The Lesson of Race Denial
By • 1/30/07 |
John Ogbu. |
Our last feature laid out the reasons for believing that differences between whites and blacks in IQ and other personality attributes are rooted in genes. We saw the variety and strength of the lines of evidence that support the innatist, or race realist, view of racial differences.
It is, however, worth examining the alternative, environmentalist account of the origin of race differences. Every argument has two sides, of course, and both ought to be heard. Furthermore, the environmentalist perspective is currently the dominant one in the West; consequently, it tells us a great deal about the way our culture views race.
John Ogbu, who died in 2003, was a Berkeley anthropology professor who argued for an environmentalist view of black-white differences in IQ and school performance throughout his long career. He was also among the most famous and respected educational theorists of his time. As one of his colleagues said, “In every article on the subject of minority education, inevitably there are references to John’s work.” Since Ogbu’s work is so respected and influential, it is a good index of what most environmentalists think and ought to represent the strongest arguments for his side.
The year before his death, Ogbu summed up his ideas on race and IQ in a long article called “Cultural Amplifiers of Intelligence: IQ and Minority Status in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” which appears in the edited volume Race and Intelligence: Separating Science from Myth. The “myth” in the title refers to the innatist view of race; Ogbu and his colleagues are supposedly doing science.
Ogbu believes racial IQ differences are entirely cultural in origin. What IQ tests measure, he says, are just the skills valued by the white middle class in America.
IQ tests measure intellectual skills adaptive for and valued by White middle-class Americans. Psychologists brought up in the White middle-class ecocultural niche acquire these skills, valued in that niche. When they make up IQ tests they include verbal or nonverbal intellectual problems from the White middle-class ecocultural niche that require White middle-class knowledge to solve… . [A]ll normal individuals in any human population can acquire the intellectual skills that are measured in IQ tests because they have the panhuman genotype1.
For Ogbu, racial discrimination, both past and present, has denied blacks the opportunity and motivation to achieve intellectual equality with whites2. For generations after slavery, he says, blacks were confined to substandard schooling and menial jobs. Furthermore, whites’ belief that blacks were inferior held them back3. Although discrimination against blacks has decreased since the days of slavery and Jim Crow, it still persists today. Because America still does not give blacks equal access to high-quality education or high-status, intellectually demanding jobs, they are excluded from institutions that instill intelligence. Also, because blacks associate IQ tests with a white power structure that they know is designed to discriminate against them, they do not feel any incentive to do well on them.4.
As Ogbu says:
Prior to being forced into minority status, Blacks did not expect to become successful in life by getting White education or high IQ test scores… . They see little or no connection between doing well on IQ tests and job opportunities and other social benefits. This situation has existed for so long that they have come to perceive the barriers as more or less institutionalized and permanent5.
Ogbu recognizes that some minorities in America perform very well on IQ tests, even above the majority population. For example, Northeast Asians in America have a mean IQ score substantially above that of whites. Why do these minorities escape the effects of discrimination that are so debilitating to others? Ogbu argues that there is a fundamental difference in the attitude of what he calls “voluntary minorities,” such as Asians, who came as willing immigrants to America, and involuntary minorities, such as blacks and American Indians, who were incorporated into America through conquest or enslavement. Involuntary minorities resent America for the suffering the racial majority has inflicted on them. Voluntary minorities feel no such resentment. Indeed, they are grateful to their new country for giving them a chance to live the American dream6.
Ogbu’s theory is obviously wrong. First, he does not deal with the wide body of empirical evidence that proves IQ differences are overwhelmingly due to genes. We saw in “The Reality of Racial Differences” that twin studies have demonstrated that about 80 percent of the variability in IQ scores is due to genes, and almost none to differences in shared environment. If the racial discrimination of which Ogbu writes exists, it would make up part of blacks’ shared environment, as all blacks would be subject to it. And this counter-argument applies to all theories that attribute black-white IQ differences to differences in socio-economic status and culture. Blacks’ poverty relative to whites, their greater rate of unemployment, their tendency to watch more TV—none of these factors is sufficient to explain the IQ gap. Indeed, it is much more likely that these behaviors are effects, rather than causes, of blacks’ lower intelligence.
