Race and IQ

Post date: Apr 05, 2017 5:40:46 PM

We spoke in class about the history of studying human diversity, and particularly attempts to "prove" that members of different racial groups have different levels of intelligence. As we discussed, this idea is still around, even though it has been disproved in multiple ways over the last 100 years. Recently, this factually incorrect idea has been in the news because of controversial discussions on college campuses across the country. The author of our A-level textbook, Jonathan Marks, writes an occasional blog, and his most recent post focuses on these controversies. His discussion is unapologetically political because these topics are, in fact, political. If that offends you, I'd recommend skipping the post. However, it does summarize most anthropologists' perspective on this topic fairly well.