From: lb04@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (Laura Bassi)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: END THIS IQ CRAP NOW!
Date: 11 Sep 92 17:45:33 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

I've had it people.
This board is not about this junk.
So, as a psychologist, I am going to clear up this argument once and for all
and, and, and.....WELL, here's the story:
    No issue in psychology is more controversial than the question of
    inherited differences in intelligence among the different races...
    In a celebrated article in 1969, (here's where that whacko got his stats),
    Arthur Jensen argued that compensatory education programs that attempt to
    improve the intelligence of black children fail because the difference in
    IQ is innate.  ....However, every ethnic group that has migrated to the US
    has been the subject of arguments succh as the above.
    The claim that blacks are genetically inferior in intelligence rests on
    several assumptions:  that the IQ is synonymous with intelligence; the IQ
    is a measure of a fixed trait like eye color; that race is an important
    biological distinction; that heredity is more important than environment.
    1.  The IQ score is intelligence:
        The IQ is a test score development by Terman from Binet's test
        designed to discriminate groups of children who could and who could
        not profit from normal schooling.  However, there are few
        psychologists who would agree that there is any *single* measure of
        intelligence.
    2.  The IQ representss a fixed capacity:
        Change in the environment strongly affects IQ.  Many factors
        influence, and can raise the score.  and it is only a measure of
        current achievement.
    3. Racial differences exist, and are important:
       The division of the human species into races was first formally
       classified by Linneaus (1707-1778) who believed that the distincction
       was important and that races differed (not only in color but also in
       personality characteristics).  However, Linneaus's racial
       classifications are essentially *arbitrary*.  People evolved different
       skin colors to adapt to different climates.  There are any number of
       ways to categorize and classify humans.  *A PERSON'S SKIN COLOR TELLS
       YOU NOTHING MORE ABOUT INTELLIGENCE THAN HAIR COLOR*
    4. The difference between groups is due to heredity.
        People get their genes from their parents, not from a group.  There is
        NO way to extrapolate from individual differences to group differences
        (Ehrlich & Feldman, 1977). There are far more differences between
        individuals within a racial group than between groups!
    It is important to remember that intelligence is not measured by a single
    IQ score; that intelligence is still not adequately defined, and that it
    cannot be reducced to a single quantity or process.Further, the biological
    differences between races are superficial, environmental differences are
    far more important in the United States.

    OH Flame off......
    I feel better now....
    please end this and let's go back to our regularly scheduled lives!

    just my 2 bucks!

    I hope this puts this topic to rest
    I want to hear about Jerry, and tapes, and venues and etcetc,,

    thanks for letting me DISCHARGE this pent up emotion!

    PEACE NOW!
    laura