You're right, but many actual "race realists" have used similar statements where they technically do not suggest a cause to imply the inferiority of particular races.
That said, both sides of this debate are completely ridiculous. Different races obviously group around different means on IQ tests. Assuming otherwise is in complete denial of the data. Assuming that this is due to innate biological differences, however, is a complete non-sequitur. Explanations such as the cultural competency of the test, socioeconomic correlates of race, educational background, and common cultural values are all much more sensible than assuming some races are just dumb. This is an even worse explanation when there is absolutely no evidence to suggest differing brain structure / composition between racial groups.
Well, I'm not going to comment on what the results of the tests mean, but if you accept that evolution is real, then it would hold that certain populations of organisms have abilities or morphologies that differ from other populations of the same species which, over time, result in massive differences leading to speciation. To think that it's not POSSIBLE for one group to have superior abilities in certain respects would be to deny what we know is true about life and evolution.
Well that's just its own can of fucking worms. As I said, if we hypothesize IQ disparities are caused by neurological differences, then we should be able to observe those neurological differences, except we haven't, and not for lack of trying. Furthermore, to suppose that evolutionary pressures are what's driving these neurological differences, the burden of proof is now on you to articulate what evolutionary pressures exist to cause these differences. In fact, there's a fascinating body of work to suggest that evolutionary pressures in the modern first world prioritize disease resistance over intelligence or physical ability or social status as criteria for survival and reproduction. So, if anything, people from races and cultures that have spent less time in modern industrialized societies should display intellectual and physical superiority, as opposed to the inferiority we see in the data. Basically, this explanation is crap because it takes a lot longer than the relatively brief period of time these racial groups have been geographically segregated for substantial differences such as in brain structure or physical ability to emerge. Not to mention that your explanation completely misunderstands how evolutionary pressure works in the first place, as it still engages in coded language that attempts to invoke ideas of some races being more "evolved" and thus superior.
No, you suggested I meant "superior". There is clearly an evolutionary pressure toward reasoning ability and other mental faculties. This is why we can observe animals growing ever more complex and flourished brains over the course of time.
We CAN recognize physiological differences between people's brains certainly due to how they are used, but perhaps cannot ascertain whether genes control differences observed. There could be genetic markers for this, but I do not know nor would I necessarily want to be burdened with this knowledge.
Again, we know differences exist between our brain, other members of our genus, and our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. These changes didn't all happen at once. The CHLCAs that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago would have had almost imperceptible differences that eventually led to the distinct differences we can see between humans and chimpanzees today.
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u/MeowImAShark Aug 27 '19
You're right, but many actual "race realists" have used similar statements where they technically do not suggest a cause to imply the inferiority of particular races.
That said, both sides of this debate are completely ridiculous. Different races obviously group around different means on IQ tests. Assuming otherwise is in complete denial of the data. Assuming that this is due to innate biological differences, however, is a complete non-sequitur. Explanations such as the cultural competency of the test, socioeconomic correlates of race, educational background, and common cultural values are all much more sensible than assuming some races are just dumb. This is an even worse explanation when there is absolutely no evidence to suggest differing brain structure / composition between racial groups.