Furthermore, Ogbu’s evidence that that involuntary minority status causes some groups to do poorly on IQ tests is weak. Trying to show that his theory has cross-cultural validity, Ogbu cites the examples of the Burakumin and Koreans in Japan, both of whom are involuntary minorities and have been subject to racial discrimination. In Japan, these groups do not have the same levels of educational attainment as native Japanese, and the Burakumin score lower on IQ tests. However, in the US, where Burakumin, Koreans, and Japanese are voluntary minorities, all score equally well on IQ tests7. There is little actual data supporting Ogbu’s argument. Little information about the IQ scores of these groups is available8. Indeed, there is no information at all on the IQ scores of the Korean minority in Japan.
Ogbu also does not put his theory to any empirical test. There is no attempt to systematically measure the strength of the effect of being a member of an involuntary minority on IQ scores and compare this effect to that of genes. Ogbu simply gives the examples of blacks and the Japanese minorities and acts as though his point has been proven. The lack of empirical testing means Ogbu’s theory can be disproven by citing the large body of evidence that contradicts it. Blacks are voluntary minorities in Europe, for example, but the difference between their mean IQ score and that of whites is the same in Europe as it is in the US. Mexicans are voluntary minorities in the US, but they score worse on IQ tests than whites9.
Finally, Ogbu’s evidence for white discrimination against blacks is plainly obsolete. For example, he attempts to substantiate his claim that whites use IQ tests to discriminate against non-whites by citing research he did on non-whites’ view of a civil service exam administered in Stockton, California in 1969. The interviewees alleged the tests were graded and evaluated in a discriminatory manner10. The allegations of misconduct that Ogbu cites were never proven. However, even if they were true, it is difficult to see how this example would prove anything about 21st century America. Since it has been illegal for employers to administer IQ tests to job applicants since the 1970s, Ogbu’s example fails to prove why blacks would still believe these tests were used to discriminate against them in hiring. Furthermore, he fails to even mention the great, even absurd, lengths to which Americans have subsequently gone to end discrimination against blacks. Indeed, so extensive have the efforts at remediation been that we now openly discriminate in favor of blacks and against whites in university admissions and employment!
There is so little evidence of racial discrimination against blacks in the present that Ogbu changed his tack in the book Black Students in an Affluent Suburb, which he published the year after this article. The book details Ogbu’s investigation of the causes of low black educational achievement at Shaker Heights High School, located in a Cleveland suburb. In this book, Ogbu is honest enough to admit that racial discrimination and poverty were not the causes of black students’ poor performance, as there was no sign of serious racial discrimination against black students at the high school and the students mostly came from affluent or middle-class families. Ogbu nevertheless managed to retain the bulk of his theory intact: he said past discrimination against blacks had created an “oppositional” identity that caused both students and parents to mistrust the educational system11. The obvious objections to this theory remain unaddressed in this book.
As we saw in “The Reality of Racial Differences,” the innatist theory of black-white differences is supported by rigorous empirical tests. These include not only the twin studies mentioned above, but also trans-racial adoption studies and the results of culturally-neutral IQ tests across the globe that consistently show that blacks have lower intelligence than whites no matter what the social context. On the other hand, environmentalists support their case through ad hoc examples and anecdotes that crumble on the slightest examination.
Yet it is environmentalists like Ogbu who are rewarded in our culture, while innatists are scorned for their conscientious pursuit of the truth. This distorted judgment shows how deeply engrained what I have called the “whites as cancer myth” is in our culture. We have been so thoroughly conditioned to blame whites for all of the failings of non-whites that we accept white racism as the explanation for low black IQ on the flimsiest of evidence.
