have had an equal start? Meaning, who educated Europeans? Europeans educated Europeans!

Answer 1

That's a good question actually. Is something racist if it's a fact? I admire your bravery in asking this question, as it is very politically uncorrect, but at the same time an excellent and valid question.

It is generally a well supported fact that not all races perform equally on g loaded IQ tests. Africans have always performed very poorly, and we have learned that teaching them and bringing them up differently doesn't change their scores very much (However, great environmental conditions tend to raise their IQ somewhat, a few points).


I'd like to point out to the person that said cultural factors can influence scores greatly; this is true. However, we invented g loaded, or general intelligence tests just for this reason. There is no longer any cultural knowledge based questions on many of our IQ tests (for example, ravens progressive matrices). You don't need to know math or any skills generally. Though basics do help, there is nothing knowledge based on the tests you can't 'figure out' on your own.

And ironically these are the tests that africans perform the worst on.

As for bushmen being expert hunters and white men not so; this is a skill they develop. To challenge your statement I would say that if you trained a whiteman from the beginning of his life he would have absolutely no problem surviving in the wild, just like the bushman. Actually, it would be very interesting to see who would outperform who when they have both been trained on even ground.



Does that mean they are inferior, because they have a low average IQ? Not necessarily, it is only telling us they perform more poorly on IQ tests. It tells us that their brains do no work in the same manner as other races, and that people across races think differently.


IQ is highly correlated to success, especially in academics. So maybe africans are genetically less prone to do well in academics.


That doesn't mean they should be treated any differently. Just because the average IQ is low does not mean all africans are stupid; of course there are genius africans. I say put IQ aside and judge men on what they are able to accomplish.

Over my university years I have come and gone to notice that very few black people achieve high status in academics; however, there are some and I have met and seen some extremely intelligent and able africans that are great people. I do not judge by the color of the skin or the size of the IQ. I think it's best to give everyone a fair chance to see what they have to offer, and then make your judgements on them.

Answer 2

The IQ test was written by people of European descent, and so it is naturally predisposed to favor those with a Western mindset. There are different kinds of intelligence, and the Western IQ test only measures one kind. I should mention at this time that I've taken the test and I did very well, but as I am from the West, that is to be expected.

I'll give you an example: Part of the test is an ink-blot test. The tester holds up an ink blot and asks the person taking the test what comes to mind first. There is a list of possible answers, and certain replies are graded more highly than others. Now, a Western person is going to give VERY different responses than, say, a person from Sub-Saharan Africa, because they naturally associate different shapes with different things. Does this mean the Western associations are superior to African ones? Not in the slightest.

Not all cultures measure intelligence with the same yardstick. If you were to ask a Westerner, for example, to track a kidnapped person through the African bush, they'd get lost and probably be eaten by a lion or starve to death. Many natives of the bush are masters at silent, traceless tracking and have a knack for mapmaking and memorizing landscapes. If you were to ask them to complete a multivariable calculus equation, they'd probably look at you as if you were nuts. But that's certainly not the only kind of "smarts" that exists in the world.

Answer 3

Hm..well i wouldn't know if that was fact or not, seeing as i've never given an IQ test to the world.

But it doesn't look the least bit suspect, it makes some sense. So no, i personally would not say that was racist.

Answer 4

It is racist, people are just trying to use "science" to say one race is better than another. There are other explanations for the lack of technological milestones, if that is even true. How do you expect people to be inventing stuff when they are starving. Oppression is the real reason many people are not educated. Race has nothing to do with your i.q

Answer 5

It is a matter of lack of exposure to education--------a written history and education for hundreds of years that make IQs seem low. The potential is there-now to train it.

Answer 6

No, i dont think it is racist, each country has different things preventing them from following through with education and others have different priorities

Answer 7

I think the results are probably true, but it's due more to economic issues then raw intelligence.

Answer 8

Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia.

Answer 9

People who don't believe everything they read on Wikipedia, generally are found to have low IQ's.

Answer 10

maybe its because they had a written history for thousands of years .!