What do you think of the assertion "White people are more intelligent than black.....

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If you take all black and white people and measure their intelligence very accurately, white people would score higher than black people on average. The reason for that is simple statistics: there are more white people than black people in the world.

If you do the same experiment with blue and brown eyed people, you will find that brown eyed people are on average more intelligent, because there are more brown eyed people in the world. Do that to any two groups of people (blond vs brown haired, tall vs short, etc) and you'll find the same thing: the majority group will always win.

If the difference is only size in population, the averages should converge to the same value. Size has no real affect except increase reliability.

That is unless there is an observable difference between black people and white people (i.e. an allele that leads to 'higher' intelligence), in which case size still does not matter.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 21

Dragonfly07

Original post by Xotol

If the difference is only size in population, the averages should converge to the same value. Size has no real affect except increase reliability.

That is unless there is an observable difference between black people and white people (i.e. a phenotype that leads to 'higher' intelligence), in which case size still does not matter.

If the average person has a low IQ, and the only "exceptions" to those low IQs are high IQs, then the general population is more likely to have those few high IQ people than the smaller group, which is likely to have none.

Edit: basically you're less likely to find extreme values in smaller groups.

Reply 22

Xotol

Original post by Dragonfly07

By definition, the average person has an average IQ. Extreme values go either way, not just in one just direction. That's how statistics works. The larger the sample size, the less likely anomalies affects the data, leading to a more accurate 'average' value.

Reply 23

Dragonfly07

Original post by Xotol

Not everything in the world is normally distributed...

In the case of IQs, since they are usually taken from mainstream schools, they wouldn't count mentally retarded kids (the low extremes) because they would be in separate schools, but they would count genius kids, so IQ statistics are generally positively skewed.

Reply 24

Picnic1

Original post by Dragonfly07

You must hopefully be cleverer than this but, in your post, you don't demonstrate that you know what an average is.

Why do you reckon that having a sample of more X people than Y people would necessarily result in a higher intelligence for the X people on average?

Unless you mean the cumulative intelligence of all those people put together. As in IQ 102 + IQ 130 = OVERALL IQ FOR THAT POPULATION TYPE 232 (but that's not an average).

Read your view above. You're saying that what the majority person is like is always superior. You're saying that a society composed of many pigs would, on average, be superior to one composed of one Socrates.

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Reply 25

Luke Williams

Blacks are not as smart, that is why they were colonised. A mere 5 years for the 'Scramble for Africa' to take place practically. =D

Reply 26

Ndella

What is with TSR's unhealthy obsession with black people?

Reply 27

Dragonfly07

Original post by Picnic1

If you read the conversation above you'll see what I mean. The way intelligence is measured is positively skewed, so all extreme values are positive. The likelihood of any one person in that population to be a genius is small, so the smaller the sample, the less likely it is that there are geniuses in it. Not impossible but improbable.

Edit: oh and we're talking about a population of people, not pigs and people :dontknow:

Reply 28

TheBitchOf96

Of course no race is any more intelligent than any other! Having said that, a higher percentage of white people make it into the top professions, but this is due to subcultural values and the prejudice of the upper class, universities and employers rather than an actual difference in the intelligence of black and white people.

Reply 29

Malabarista

Original post by Fullofsurprises

I think black people are definitely smarter than white people who post threads saying that white people are smarter.

OP is black...

Reply 30

starryskyx

I fail to see how your skin colour affects your intelligence. Does ones darkness seep into the bloodstream and destroy brain cells or something?!

I also don't think that in the UK it matters if you come from a disadvantaged background. We have free education. It depends on the individual whatever their background to take advantage of education which so many people around the world would kill for and use it to get themselves away from a bad background in order to break the cycle and move forwards. Unfortunately some find this too difficult and don't have enough support and others just don't care less and complain about what they don't have instead of working hard to get it. Being from a privileged background doesn't guarantee success in life.

Reply 31

chefdave

There are lots of problems with the assertion: "white people on average are more intelligent than black"

The first one being that it's true.

I also find the idea that we're all going to die one day deeply uncomfortable, but this doesn't mean that I should willfully lie about the future in a futile attempt to create a false reality.

Reply 32

someonesomewherexx

On TSR ... WHITE VS BLACK everywhere :colone:

Reply 33

HumanSupremacist

Original post by chefdave

It may well be generally statistically true at the current moment (rather, generally poor sub-Saharan Africans than "black people" in general), but this does not mean that it is inherently and perennially true.

