Letters to the Editor
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Blacks do not score lower in IQ tests, the effect is limited to American blacks only.
American blacks score lower, but african blacks do not. There is no genetic inferiority to black skin.
The lower IQ effect can be better explained by looking at the population of Africans that became slaves in America. They were sold into slavery by fellow Africans. There was a choice made about who was to be sold and who was to be kept. The Africans are smarter than you give them credit for, they unburdened themselves of a lower IQ population segment. That population is now the American black population who scores lower on IQ tests.
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debaser: Class not as important as race for Blacks in dealings with whites
Bill Cosby and other rich Black folks still encounter racism. You live in Canada which has it's own issues with regard to First Nation peoples so therefore you lack the depth to really understand America's race issues.
In real world regardless of venue colour matters . A person's external costume always plays a part.
With regard to I/Q tests the only reason it has so much value even today is primarily becuase it is one area where whites score higher than Blacks and as such it allows whites to posture and leverage Blacks.
Whites will not engaged in power plays when the playing field is level. In other avenues of life where whites are at best average they do not have the same clout nor do you witness them being as race conscious. However when I/Q tests and results are in play white folks play the game at our expense of course..
Black folks in this country have always understood the power of the majority especially a majority which has been immoral, unethical, and racist. Folks like you and recent immigrants to our shores lack this understanding. After 9-11 many Arab-Americans were in denial and shock at how quickly they became the new "niggers".
Latins and Asians to a degree understand this matrix and racial shorthand but because they are not Black their relations with whites overall has not been as confrontational and combative..
Truth is since blacks created civil rights in America and made humanity as important as any other first tier nation building component Blacks will always be at this explosive junction in the USA..
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Stereotype push doesn't care whether the test is biased or not.
Williedigital you didn't understand my post. Stereotype push does not care whether the test is biased or not. A person who is stereotyped by a society will be anxious to disprove that stereotype, and that very anxiety will cause him to fail to do so. If you give a black person a written test of some sort (perhaps a math test) and tell him that there is a strong correlation between people who do well on the test and people who have good jumping ability, he will do well, at least as well as the white people in the class who have been given the same (mis)information. This seems ludicrously simple, but it's true. I'm surprised that so many people are ignorant of the effect. Research such as this is what prompted CA to stop using the SAT test as an entrance requirement to its universities.
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debaser: In the USA race is the filter for I/Q test and other issues..
i.e the subprime meltdown is a good example the bulk of folks who are at the center of this insanity are white male bankers and white mortgage industry workers yet it is never viewed as a white failure..
i.e the failure in Iraq by white pentagon generals and white policy makers will never be labled as a white folks failure..
I could go on and on but you understand my point Black folks will never win any I/Q related arguments or issues forget even the science which refutes claims of dna shortcomings here ..
The issue is about race in a country where whites have always made RACE matter....
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Liberal Salonites, Don't Despair
I too am disappointed at the racism, sexism, and other prejudice that frequently shows up in the letter sections on this ostensibly liberal site. However, let us not forget that the letter section is open to everyone, not just liberals, and not just premium subscribers. We can presume that many of the nastier letter writers hear about Salon articles on their favorite sites, like the notorious www.jewwatch.com, and come over here to spew some hatred.
I hope that we will someday be able to convince the editors to upgrade the letter sections so that each user will be able to selectively not see posts of other users, which that user deems to be below the level of discourse that user would like to see.
Here's how it would work. First, you'd log in. Then, next to each post in the letters section, you would see a check box, or a button that you could press to ignore posts from that poster.
For instance, I might find the post for this article by "baloo," where "baloo" writes, 'Say what? Yeah, but don't black people have bigger dicks?', to be impertinent. I would click the "ignore user" box next to "baloo's" name, and then I would never have to read another insipid "baloo" post. The best part would be that "baloo" wouldn't be banned. "Baloo" wouldn't even know that "baloo" was being ignored, so "baloo" could go on writing whatever and not cause anyone any problems.
Unless Salon implements some sort of user editorial control like that, we'll have to continue reading bigoted ramblings, because the anonymity of the internet is like a giant white sheet that all the bigots can hide behind.
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Rakewell: Patronizing recommendation and very white of ya..
as if liberals were not crude, ignorant and racist..
All content has value even hate speech, dumb shit and liberal rantings....
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Thrasher
man, we actually are agreeing here you know? What I meant about race obscuring class is that the poor white male in the rural south has ALOT more in common with the poor black male in the urban north, but the rich (white) are way better served by the poor white man thinking he's somehow superior to the poor black man...race is used to obscure commonality, but we can't have the poor 1) realizing they're poor and 2) realizing that there are millions of people just like them now can we?
also - I was trying to offer an outsider's opinion on what I see to be the problem, as such I think I'm qualified to offer it. You're quite right, Canada has had issues with the treatment of Natives, but there are real, concrete institutional changes afoot (or rather were, before we elected our very own rightwing douchebag as Prime Minister..but fret not, he'll be gone shortly), things like Treaty Federalism (creating a whole new order of government) and self-government (being tested right now in Nunavut with the Inuit). Canada is at least trying to ameliorate the situation of our historically disadvantaged peoples (who still are better off than their American counterparts I might mention)