There is a better name for environmentalism: race denial. The culture of the West is in denial about racial differences. Just as the madman twists the evidence of his senses into rationales for his delusion, and lashes out at anyone who contradicts him, so we crown anyone who denies the reality of race a sage and hurl abuse at those who insist on the plain truth.
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- John U. Ogbu, “Cultural Amplifiers of Intelligence: IQ and Minority Status in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” in Race and Intelligence: Separating Science from Myth [book on-line] (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002, accessed 29 January 2007), 248-49; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106447739; Internet. ↑
- Ibid., 249. ↑
- Ibid., 253. ↑
- Ibid., 252-54. ↑
- Ibid., 255. ↑
- Ibid., 250-52. ↑
- Ibid., 270-73. ↑
- Arthur R. Jensen, The G Factor: The Science of Mental Ability [book on-line] (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998, accessed 28 January 2007), 511-12; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24374397; Internet. ↑
- Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen. IQ and the Wealth of Nations (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002), 213-14. ↑
- “Cultural Amplifiers,” 256-59. ↑
- John U. Ogbu, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement [book on-line] (Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2003, accessed 28 January 2007), 50-55; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=110699864; Internet. ↑
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If racial differences are real, and those real differences are genetic, then human nature is not plastic.
The left has been committed to the proposition that human nature is plastic from its beginning because they equate that notion with ‘freedom’. Their denial of racial differences has nothing to do with the love of non-whites; it has everything to do with their “unconstrained” conception of personal freedom. It is all about them.
By on 1/30/07 at 3:44 pm
“Ogbu believes racial IQ differences are entirely cultural in origin. What IQ tests measure, he says, are just the skills valued by the white middle class in America.”
Ogbu may be genuine and sincere in his beliefs but in reality, he cleverly attempts to obscure the truth so as to make it appear as myth.
The failure of the great society, the war on poverty and massive integration programs designed to absorb blacks into mainstream culture during the last 40 years should be sufficient proof that culture is not the main determinant for IQ distribution.
Given the overwhelming empirical evedence to the contrary, one has to wonder why most academics refuse to acknowledge the data?
I, too, want to live in a POLITE society where everyone (regardless of their innate cognitive ability) is treated with respect, however, PC orthodoxy prevents any HONEST discussion of the relationship between race, and genetic heritability of IQ. How long can this charade continue?
The practice of this charade is acually causing racial discord. We now live in a more cynical, impolite, and dishonest society because of it.
By on 2/1/07 at 3:43 pm
“Ogbu believes racial IQ differences are entirely cultural in origin. What IQ tests measure, he says, are just the skills valued by the white middle class in America.”
Unfortunately “skilss that middle class America values” is precisely those skills that are required to create and maintain anything beyond living in mud huts with an average life-span of 40 years old. Which, amazingly enough, is what we find as the norm in Africa - Land of the Blacks.
Coincidence?
By on 2/6/07 at 3:23 am
All other issues aside, your website layout is more inviting and engaging than amren.com. It seems more likely to draw in those who have mostly internalized the lies of the dominant media but have the relevant questions lurking in the backs of their minds.
By on 2/10/07 at 1:20 am
“Ogbu believes racial IQ differences are entirely cultural in origin. What IQ tests measure, he says, are just the skills valued by the white middle class in America.”
A better case can be made that a culture is formed by our response to the surrounding environment. To insist that intelligence is not the result of genetic inheritance but rather derived from cultural origins is just plain ignorant. It sounds like he acually believes the preposterous notion that cultures just drop from the sky and the lucky people get the good ones, and the unlucky get the bad.
I think Ogbu has an inverted perception of reality.
