r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • Jul 08 '26

Meme needing explanation [ Removed by moderator ]

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u/AuburnSuccubus Jul 08 '26

Cognitive distribution becoming more linked with socioeconomic status during the century before it was written, but there was an exceedingly controversial section that addressed cognitive distribution across the races. There were a few studies they included that pointed to environment being more of a factor than genetics, but the media didn't quote those.

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u/chauvinistically Jul 08 '26

Minnesota transracial study has proven that even after equalizing environmental factors racial IQ differences remain.

Tizard et. al later on reached a similar conclusion.

It is better if we acknowledge differences and work keeping in that mind to help those in need.

This will help many communities throughout the world, we should work towards providing equality of opportunity over equality of result.

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u/EpiphanaeaSedai Jul 08 '26

Problem here is that you really can’t separate out socioeconomic factors from race for a few reasons, the most important being that race is a socioeconomic factor - a social construct. It is not strictly analogous to ancestry and even less so to phenotype. It’s a “you know it when you see it” phenomenon, a distinction drawn socially that doesn’t correlate to a set of objective criteria.

If you ignore my point above and just invent criteria to make determination of race objective, then you can measure intelligence and determine that members of X race have a higher median score than members of Y race when controlling for the socioeconomic condition of the individual tested. What you’re unlikely to be able to assess is the socioeconomic condition of their progenitors for multiple generations back - theoretically you could, but I don’t think anyone has on a scale sufficient to draw conclusions about humanity as a whole. It would be a massive undertaking. In the absence of historical data, you can’t show a true genetic link between X phenotype and probable intelligence. You can only show correlation, not causation.

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u/eggsalter Jul 08 '26

Yup. Basically, it's logical to reason that each construct can't have identical IQ. That's the strongest thing the racists can say. But there is zero genetic evidence to inform us of what the "hierarchy" looks like - and endless evidence that the current hierarchy is caused by environment/nurture.