There is no such thing as "race" biologically/genetically; Race is a social construct. There is no "White" race, and there is no "Black" race. All discussions of intelligence based on race are fascist propaganda -- not only Jensen, Shockley, Eysenck and Herrnstein, but the more "liberal" proponents as well, such as Wasserman and Pine at Columbia.
See my chapter on the latters' experimental drugging of Black children to control their serotonin levels in "Redesigning Life: The Worldwide Challenge to Genetic Engineering" edited by Brian Tokar -- a new twist to the old IQ debate. A version was printed as an article in "The Shadow" at http://shadow.autono.net/sin001/violen.htm which was listed in the Project Censored Awards for 2001, and earlier in Z Magazine.
Mitchel
-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Balter <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Feb 20, 2007 4:04 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Anti-Science Left
>
>Other than saying that I was a member of Science for the People during most
>of its existence as an organization and that a quick look at the
>"Civilization's Discontents" segment of the News section of my Web site will
>make my personal politics clear, I will leave it to others to comment on
>whether my association with Science disqualifies me from commenting on
>science from a left perspective.
>
>www.michaelbalter.com
>
>
>On 2/20/07, Jonathan Campbell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> This is so ironic.
>>
>> SESPA and Science For The People arose as a challenge to the corporate use
>> of science that was representative, at the time, of the AAAS and its
>> magazine, Science. Here we have an author from - of all magazines - Science,
>> who disparages anyone who criticizes anything that is generally accepted by
>> the very mainstream science that SftP challenged.
>>
>> Does anyone else see the irony of this situation? Mr. Balter is Mr.
>> Science Establishment. You can't get any closer to the polar opposite of
>> what SftP was. It would be interesting to find out Mr. Balter's opinion on,
>> say, genetic engineering of food using antibiotic resistance marker
>> technology, RR soybeans, BT and RR corn, etc. His early article in the
>> International Herald seems rather uncritical:
>> http://www.iht.com/articles/1991/12/19/inst.php
>>
>> Jonathan
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> *From:* Michael Balter <[log in to unmask]>
>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 20, 2007 2:02 AM
>> *Subject:* Re: Anti-Science Left
>>
>> Robert, thanks for this, very helpful. By the way, over the past year or
>> so those who believe in a race/IQ connection have gotten very excited about
>> the findings of University of Chicago geneticist Bruce Lahn's publication in
>> my own journal, Science, of genes possibly linked to human cognition, under
>> recent natural selection, and which have an allele distribution suggesting
>> Africans are disadvantaged (microcephalin and ASPM.) Many here may have
>> followed this. In December I wrote a profile of Lahn for Science which
>> raised the social and political issues with a sidebar looking at recent
>> scientific challenges to these interpretations. The articles can be found
>> here: *Science* 22 December 2006: Vol. 314. no. 5807, pp. 1871 - 1873. But
>> if anyone does not have access to Science online and wants to email me
>> offlist, I will be happy to send the pdfs.
>>
>> best, Michael
>>
>> On 2/20/07, Robt Mann <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >
>> > José Morales has opened an important theme.
>> > But in doing so he wrote:
>> >
>> > ...
>> >
>> > my thesis advisor ... asked me what if researchers had completed a
>> > study and found that white people were of superior intelligence to people of
>> > color, would I believe the conclusions? What if the study was rock solid,
>> > completely water tight. Then I went through a series of questions and
>> > caveats and he replied yes this study took that into account. Ultimately,
>> > the idea was that all possible criticisms from all corners (people of color,
>> > civil libertarians etc.) were taken into account and controlled for. Would
>> > I believe it? I said, well if all these possible concerns and questions
>> > were taken into account and controlled for, I'd have to believe that all
>> > white people are of superior intelligence to all people of color. He said,
>> > OK you will be a good scientist.
>> >
>> >
>> > José's msg doesn't look generally careless or unexamined, so I
>> > take this as he states it.
>> >
>> > The idea that 'white people were of superior intelligence to
>> > people of color' rocketed to prominence while I was a grad student at
>> > Berkeley, where education prof Arthur Jensen stated it (in the form of a
>> > difference in IQ medians &/or means &/or modes - any or all will serve
>> > for present purposes, I suppose - between some whites and some
>> > Afro-Americans). The nature of this contention, and of the conclusions from
>> > all the IQ measures which were purged from the Stanford-Binet IQ test suite
>> > if they showed any difference between men and women, is* overlapping*distributions with different means.
>> > Has anyone said '*all* white people are of superior intelligence
>> > to* all* people of color' - at least during the past century or so?
>> > Is the assertion deserving of serious discussion these days? Everyone who
>> > has experienced a sample >100 of each knows the most stupid whites are far
>> > less intelligent than a clever non-white. The notion of any race whose
>> > intelligence distribution fails to overlap those of all other races is
>> > contrary to obvious fact.
>> > Similarly, the slogan 'the Slavs are sub-human' is obviously
>> > false. But it was a major defining slogan of the Nazi party, which you had
>> > to assent to if you wanted the social security that was available in Germany
>> > for a decade by open adherence to that party. I postulate that it's in the
>> > nature of totalitarian systems to require assent to slogans which are not
>> > subtly but flagrantly false &/or immoral.
>> > What José says he would assent to if research concluded it
>> > rock-solidly is known to every experienced adult, whether educated or not,
>> > to be false. I am loath to believe that he or anyone else on this list
>> > could ever assent to it, whether or not some scientists had asserted it with
>> > whatever authority & 'evidence'.
>> > I focus on this slide from 'race W is, on average, of superior
>> > intelligence to race C' to '*all* people of race W are of superior
>> > intelligence to* all* people of race C' because this same fallacy often
>> > occurs in polemics about sexism. In my experience, even when the postulated
>> > distributions are drawn with very large extents of overlap (on a paper
>> > napkin at lunch in a U staff club), fanatical wimminsLibbers are capable of
>> > promptly threatening violence, complaining as if what had been asserted was
>> > '*all* men are of superior intelligence to* all* women'. Such a raver
>> > is immediately escorted out of the building, but when outside fails to give
>> > any excuse for decking her. I have seen that mode of argumentation
>> > countless times, which is why it interests me now when it comes from José
>> > (wrt race not sex).
>> >
>> > BTW supposing the Jensen/Shockley-type conclusion had been
>> > proven, wouldn't it follow that the disadvantaged group should get special
>> > help in education, medicine, nutrition, ... ? That was my response 4
>> > decades ago when those who fancied themselves as radicals vilified Jensen
>> > (of whose work I knew nothing else); and is still my answer. Racial
>> > differences entailed in sickle-cell anaemia should be admitted (when
>> > proven), and acted upon. It is not racist to say so. Why is intelligence
>> > utterly different?
>> > I must add that I'm very sceptical of IQ and far from convinced
>> > that the Jensen conclusion describes anything important. But since José has
>> > postulated the condition of its being thoroughly meaningful & proven, I want
>> > to respond on his reaction to that imagined state of affairs.
>> >
>> > If what José said was, instead, an oversight in his writing,
>> > then I would like to hear discussion of psychological patterns of this type,
>> > which can cause a certain amount of misunderstanding & trouble.
>> >
>> > R
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> www.michaelbalter.com
>>
>> ******************************************
>> Michael Balter
>> Contributing Correspondent, Science
>> [log in to unmask]
>> ******************************************
>>
>>
>
>
>--
>www.michaelbalter.com
>
>******************************************
>Michael Balter
>Contributing Correspondent, Science
>[log in to unmask]
>******************************************
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