By on 2/10/07 at 11:18 am
Romans used to give roman-culture-based tests to Anglo-saxons and other germanic tribes; guess what were their conclusions? According to these social philosophers in Ancient Rome, germanic tribes were intellectually deficient, and incapable of abstract thought. yet, with sufficient time, the descendants of these supposedly intellectually deficient tribesmen produced Euler, Gauss, Kant, and many other intellectual giants. Guess how they have done it? they have done that after centuries of mastering the psycho-cultural skills of the Greco-Roman Cosmology. guys, it takes a substantial amount of time to sucessfully wear the binoculars of a foreign cosmology. History proves that most social commentators tend to be wildly wrong, especially in their categorical assessment of human groups. For instance, for Herodotus Ethiopians were way smarter than germanic tribes, yet for Lynn, Ethiopians are not only much less smarter than Germans, but they are much dumber than most other Africans. Another example is the case of the Sephardim jews. In spain, they were the intellectual pillars of jewish life, but after expulsion, they have become the backward jews, way behind the Ashkanazis. Guys, don’t you see that the only major variants here are socio-economic in nature? if africans were dumb, why do they have the highest rate of genetic mutations, and continue to survive in one of the most ecologically challenging habitat on earth? I remember a class of art that i have taken with a friend, he claims that africans’art depicting human faces are generally distorted; therefore, he concludes that african artists may have lacked the artistic finesse that Greeks and Romans had. what he has not realized is this: it is not finesse that the african artists lacked; for the distortion was deliberate because, in the many africans’ worldview, a finely human sculpture will attract evil spirits. It is in this anthropological context that the human faces of african sculptures are made distorted; and if i were to show him a fine human-faced sculpture from 16th century Yorubaland, he would probably claim that it was made under islamic influence without realizing that islmic culture prohibits the portrayal of human faces. Remember guys, the world is inherently deceptive; and thus most plausible theories are bound to be fundamentally false. did any of you bother to notice that the native-Americans who scored so poorly on the IQ test are also the direct descendants of chinese migrants, those same chinese who would score the higest on that same IQ test?
By on 11/7/07 at 8:53 pm
“Romans used to give roman-culture-based tests to Anglo-saxons and other germanic tribes; guess what were their conclusions?”
You’ve got to be kidding. I’d love to see an example of such a test.
“According to these social philosophers in Ancient Rome, germanic tribes were intellectually deficient, and incapable of abstract thought.”
Which Roman “social philosopher” made this observation? I have a pretty thorough collection of Greek and Roman philosophy at home, and I’d like to check this out.
“if africans were dumb, why do they have the highest rate of genetic mutations, and continue to survive in one of the most ecologically challenging habitat on earth?”
What have “mutations” got to do with intelligence? The real question is why, if Africans are just as smart as anyone else, their nations are the pestholes they are.
“did any of you bother to notice that the native-Americans who scored so poorly on the IQ test are also the direct descendants of chinese migrants, those same chinese who would score the higest on that same IQ test?”
?????
Amerinds left Asia millenia ago; you may as well draw the same connection between Icelanders and Nigerians. You probably do, of course. Your semi-literate post is an incoherent hodge-podge of leftist claptrap; these notions have been thoroughly discredited here and elsewhere.
By on 11/8/07 at 1:02 pm
herodutus my friend, they were oral reasoning tests in the greco-roman mold. they were given to both slaves from gaul and Britain.
By on 11/8/07 at 4:43 pm
“herodutus my friend, they were oral reasoning tests in the greco-roman mold.”
1)Wrong handle.
2)Wrong spelling of wrong handle.
3)I defy you to document the existence of any such test in ancient Rome.
4)Which Roman “social philosopher” made the assertions you attribute to him?
By on 11/8/07 at 5:54 pm
Observer Keen,
I find your analogy between blacks in the modern world and Germanic tribesmen in the ancient world far-fetched. American blacks have been the beneficiaries of one of the best educational systems in the world, as the ancient Germans surely had not, and yet blacks continue to lag whites in IQ as much as they did at the beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, the familiar racial disparities are seen in the results of IQ tests that could not conceivably be culturally biased, such as reaction-time tests, in which subjects must respond as quickly as possible to a visual stimulus like a flashing light. Also, black children from wealthy households score worse on the SAT test than white children from poor households. Northeast Asian immigrants who are much more unfamiliar with American society than the blacks who have been here for centuries nevertheless on average score higher on IQ tests than American blacks, and whites as well.
