Resolved: Caucasians are not more intelligent than African Americans.

Resolutional AnalysisThe affirmative burden is to prove that Caucasians are not more intelligent than African Americans. I can pursue this in two ways. The first manner is to prove that African Americans and Caucasians are either equally intelligent or that African Americans are not inherently less intelligent than Caucasians because our measurements have some confounding factor, like poverty. If socio-economic status, for example, determines IQ then the poor have lower IQs than the rich. African Americans tend to be poorer than Caucasians, so it would appear that they are less intelligent than Caucasians even though they are not. Aff Case Point 1: IQ is associated with enviornment and not with race.Subpoint A: IQ is mostly influenced by environment, and is not completely inherited. A common misconception is that intelligence is completely inherited, and that environment has little impact on IQ. A study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology notes, however, that heritability of IQ is 0.2 in infancy, 0.4 in childhood, and as high as 0.80 in adults (http://ije.oxfordjournals.org...). Although this result would initially seem to bolster the claims of individuals who claim racial superiority, another study concludes that these results measure the true heritability of IQ. Notice that IQ's heritability is 0.2 in infants, meaning that genetics plays a very small role in one's intelligence. The rest, 0.8, develops after infancy, indicating that environment actually shapes one's intelligence. Ulric Neisser of Emory University and the American Psychological Association concludes that heritability appears higher in adults because individuals often associate with others who are perceived to be of similar intelligence. (Source: http://psycnet.apa.org...) Thus, he notes that environment, specifically the culture from which one stems, is the most important factor in shaping one's IQ.Subpoint B: Reduce IQ is associated with malnutrition.One common cause of lower intelligence in individuals is lack of proper nutrients in the first two years of life, a period of time in which the brain is rapidly developing. Because the brain does not develop properly in individuals who experienced malnutrition in the first two years of life, these individuals will score lower on IQ tests despite the fact that they are not inherently less intelligent than their peers. A study conducted in the Phillippines noted that individuals who were malnourished in their second year of life score an average of 51.40 on IQ exams, indicating that environment is a significant factor in determining one's intelligence quotient. (Source: http://wber.oxfordjournals.org...). Subpoint C: Reduced IQ is associated with exposure to drugs. Recreational drugs are infamous for reducing an individual's intelligence, ability to think, and ability to perform well on an intelligence exam. Three common drugs, namely, marijuana, alcholol, and tobacco, are all known for their intelligence-reduction effects. First, cannibis is known to cause reductions in IQ scores in heavy users. Although many individuals who stopped abusing cannibis were later able to score higher on tests, thus proving that cannibis does not have a lasting effect on intelligence, studies have clearly noted that cannibis users that have not given up on the activity score lower on intelligence exams than their peers. Leslie Iversen of the University of Oxford explains, "The long-term use of cannabis, particularly at high intake levels, is associated with several adverse psychosocial features, including lower educational achievement and, in some instances, psychiatric illness." (Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com...) . Second, alcohol is known to impair the intelligence of fetii whose mothers consumed the drink while pregnant. Fetal alcohol syndrome is infamous for causing mental retardation. Ernest L. Abel of Wayne State University notes, "Mental retardation is a cardinal feature of FAS and is now recognized as the leading known cause of mental retardation in the Western world." (Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com...). Finally, a study noted the negative realtionship between intelligence test scores and exposure to tobacco smoke in children between the ages of 6-16. Kimberley Yolton of the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center notes, "After adjustment for sex, race, region, poverty, parent education and marital status, ferritin, and blood lead concentration, there was a significant inverse relationship between serum cotinine and scores on reading (β= −2.69, p = 0.001), math (β= −1.93, p = 0.01), and block design (β= −0.55, p < 0.001) but not digit span (β= −0.08, p = 0.52). The estimated ETS-associated decrement in cognitive test scores was greater at lower cotinine levels. A log-linear analysis was selected as the best fit to characterize the increased slope in cognitive deficits at lower levels of exposure. These data, which indicate an inverse association between ETS exposure and cognitive deficits among children even at extremely low levels of exposure, support policy to further restrict children’s exposure." (Source: http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov...). African Americans are more likely to be affected by malnutrition and exposure to drugs than Caucasians are. The U.S. Department of Health's Office of Applied Studies has noted that African Americans are more likely to have abused illicit drugs than Caucasian Americans have in the past month. Moreover, the LSU AgCenter nutrition experts note that approximately 30% of African American children reside in a home without acess to an adequately nutritious diet (Source: http://oas.samhsa.gov...), a figure that is much higher than the amount of malnutrition in Caucasians. Since these are conditions that result from low income, my burden is to prove that African Americans are more likely to be poor than Caucsians. According to the U.S. Census, African American families have a median income of $34,082, while the median income for Caucasians is $58,728. So, because African Americans tend to be less wealthy than Caucasian Americans, and because families with low incomes are likely to produce children with lower recorded IQs, IQ tests do not fairly measure the intelligence of African Americans. We can conclude that Caucasians are not inherently more intelligent because IQ scores are being twisted by external factors.Point 2: Biracial Children Have Higher IQs than Individuals of Pure Caucasian AncestryAccording to racial supremacists, if IQ is purely inherited and Caucasians have higher IQs than African Americans, then the IQs of biracial individuals would be between the IQs of the average African American and the average Caucasian. However, Tizard, et. al. conducted four studies that tested the differences in IQ between African American, biracial, and Caucasian children; three of the studies found no statistical significant difference in IQ, while one test recorded statistical significance in favor of non-whites. According to Tizard, Caucasians had an IQ of 101.3, African Americans had an average IQ of 105.7, and biracial chilrden had an average IQ of 109.8. Eyeferth also conducted studies with slightly older children and determined that the average Caucasian IQ was 97.2 while the average African American IQ was 96.5 (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org...). These results have two important impacts. First, they disprove the fallacious notion that African Americans are less intelligent than Caucasians. Second, they note that African American children are actually more intelligent than Caucasian children until they are exposed to debilitating environmental factors.