On Thu, 05 Aug 1999 11:29:26 -0400 "Charles Brown"
<CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us> writes:
>Rakesh,
>
>Pretty scary stuff for 45% ( the statistical mode in this study) of a
>group of academics to think Black people are somewhat "genetically"
>inferior.
Sad but not very suprising. US academics have long acted as apologists for racism, sexism, and classism. Prior to WW II anti-Semitism was rife in academic circles as well.
Jim F.
>
>Good thought on this as a link in a genocide charge. Although I don't
>think all the technicalities of the UN Convention can be met, the
>study is an indication that racism very strong TODAY in the USA, not
>just in US history. And the stereotype of racists as a Joe/Susy
>Sixpack is punctured by this survey. It is Joe Professor, the
>educated racist.
>
>As Marxist said, who will teach the teachers ?
>
>Charles
>
>>>> Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU> 08/01/99 03:13AM
>>>>
>In the Black White Test Score Gap (Brookings, 1998) Christopher Jencks
>and
>Meredith Phillips, heroes of the respectable liberal left at Dissent
>and
>The American Prospect, will only go so far as to say: "Snyderman and
>Rothman asked a sample of over 1000 psychologists, sociologist, and
>educational researchers, 'Which of the following best characterizes
>your
>opinion of the heritability of black white differences in IQ?' Of the
>661
>'experts' who returned a questionaire, 14 percent declined to answer
>this
>particular question, 24 precent said the data were insufficient, 1
>percent
>thought the gap was 'due entirely to genetic variation,' 15 percent
>entirely to environmental variation, and 45 percent thought it was a
>'product of both genetic and environmental variation.' It is not clear
>how
>many of those gave the 'both' response would accept our conclusion
>that
>genes do not play a *large* role in the black-white gap."
>
>Of course this implies that it is reasonable alas to assume that
>blacks are
>somewhat genetically inferior--as if the ruling out of the ideology of
>any
>deep racial difference (as John Vandermeer refers to it) is not the
>only
>reasonable thing to do based on actual biological knowledge (Lewontin
>and
>Cavalli Sforza are not discussed in this volume) and the strictest
>scrutiny
>that must be applied to any hypothesis challenging our common
>humanity.
>
> No, they seem to think their scientific ethos would be compromised by
>a
>dismissal in unequivocal terms of *any* heritable racial difference in
>terms of the pseudo entity of intelligence. That this would be the
>only
>reasonable conclusion to reach scientifically--the refusal to even
>consider
>the hypothesis of any heritable racial differences in intelligence in
>terms of insufficient evidence to accept the existence of the posited
>entities of deeply differentiated races with concordant variations and
>the
>factor analytic derived entity of g--seems to be beyond the pale of
>acceptable social science in this country. That is, one should not
>even be
>able to formulate the hyothesis of whether there are genetically
>determined
>IQ differences between the races--even to reject it. It's no less
>absurd
>that doing a few regressions to reject the hypothesis of whether
>witchcraft
>has brought misfortune.
>
>By the way Jensen the psychologist is referred to five times in this
>volume, Lewontin, the world famous geneticist and author of Education
>and
>Class, is not mentioned once. This should give some indication of how
>deep
>anti marxism runs through the respectable academy. Truly frightening.
>Not
>surprisingly there is no nuanced discussion of what heritability even
>means
>(see Stephen Rose, Sahotra Sarkar, Richard Lewontin, etc).
>
>I don't know whether the circulation of such opinion among the
>intellectual
>class meets some criterion for a genocidal environment in a country.
>It
>certainly seems to be something NATO should investigate, but the US
>would
>have to sign on to the relevant genocide treaties first.
>
>
>
>
>I am sorry to have brought up such a depressing topic.
>
>yours, rakesh
>
>
>
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