Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Is There A Superior Race?

YouTube ^ | June 6, 2012 | The Discovery Channel

[grundle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdti5Rr8rhs

Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Is There A Superior Race?

Season 3, episode 2

Originally broadcast on the Discovery Channel, June 6, 2012

Beginning at 23:07 "There are differences between racial and ethnic groups on the average in IQ. The average whites IQs are fairly set at 100. Blacks in the United States and in many other western countries average 85. Hispanics the average would be about 80. Native Americans around that level. And then Japanese and Chinese Americans above the white average. And then Ashkenazic Jews probably around 110, 115." - Linda Gottfredson, sociologist, University of Delaware

[aquila48]

With all due respect to Sowell, whom I admire very much, if you were to read “the Bell Curve” you will appreciate the pains that the authors went through to factor out cultural bias.

Even the article that started this thread states that on average blacks have a 20 point disadvantage over white (and whites have a disadvantage over some other races).

And I don’t for a minute discount the importance of cultural factors. Values and belief systems can improve performance considerably - but everything else being the same, the racial component remains.

Again take an objective look at “The Bell Curve”. They’re not saying that all blacks have inferior intelligence - there are many that are brilliant including Sowell, Walter Willians, Herman Cain, even most of the ones that started the black power movement such as Malcom X, etc. And there are plenty of whites that are as dumb as a stump.

The problem is the statistical distributions - the bell curve - of the various races.

Until that is addressed and discussed dispassionately our race problem will continue. But I’ll be the first to admit it is a very very difficult and painful thing to do. And to be honest I don’t know how to do it without a social upheaval.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Oh absolutely, I would agree with that premise completely.

Atheism didn’t give us science. Atheism gave us perversions of science. Atheism gave us gas chambres and gulags and eugenics and social darwinism.

[Yashcheritsiy]

I.Q. has NOTHING to do with genes and everything to do with culture and personal interest.

Er, no. IQ is actually about 80% heritable.

[Road Glide]

“I have a theory about why liberals react to these facts with such utter ferocity.”

It isn’t only liberals who react in such manner.

You will get nearly the same reactions and see the same fears from conservatives. I’ve seen that it in this forum, in this very thread.

The reason for such fears is that the scientific truths revealed in such areas of study as intelligence refute the intellectual paradigm upon which the foundation of “the egalitarian society” is constructed. To accept such truths flies in the face of the proposition that “all are created equal” and that societies can be built upon such notions.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t endeavor to treat all equally “under the law”. However, we must accept that what we try to do under “man created law” is limited by forces that are dictated by something more powerful — natural law, the “laws” of nature.

Yet is not this what conservatism must be? By that, I mean the willingness to see reality as it is, to understand and accept it — and then to apply such truths to our lives, individually and collectively?

What was it that gal said? To paraphrase, “we can evade reality; what we cannot evade are the consequences of evading reality”… ?

[ZULU]

Read the book.

“Ethnic America” - Thomas Sowell.

I.Q.’s change generationally because I.Q. are not really barometers of intelligence. They are barometers of success in a particular society based on knowledge of how that society functions.

I doubt either of us would have passed an Apache I.Q. test in the 1800’s.

[aquila48]

“Why? India has a set of cultural premises that don’t tend to emphasise violence, retribution, recklessness, and rote physical prowess.”

Part of India’s culture is the caste system. I would not be surprised if the various castes have different unbiased IQ distributions - perhaps that’s how they came about. As part of their culture, the Indians accept the caste structure - to the extend that they do there is peace, if at some point they, like the black power movement in the US, decide “I’m mad as hell and ain’t going to take it anymore”, then there’ll be riots.

The thing that causes social tension is not due to the average IQ of a population. Rather, it is caused when a group of people that has a strong identifier (such as skin color) as a group performs worse than other identifiable groups in that same population.

So if blacks had an average IQ of 150 and whites had an IQ of 120, you would still have the social problem of discrimination. Culture will not do anything to eliminate that, unless the group with the lower performance peacefully accepts that reality (such as the untouchables in india.)

[MtBaldy]

I want to object to the headline too. A higher IQ does not make you a superior person. Things like compassion, drive, creativity, and perseverance are all traits that may help you succeed at life. I have a very high IQ but have done little noteworthy with it. Yeah, I’m good at problem solving but not so good at following long term tasks to fruition. I like to think I might be different in different circumstances but the truth of the matter is I don’t have to work if I don’t want to, and most of the time I don’t want to. By the same token I don’t think being good at football or baskeball makes you a superior person. It makes you a superior athlete but there’s lots more to being a good person than athletic, or mental, ability. I would like to see everyone treated the same under the law. Equal opportunity does not mean equal outcome. Until the government gets out of the discrimination game race relations are going to continue to fester..

