Discoverer of the DNA Helix: Blacks Less Intelligent Than Whites

What is the value of learning that certain groups of Africans are exceptionally well suited to long distance running? Hell, what is the value of learning most things? Knowledge for the sake of knowledge.

 

But this is silly knowledge. There have been attempts to. For example, there was a project called the human genome diversity project that attempted to do exactly this. It was shut down for several reasons but one being that this information could be abused if in the wrong hands. Foreign dictatorships for example could use scientific inferiority to justify discrimination and outright violence. Others like native americans protested it because the federal government could use genetic variation as a new mechanism to deterimine tribal affiliation. Also, a lot of groups just objected to the idea of the patent of DNA lines that came with this research. This would codify racism and discrimination under the guise of science.

There is ZERO reason to ever need to do research on this. There isn't even a benefit to it. The only possible benefit ever cited was disease research but the National Academies of Science and the NIH both recommended alternative anonymous genetic sampling as a way to avoid this problem.

 

She died in 1958 before the Nobel prize in 1962, so she was not eligible. If she had lived, it is possible that she will get her share.

 

there's zero reason for this world to have weapons of mass destruction too. Racism is wrong irrespective of whether blacks are genetically inferior or not. Or is it?

 

There really is no such thing as being genetically inferior/superior in terms of things that are living right now. The only way that sort of thing is or ever could be determined is by examining which 'race' survives the longest. Since we're all here now, we're all even until further notice (hint: don't hold your breath for the further notice). Even then, by the time there's only one race left, that race (assuming it resembles contemporary humans) will undoubtedly split itself into a bunch of new races so that people can still have a reason to dominate each other.

 

I'm not sure where I myself stand on the issue. However one possible use of such research is for governments to determine immigration policies. With 'below replacement' fertility rates in many developed countries, immigration is needed to prevent a disproportionately old population. Such studies could help richer nations when making decions on which regions to target their scholarships for foreign students at etc.

 

I do not think you can possibly ever rank races in order of intelligence. First of all, Blacks may be the smarterst race on the planet for all we know. Getting down to the genetic basis of intelligence isn't something that's possible, and if it was, it probably wouldn't be desireable because there would be people who'd use it to discriminate.

However, saying that there are no differences between races/cultures isn't good thing either. Because there are. We visually can see we're different, so why deny the dirty truth? And because of many influences, people are impacted in a way. Did you know that blacks score lower on tests where they indicate their race, but if they don't indicate their race, they tend to do as nearly as other groups? Psychology is powerful stuff.

But while genetic differences are likely to be insignificant, cultural ones are not. And in that sense, there are stark differences as a result of cultural biases. You can see this on the basketball court.

That doesn't mean you have to have a team of all white or all black players though....but rather you want a diverse team. Difference make strength if seen in a positive light. That's all I am really trying to say.

Put it this way, you can have two people who rate a 7 at do excel spreadsheets and at negoiating. they are both the same race. Now, you might have one person who is a 9 at excel, but a 3 at negoiating, and another person of a different race with a 9 at negoiating and a 3 at excel spread sheets.

When I build my team, I have a few guys who are 7's across the board, but i also try to bring in some 9/3 combo's and 3/9, because than i actually upgrade my capability across the board to a bunch of 9's.

But if you assume everyone must be the same, you really can't do that. Because then there's no justification for bringing in people of different cultures or races. Saying everyone is equal kills diversity. That's what we've seen with public universities.

Do you seeing all these California schools go from diverse environments to all white is a beneficial thing? But it's based on the principle of equality. Equality doesn't not alway bring out the best result - recognizing and celebrating differences can make any organization stronger.

 

I do believe nature has a way of balancing itself out.

If x is superior in a, y is superior in b.

But to quote the famous Al Sharpton:
“White folks was in caves while we was building empires ... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it."

 

That's ****ed up if any country tried that. In fact, this proves my point. Entire cultures and countries will be singled out as inferior because of a damn study. Even though there's tons of evidence that these genes are insignificant at best and probably meaningless in the bigger picture. That's scientific racism at it worst and a lot of countries will manipulate to justify whatever xenophobic and racist notions are common in the country. It's not like every person from that particular racial group is stupid. And if a student of a certain demographic does well in school, they're singled out because of their race or ethnicity?

Stereotyping cultures and locking them out of immigration like that would be a disaster and would just reinforce divisions and inequalities in the world.

 

If anybody wants a legitimate and somewhat scholarly but not too scientific refutation and history of these sorts of racial measurement theories, the classic layman’s book is The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould.

 

How are they artificial?

 

because we only use 10 percent of our brains to begin with. so how certain brains evolve in certain groups is irrelevant.

 

Can't believe people still believe the 10% brain thing. http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp

 

Because its completely arbitrary. We could easily divide up people by hair color, eye color, size of their feet, etc.. and use those as categories under some proposed genetic study.

Race is one of a billion different genetic traits that physically make us unique. So it's pretty arbitrary to pick race.

 

is it not the combined differences?

 

Race has a lot to do with geographic locales too. It's pretty logical that the rules of natural selection and speciation apply equally to humans as they do to animals. While I think skin color cuts across alot of genetic boundaries, in a broad sense it's not completely arbitrary.

For example:
People living near the equator live in a verdant environment where food and predators grow in abundance, so the bodies of equatorially-bound people are selected to favor quick reaction times, fast decision-making, and high physical strength as opposed to residents of cooler locales, which have to plan their food foraging around a good-sized chunk of the year where food is scarce and conditions harsh. The brains of this group of people would naturally adapt to take advantage of each of these situations.

I mean, this is obviously just a speculative thought experiment but it's pretty logical to think that brains are wired differently based on ancestry.

 

I say we only use 10% of our HEARTS.

pgabs, you've been watching one too many Wedding Crashers re-runs.

 

Here's the thing that most people miss when speaking to genetic variations.

Genetic variations are not going to determine who is smarter or dumber - but it may determine which environments a particular person can thrive in or which ones they may struggle in.

So for instance, a black person who grows up in a community may show really high signs of intelligence, because they have been evolved to be optimized in that sort of environment, where as another race may not be.

The point is that different environments and stresses will affect different people differently. But I'd say overall, the capacity for anyone to be intelligence is fairly equal.

If you took a black person and a white person and made them grow up in the exact same environments, would that be an accurate test? No, because you'd have to account for indiviudal variations as well. And you'd have to account for the fact that different environments will impact different gene sets differently.

So you'd have to conduct an experiment with a large enough pool of whites and blacks (say 10,000 each) and in a wide enough controlled environments (say 20) to get some sort of read. That would basically mean an experiement involving 400,000 people. Now, how on earth can you do that and make sure the environments are controlled? Because part of being human is interacting and being free, and not being in a controlled environment.

Thus it will be truly impossible to ever conduct this experiment. Thus you'll never know which race is actually smarter or whatever.

But it's enough to say that there are probably differences. And that we should accept those differences even though we can't really discriminate based upon them. But we can also try to build diversity from it.

I don't have any black members on my team. And you know what, I look for black candidates. None have met the criteria thus far, and there isn't a large enough pool, but I hope I find one, because I think it strengtens my entire team to have a diversity of culture and thinking. Differences are good. Why does everyone think they are bad?

 

al sharpon is full of ****.

 

okay, that was embarrassing. move along