EDIT:

I also highly doubt that you'd be readily and enthusiastically saying that were you yourself actually "black". :rolleyes:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 34

chefdave

Original post by HumanSupremacist

I think there's enough evidence to suggest that black people on average find it harder than whites to maintain stable, productive communities that uphold the individual's right to the good life. Even when we take black people out of Africa and transplant them into place like the U.S they still need things like the 'affirmative action' programmes (i.e a helping hand from the state) to maintain a level playing field economically. You original statement doesn't have to be true, but I believe it is.

Reply 35

HumanSupremacist

Original post by chefdave

All you've just written isn't even given as reasons by guys like James D Watson who base their assertions on statistics (even if dubious, given IQ tests).

What you've written is basically your own perception (albeit, narrow). I could equally point out, for example, the Kwasi Kwartengs of the world and ask you to look for the "affirmative action" in that (excelled at Eton as a King's Scholar, excelled at Oxford, now a Conservative MP).

What's more, "affirmative action" (which I don't necessarily agree with) isn't when you take Africans from Africa and put them into the US :rolleyes:

It's African-Americans and other "disadvantaged minorities" who were already born there.

How's Romania doing?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 36

SakuraBlossom

Telling someone that some other race is smarter is just as fair as telling them some other race is more athletic: black people are expected to be good in sports, more so than white people, just like east-asians are expected to be smarter, and many of us, children included know of these stereotypes. I'm not saying that it is or isn't true, just saying that it shouldn't be considered any more unfair than any of these preconceived notions.

Other than this, in my view, how much a person scores in these IQ tests depends mainly on education. Sure, you are born with more or less potential, intellectually, but you can't reach your full potential if your logical reasoning skills and such aren't exercised and developed in childhood. I've recently seen a study that showed the average IQ around the world, and while countries in Western Europe and Eastern Asia and the USA were at the top of the list, almost all of the southern hemisphere(Africa, South America) Eastern European countries and Western Asian countries were almost without exception lower. But considering that many European countries have the same genetic origins, the Romans, for instance, in the case of latin countries, it would make no sense to state that people in one latin country are genetically more intelligent than those in another latin country. Also, think of the USA. Their IQ average was pretty much in the top ten, when such a big percentage of the population is made up of minorities and immigrants(big compared to other countries).

That's why I think it is not really a question of "who's smarter" but rather of "who's had the most opportunities and access to education and information".

Reply 37

chefdave

Original post by HumanSupremacist

It's African-Americans and other "disadvantaged minorities" who were already born there.

How's Romania doing?

There are always going to be exceptions to the rule of course. I fully accept that there are many millions of black people out there who are smarter than me for example. But on average I believe that white people are better at utilising the resources around them to create the conditions necessary for a pleasant existence, and furthermore I believe that this is strong indication of intelligence. The proof of the pudding is in the eating: Africa is a basketcase of a contintent, whereas every man and his dog wants a piece of the good life in Europe.

Reply 38

sevchenko

Original post by chefdave

White people in the past have been motivated by greed and conquest. Before white people raped Africa there was no emphasis on wealth or power. Native African peoples enjoyed their simple lives. Today Africa has been corrupted by Western Ideals that's why there's so much inequality and poverty and by Western standards Africans are seen as less intelligence because we don't have the white mentality for greed and power. Simpy Africans were content. We can still see example of it today many Africans are content with their live despite the poverty they adapt and prioritise things like family. Suiside rates are higher in the west even though by African have such bad lives by Western standards

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 39

HumanSupremacist

Original post by chefdave

So what you're actually doing is basing your assertion on current circumstances.

So, for example, 200 years ago, you would have said "white people are more intelligent than East Asians because look at the societies that white people have built - they're much more advanced". Today, you couldn't say that with conviction. In the decades to come, you won't even be confident enough to say that.

In short, had a road in history turned somewhere else, we could easily be living in very different times, where the opposite of such an assertion is asserted to be true.

Regarding your last sentence, don't be so sure that every person in Africa wants to live in Europe - if that were the case, with Africa having a population of over billion, millions upon millions would be descending upon the borders of Europe as we speak and Africa would be virtually empty because every man and his dog would be on boats to mainland Europe, right?

And, Africa is not the continent you see on your television charity adverts - you know, the ones where small black children with bloated stomachs walk around aimlessly waiting for the European to come and give him some food. In the coming decades, numerous countries within the continent will continue to progress as they are now.

One could easily turn back a couple of thousand years and point to Britain and its barbarian tribes and the Romans could have easily said "Look at the society we Italians have built and look at those barbarian and primitive Germanic and Brittanic tribes - clearly we're more intelligent than they are; clearly we are inherently superior".