Rushton Revisited

The point of his studies is to research these group variations in intellegence and behavior.  You seem to be missing the point, nobody is arguing universal superiority in all things.  The main arguement is difference.  Ofcourse the average west African will be faster than the average Japanese, but who is on average more intellegent?  I find it hard to see how he is making broad generalizations in face of his research.  The emphasis is on group difference as it is silly to think that all in one group are the same in every respect.

Exactly.  I would say that is the same reason the populations of Europe and east Asia developed higher IQs than sub-Saharan African ones.

Obviously the African blacks at your school comprise of the creme de la creme of their population with higher average IQs.  But after all, how many African Albert Einsteins and Aristotles have we had?

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

As to Cywr's last post, it seems pretty incoherent and hard to follow.  What exactly are you trying to argue? 

Let me tell you guys that (physical abilities and faculties being equal) intelligence has more to do with one's environment than genetic diferences. The school you go to, the neighborhood you live in, if you have food on the table or a BMW in your garage are important variables not to be overlooked.

IQ testing is sensitive to socio-cultural norms as well. 

 I am all for education. This tends to bring up the scores on general fund of knowledge questions in certain subsets of an IQ test - like Vocabulary, Information, and Comprehension.

Personality also plays a part in scoring. A mellow laid back type or an obsessive compulsive person would score low, as compared to one without such traits, due to poor response time to 'timed' questions. 

Have you ever heard of an IQ test standardized from norms of lower class felons? Not I. Could be a good idea for the incarcerated crowd and correctional officers, but not for the general population. And even then the felon with the highest IQ is really judged in comparison with his own kind. That would hardly suggest a universal acceptance towards reliable IQ.

We all have differences. We all have special skills. Some excel where others don't. The ultranationalists or supremacists of certain stripes would have you believe that a certain genetic factor is what makes them great. This is all propaganda B.S. What makes us all great is the ability to know that in reality we are not.

Absolutely! Mental and physical stimulation is correllated with mature growth.

Some variables that detrimentally effect IQ scores: mother's substance abuse history, child or sexual abuse, lack of love and attention, etc.

I am glad that you are starting to see the light. (Is it me or was it you that made the first sarcastic remark?)

I am not an expert in Japanese or 'Black' peoples but I bet neither are you.

Genes have to do with programmed traits of a persons physical, biological  and certain psychological abilities. Again, all things being equal (not retarted) socio-economical and cultural differences tend to play a critical role in IQ scores.

I would even guess that if you take those very same 'black' people and let them live in Japan for two generations that those new 'Black Japanese' would have higher IQ's than the orignal 'Blacks'. And visa-versa.

So far only a few genes have been identified that affect cognitive abilities, and those have to do with disabilities instead. Single genes in certain cases of mental retardation and Alzheimers have been identified. This, overall, is a far cry from saying that we know what genetic factors cause superiority (high IQ) for some ethnicities over others.   

Says who?

Socrates, Aristotle, Da Vinci, Beethoven, Edison, Tesla........

Ummm...in Europe?

And Tobodai is quite right. Culture-wise, African-Americans have virtually nothing in common with Africans or for that matter West Indians. From my own experience dealing with both, mostly in Georgia (my wife is from Atlanta)  anglophone Africans and West Indians actually have more in common with 'whites' from elsewhere in the Commomwealth.

They point this out themselves. (And it isn't totally irrelevant that they play soccer and cricket.) 

And from experience here in Luxembourg the Cap Verdians - of whom there are many here - have more in common with their fellow Portuguese speakers than with anyone else (though they overlap some with other West Africans, mainly I think because of economic similarities in their background).

Language is a very powerful cultural determinant. So too is the educational institutional framework, which is similar throughout the former colonial countries of the Commonwealth.