Racial purity, Mental Retardation, and inbreeding?

Question

I worked with people with developmental disabilities for a long time. I get the impression that a higher percentage of the parents of the individuals were racist, and concerned with "ethnic purity".

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying that just because you or your child has MR/DD you are a racist inbreeder that has committed incest, i am aware that MR/DD occurs for many reasons. And I cared about the individuals I worked for, who were mostly very kind, decent, and productive people.

I just noticed that the rate of racist parents among the MR/DD parents seems to be much, much higher than everyday parents I have met in passing, and these parents seem to have had several MR children as opposed to other more tolerant families just having one.

Is there any scientific connection between this 'racial purity' agenda and cognitive delay?

Answer 1

Since neither you nor I have any statistics I'm not sure what you seem to have observed may not have resulted from something like the neighborhood or income level of the families of people at the facility.

I do know, though, that not all mental retardation or developmental problems are the result of a genetic problem or birth injury. Such delays/disabilities can actually be created in children when they don't get enough of the right type of nurturing.

One example often used to make this point is Russian orphanages where children were left in cribs and actually developed retardation because of the neglect.

I think if what you believe you observed is accurate there is at least a chance that some of the retardation in the children could have been caused by ignorant parents (or even ignorant and aggressive parents who may have acted in negligent or abusive ways toward their infants/toddlers).

The site, www.zerotothree.org, gives a good picture of the powerful impact nurturing can have on brain development (the actual formation of connections or destruction of the the potential to develop them).

In less-than-scientific terms, however, just think of this: If you have a couple of parents with IQ's in the area of 100 or a little below (average IQ or slightly below) it wouldn't take much screwing up to push a child out of slightly-below and into "developmentally disabled" with a lack of the right nurturing.

Answer 2

Well...inbreeding does not directly result in mental deficiencies. It does increase the odds of whatever recessive traits there are in the family will be passed on. This is what creates very different characteristics over time in species that are cut off from others of their species, like the animals on the galapagos islands.
Maybe what you are seeing is more of a class effect than an inbreeding. It has been my experience that more lower class people are openly racist. Upper classes are more subtle...lol

Answer 3

Well, science has shown a link between inbreeding and defects, right?

So, I imagine that if you have a small settlement of white supremacists, who mostly cut themselves off from the outside, they probably only marry and procreate among themselves. After a few generations, everyone will be related in some way, probably. And it's not a stretch to theorize you're going to get inbreeding, which in turn begets a higher rate of disabilities and defects.

Answer 4

As far as I know nobody has established a link between the two. The only thing I can think of is a closely knit group would be less tolerant and more suspicious of outsiders than mixed couples. You might say that isolation of a community could bring about both Racism and inbreeding, not that one causes the other.

-Dio

Answer 5

I would have thought this develops in the opposite order to your supposition:

as a coping mechanism (finding blame, as I'm sure you know, is a pretty common and overriding concern amongst many parents of disabled children) they look for something to hang onto?

striving for "Racial purity" - whatever that is - seems to be in the same vein as issues of "impure" genetics / physical development, and a common misguided argument amongst racists is that racial interbreeding is unhealthy / against nature.

Sorry, that was a ramble, I can only guess at what a racist's motivation is.

Answer 6

Alot of things are hidden in our DNA. Sometimes they effect our looks or disabilities. If you have the potential for a disability in your DNA and you have a child with someone who does as well, it increases your chances alot that it will show in your child. This is why inbreeding is medically wrong.

Answer 7

I've always believed that racism is a mental illness, however that it could lead to MR..well...I'd have to see some neurological connections.
However two stupid people breeding could probably lead to a retarded child, it makes common sense, but maybe not scientific sense.

Answer 8

You may just be observing that racists and bigots are less intelligent and more generally defective mentally to begin with, and that therefore their offspring are bound to accumulate those traits two-fold. Over time, those who are already slightly deficient will produce significantly more deficient children.

Answer 9

I agree with Abyssinia. . .
The notion of a confined gene pool is ludicrous as well as boring.
The survival of any species is dependent upon circulation and regularly clicking the "refresh" button.
But think of it this way . . .maybe they are breeding themselves out of existence.
In a strange bassackward way they are solving the very problem they create.
Hopefully having mentally challenged kids calls forth their humanity and they learn a little something this time around.

Answer 10

Maybe you hit on something there dear? As I have said in previous answers, hatred, bitterness and malice can cause cancer. If you think bad things all the time, good things (babies) can't come from bad. You try inject some positive logic when you hear them say bad things.