'Intelligence' and Race (was Re: Invention of the white race // Rakesh on eugenics)

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 07:27 PM 5/31/98 -0400, Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
>I'm not in favor of intelligence testing, although I think IQ tests might
>be useful for Binet's original remedial purposes for individuals. I think
>that cross-racial intelligence testing is based on well-known confusions.
>My ownly point in starting this was that it's not  crazy to measure
>cognitive capacities using pencil and paper tests, if, for whatever
>reasons, one wants to try to measure them. That's all. It was a smallish
>point, not worth belaboring.

 No disagreement on the remedial use of Binet's tests.  However, the unique
contribution of the American Academia to racism was using paper and pencil
test to claim genetic differences between people of different skin colour.
In other words, Terman/Murray and Co.  purported that their paper and
pencil tests measure something more than behavioral differences -- they
claimed they measure genetically inherited differences in congnitve
capacities.  

Regards,

WS