Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
The idea that there is something called intelligence that can be measured in this way is a fallacy of reification.
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I agree with you if what you are saying is that IQ tests aren't a great way to measure the full spectrum of human intelligence. They don't measure creative intelligence at all, which IMO is the highest form of intelligence.
But the tests do measure some forms of intelligence and there are racial disparaties in the test scores. I doubt that culture bias can account for all of the disparities. There is plenty of reasearch to back up the claim that environmental conditions in utero and early in life when a person's brain is developing have a profound effect on the person's ability to think. And there is plenty of epidemological and social research to back up the claim that on average, blacks in the US are subject to less optimal conditions during the years when their brains are developing. Everything from nutritional status of their mothers during pregnancy to prenatal care to breast feeding to malnutrition in early childhood to delivering the proper stimuli to an infant to help their brain to develop can affect the person's maximum achievable intelligence level. On average, in the US, the conditions udner which black children develop are less optimal than the conditions under which white children develop.
This is not a function of race, but rather a function of economics. Regardless, the result is a very real effect on the brain that reduces the maximum achievable intelligence.