The black/white IQ disparity may be due in part to socioeconomic and cultural factors such as the ones you mention, but biology plays a much greater role.
All of this is discussed here:
http://inverted-world.com/index.php/feature/feature/therealityofracialdifferences/
By on 11/8/07 at 6:36 pm
why it is so far-fetched? it would have been far easier for a german element to masquarade as a roman than for a black to masquarade as a white person in America. also, After inheriting the roman cultural structure, the new germanic masters did not do much with it for centuries. In fact, cultural stagnation remained until the rennaissance. then in comparison, what substantial lenght of time are you talking about? from 1865 to now??? also, did not the romans blame the decline of their civilization on the gradual introduction of germanic elements among their ranks? that sounds similar to something else, doesn’t it? Also, correcting typos seems to be desperate. his name was herodotus. in fact, the letter “u” is very close to the letter “o” on the keybooard. it is not the case that i wrote ” Osama” for “Obama” as if the B and the S letters were somewhat adjacent horizontally or vertically on the keyboard.
I am glad that you have mentioned reaction-time tests. why would proto-europeans evolve better reaction-mechanisms than blacks where african savannahs are known to harbor more terrible, and formidable carnivorous predators? Are there more pack-based predatory animals in europe to run from than in africa? also, finding food is as much important as finding water. if one claims that colder climate made finding food very difficult, one can also argue that colder areas made finding water equally easy since mountaneous icecaps would constantly feed flourishing springs. would not the scarcity of food in europe mirror an equal scracity of water in africa? isn’t water essential to survival as much as food? should not the scarcity of water-sources in africa be considered as a form of evolutionary pressure on africans to develop better cognitive abilities? facts and truths are quite different entities. facts are not necessarily transtemporal whereas truths are. i have written on a different thread on this blog, and explain how convergent evolution can explain the so-called different cranial volumes of the races. as i have argued neural density may be a factor in one case whereas cranial volume may be a similar factor in another. after all, two ojects of the same mass may have different volumes. when talking about the brain, cranial volume is an indirect measure of neural capacity since it is the neural substance itself that matters. if that weren’t the case, then people with encephalitis would be the smartest since their cranial volumes tend to be substantially larger.
By on 11/9/07 at 12:41 am
Observer keen,
Your basic argument is, “Why couldn’t predators and difficulties in finding water have led blacks to evolve intelligence equal to or greater than that of whites?”
I don’t why they couldn’t have, but the fact is that they didn’t. That ought to be a good enough answer for any reasonable person.
By on 11/9/07 at 5:06 pm
American blacks have been the beneficiaries of one of the best educational systems in the world
You have got to be kidding. Have you ever been to an primarily black school, in say, Los Angeles, Oakland or Detroit? Learning anything there is unlikely.
By on 11/11/07 at 1:50 am
“You have got to be kidding. Have you ever been to an primarily black school, in say, Los Angeles, Oakland or Detroit? Learning anything there is unlikely.”
Neighborhoods are only as good as the quality of residents who reside there. Likewise, the level of education attained in schools is only as good as the caliber of students who attend them. Do you get my drift?
By on 11/11/07 at 2:38 pm
By observer keen on 11/7/07 at 8:53 pm
On Romans giving IQ test to Germans.
This is a god example of what one runs into when discussing racial issue at a gathering. Some guy makes up a totally fantastic event that shows you are wrong, and he is right. Left wingers have been doing this since I started disagreeing with them in 1959.
There has to be at least three people present; you, the lying cheating Marxist, and those you want to convince. The religion of Cultural Marxism allows them to tell small lies so that the big truth may be known.
By on 4/10/08 at 2:22 am
There are obviously many groups of underperforming voluntary immigrants, for example: Polynesians in New Zealand, NZ Maori in Australia, North Africans in France, Central Africans in France, Turks in Germany and West Indian Blacks in Britain.
