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So Asians and Jews outperform all Americans, while West Indian Blacks only outperform American Blacks (but presumably not Americans in aggregate)? This hardly s

by frossie 17y ago

So Asians and Jews outperform all Americans, while West Indian Blacks only outperform American Blacks (but presumably not Americans in aggregate)? This hardly seems like evidence against racial differences in intelligence/achievement. He doesn't say there aren't racial differences in intelligence. He is saying that irrespective of any actual differences in intelligence, some groups do better than others purely due to cultural norms. It's along the lines of genius being "1% inspiration and 99% perspiration". The point put forward is that any natural variations in the inspiration part are dwarfed by sufficient application of the perspiration part.

yummyfajitas 17y ago
He does try to imply (without actually stating) that there are small/no racial differences in intelligence. He first debunks a straw man ("success as a simple product of intrinsic intellect") and then quotes someone claiming that intelligence is malleable and non-genetic. But lets ignore that. Going from his examples, cultural norms can help some blacks outperform other blacks. But it doesn't actually allow blacks to outperform whites. If his examples are representative, the natural variations of the "inspiration" part are actually similar in size to the "perspiration" part of the equation.
- frossie 17y ago
  Going from his examples, cultural norms can help some blacks outperform other blacks. But it doesn't actually allow blacks to outperform whites. If his examples are representative, the natural variations of the "inspiration" part are actually similar in size to the "perspiration" part of the equation. Actually it is not possible to prove or disprove that from the data presented (which is not data at all), but one can envisage data that is consistent with his position. For the sake of argument, say Asian-American kids study 20 hours a week, Caucasian kids study 10 hours a week, West Indian origin black kids study 5 hours a week, and African American kids study 3 hours a week. Then both his statements would be correct - performance is related to study hours, not innate talent, and West Indian kids would outperform other black kids but not white kids. [Of course we are grossly oversiplifying, the suggestion is that wider cultural norms such like intactness of families are the contributor, not just study hours]. I don't know whether he is right or not, but it's not possible to decide he is wrong by the fact that are included just in that article.

by frossie 17y ago

yummyfajitas 17y ago

He does try to imply (without actually stating) that there are small/no racial differences in intelligence. He first debunks a straw man ("success as a simple product of intrinsic intellect") and then quotes someone claiming that intelligence is malleable and non-genetic. But lets ignore that. Going from his examples, cultural norms can help some blacks outperform other blacks. But it doesn't actually allow blacks to outperform whites. If his examples are representative, the natural variations of the "inspiration" part are actually similar in size to the "perspiration" part of the equation.

frossie 17y ago
Going from his examples, cultural norms can help some blacks outperform other blacks. But it doesn't actually allow blacks to outperform whites. If his examples are representative, the natural variations of the "inspiration" part are actually similar in size to the "perspiration" part of the equation. Actually it is not possible to prove or disprove that from the data presented (which is not data at all), but one can envisage data that is consistent with his position. For the sake of argument, say Asian-American kids study 20 hours a week, Caucasian kids study 10 hours a week, West Indian origin black kids study 5 hours a week, and African American kids study 3 hours a week. Then both his statements would be correct - performance is related to study hours, not innate talent, and West Indian kids would outperform other black kids but not white kids. [Of course we are grossly oversiplifying, the suggestion is that wider cultural norms such like intactness of families are the contributor, not just study hours]. I don't know whether he is right or not, but it's not possible to decide he is wrong by the fact that are included just in that article.