[hfr]

Now this is maybe the result of two glasses of good red wine, but what I hear you saying is that he's worth a piss?

(sorry, sorry, sorry, just had to try for the pun, oo doubleplusungood attempt at humor)

And speaking of pissing a river … Actually I'd like to drink a beer with him. Like most presidents, whatever one may think of their politics, they must be very uniquely powerful personalities to ever reach the office. In any crowd they will be standouts. The opportunity for dialog would be tremendous, just imagine being able to ask critically acute questions.

Now I know I've stepped in it. Or rather, I'm full of it … note to self: go empty the bladder _{and don't post when drinking wine again.}

Have I apologized profusely enough?

[Yashcheritsiy]

Then why do blacks on average consistently score a sigma lower than whites on average, regardless of how tests are normed? They’ve actually found that blacks do WORSE vis-a-vis whites on tests that have been rendered “culturally neutral.”

Sorry, but Thomas Sowell is simply wrong on this point, and for the same reason that so many others who are wrong on this point are - because it’s uncomfortable and politically incorrect/unacceptable to actually admit that there are differences between the races on an absolute level.

[Yashcheritsiy]

“I have a theory about why liberals react to these facts with such utter ferocity.”

It isn’t only liberals who react in such manner.

Shoot, why do think Eve-Stay Ailor-Say is persona non grata here on Free Republic?

[null and void]

Thanks! I just read it, Wells remains one of my very favorite authors!

[Eagles6]

That this incestuous pedophile racist isn’t ashamed to be seen in public is a sad commentary on this country.

[Paradox]

I only have an IQ of 135, but as a Hispanic, that makes me a veritable Sheldon Cooper.

[House Atreides]

“Possibly an overly obscure reference.

TJ died deeply in debt.....”
***********************************************************
OK, I see. I misconstrued. I thought you were referring to his Presidency. You’re absolutely right—in his personal life he was certainly a spendthrift. The contrast with his political rival (and later life-long friend) regarding the estates they left upon their deaths were quite remarkable.

[House Atreides]

LOL - I hear you and hope the wine was good.

Personally, I think Obama is, at his essence, an empty suit with his strings being pulled (willingly) by other, more intelligent folks. The only reason I’d want to have a beer with him would be the opportunity to “liberate” the bottle/glass he drank from in order to have it’s residual DNA analyzed.

[reardensteel]

What I find interesting is these averages actually reveal very little difference between the races, they seem, on average, equally stupid. If the highest average really is 115, there is already a “superior” group of people - far, far superior. Not unlike how we view the chimp's intelligence, those with an IQ over 160 see the range of 80-115 as no better than that of chimps.

What does this say about artificial intelligence, when it's finally reached? Will the machine that reaches the theoretical IQ of 2000 (or 2,000,000) consider a person with an IQ of 160 as no more valuable than a gnat?

[Bon mots]

Culture?

So that’s why blacks from Kenya, Jamaica, Canada, America, Europe and elsewhere dominate sprinting and many other sports? Because those nations all share tye same culture?

Or Ashkenazi Jews from the US, Switzerland, Hungary, Russia and many other nations dominate Nobel Prizes? Those countries all have the same culture?

[House Atreides]

“.......those with an IQ over 160 see the range of 80-115 as no better than that of chimps.....”
*******************************************************************
No we don’t!

[jocon307]

“...because they are utterly unwilling to examine the facts of the case, they can’t even begin to talk about realistic solutions.”

The left is like that about everything!

Crime, education, economics, they constantly refuse to look at what is right in front of their faces and instead want to discuss things like how all opposition to Obama is racism, or what’s the matter with Kansas, or why girls should become more like boys and boys more like girls; or actually BECOME boys (if girls) or girls (if boys).

Bush prosecuting the terror war, horrid, he’s a war criminal, etc. Obama doing the same (or worse - it doesn’t really bother me that he took that American guy out with a drone, but I can see there’s an argument to be made that it was a bad thing to do) he’s a hero!

I suppose this is why their intellectual leaders came to the conclusion that you have to get rid of the concepts of logic and even truth entirely.

It’s ridiculous they have held power in this country for so long.

[snarkytart]

I think this can't measure creativity or work ethic with has a lot to do with success. However, lets be real, in most science and medical fields you will not find many people with a lower IQ. I seriously doubt no matter how hard you worked you'd be able to become a brain surgeon with a 100 IQ. Not happening regardless of culture, money, effort etc.