By on 6/2/08 at 6:28 am
“Romans used to give roman-culture-based tests to Anglo-saxons and other germanic tribes; guess what were their conclusions? According to these social philosophers in Ancient Rome, germanic tribes were intellectually deficient, and incapable of abstract thought.”
Your claim may be true. However, the difference is that the Germanic tribes overcame the oppression and proved the Romans wrong! The very reason for my objection to the racial egalitarianism oozed by Western society is that it is inefficient; it makes no sense to spend money on programs to improve people if they are genetically incapable of improvement! If blacks throughout the world seized the potential of their environment and overcame hardships, I would agree with you. However, the sad reality is that blacks continue to underachieve in every measurable way, and in every society in which their populations exist.
Our society is willing to realize racial differences such as the shape and position of facial features, the color of skin, the type of hair, the shape and size of the cranium, and the susceptibility to certain diseases. But it can end your career or otherwise alienate you in some social circles if you even suggest that another characteristic on the long list of racial differences relates to cognitive ability. Clearly, the reason for this objection is not lucid, academic discourse, but rather the politically-correct notion that it cannot be correct, because it has a negative effect on a minority group.
Perhaps most importantly, I’d like to reject the notion that my acknowledgement of racial differences as it pertains to intelligence is linked to hatred. There is no link between realizing a difference, and hating those who are different. For instance, I realize that people with Down Syndrome have diminished mental capacity, but I certainly do not hate them.
By on 6/20/08 at 5:24 pm
“Romans used to give roman-culture-based tests to Anglo-saxons and other germanic tribes; guess what were their conclusions?”
The argument that modern cognition tests are culturally biased is without merit. Test bias is not a matter of subjective impression but can be objectively determimed. For instance, if IQ tests have different predictive validities for different groups, they may be said to be biased. This is not the case. Nor do the countries in which cognition testing was invented score highest. Raven’s Matrices was created by an Englishmen, yet the Eskimos(many of whom live in poverty) score 6 points above Englishmen on that test. Mongolids from Hong Kong and Japan obtain higher average IQs than Europeans.
Moreover, Negrids score highest precisely on those test items which have the highest cultural content. They score best on word-analogies; they score lowest on culture-free items, such as reaction time tests, digit span tests, matrices, etc. If IQ tests were culturally biased against Negrids, this would be not the case.
By on 6/21/08 at 6:35 am
It’s academic, really, at this point, but “Observer Keen’s” assertion about Romans giving “culture tests” is a bald-faced lie. Apart from the obvious anachronism (asserting that the Roman had such a test is a bit like claiming that Thomas Becket aced his GREs) OK’s response to my earlier challenge was to cite Herodotus as an authority on this matter. The problems? 1)Herodotus was not a Roman of any kind but a Greek, 2)Herodotus barely mentions the people of northern Europe (Celts, Gauls Britons), 3)Rome was not an imperial power until more than two centuries after Herodotus’ death and 4)Herodotus makes no mention whatsoever of “culture tests.”
I apologize, if an apology is necessary, for this pedantry, but lies about ancient authors on boards like this are a pet peeve of mine.
By on 6/21/08 at 2:59 pm
The I.Q. of children under 6 can be measured. These are repeatable and reliable and in general are maintained throughout the individual’s life. How can the imprint of slavery be a major factor in such young black children? Why do the children of black families earning more than $70000 a year do worse academically (and have lower I.Q’s) than the children od whites and asians earning $10000 or less per year? Read Richard Lynn’s extensive works to see how over all this planet the wealth of peoples depends on the mean I.Q. of the group. Haitian blscks have been free of any white yoke since 1806 yet Haiti has evolved to be the armpit of the world. In contrast japan was bombed flat during WWII and has no natural resources is now one othe most affluent countries. The mean I.Q. of Haiti is less than 80, that of japan greater than 100. Surely no loving god would create a race with so terrible a handicap as a low mean I.Q. More evidence to become an atheist. Gary baldy
By Gary Baldy on 1/30/07 at 2:18 pm