Revised: Intelligence is Quantifiable

Abraham Arriaga

INTELLIGENCE IS QUANTIFIABLE

The division of human beings can be taken back to European’s attempt to justify slavery using science to explain racial differences. Scientists aimed to classify human beings and attribute them traits in a process known as taxonomy. European scholars such like Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray attached intelligence capacity in races that were soon to be widely accepted in whitened America. Pilar Ossorio’s RACE: The Power of an Illusion uses mtDNA testing to distinguish any clear biological similarities within races and ultimately discovered that there is nothing embedded within our genes that distinguishes race. Although slavery has ended and biological differences in races have been discredited, there continues to be a clear belief in the distinction of races in our society, such like in the testing of intelligence.

Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve use biology in order to prove white superiority by claiming “intelligence is quantifiable … [by measuring] IQ through intelligence testing” (Golash-Boza, 2015, p.  43). According to Herrnstein and Murray (1994), “the average white person tests higher than about 84 percent of the population of blacks” and is expressed using a bell curve distribution as shown on Figure 1 (p. 269). In an interview with Charles Murray, he claims that Jews are smarter than everyone else as a group in terms of means and distributions. He goes on to justify his claim by using their idea of the bell curve: “The centerline going down the bell curve looks different for Jews than it does for non-Jews and is further over to the right” as shown on Figure 2. (AustralianRealist, 2013). They make a claim based on data that completely disregards the disadvantages the black community have had for generations.

Fig 1. A bell curve cut into standard deviations (Herrnstein, Murray, 1994, p. 121)

Fig 2. The black and white IQ distributions in the NLSY (Herrnstein, Murray 1994, p. 279)

Biology could be considered as the seed of racial division and the beginning of racial formation. Race as a sociological concept could be better understood through the influence of racial projects at institutions. It is clear that professors in college campuses have attributed prejudice beliefs when in a study of African American students by Daniel Solorzano “...faculty maintained low expectations” and “...seemed to instill a sense of self-doubt” in African American students (Solorzano, 2000, p. 66). Although The Bell Curve’s ideas of biological intelligence have been discredited, it is clear that the belief continues to remain engraved in our educational systems. Racial projects in our educational systems have clearly affected the public because like Jane Elliott in an interview with Oprah Winfrey says, “We [don’t] realize the contributions that have been made to society to civilization by people of color … because we live in a racist society and because we are educated by a racist school system that only teaches us about white contributions…” (Sincere Ignorance 2015)

Pilar Ossorio’s film showed students testing mtDNA testing and were able to disprove theories of DNA similarities within race. Through his findings he was able to find that, “There’s as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups”. Ossorio’s film ultimately shuns the belief that traits like intelligence are attributable to races through biology.

I identify as Mexican American and see myself as a born and raised American with a Mexican background. In the United States it is confusing to say what my race is because what I claim to be my race is known as an ethnicity in the Census Bureau. I do not identify with the categories that are given and have a hard time narrowing it down because I am not white nor am I black. Race is simply something we observe phenotypically that has been attributed throughout history in order to distribute resources and to have losers and winners.

References

[AustralianRealist] (2013, Nov. 27). Fascinating Discussion about “The Bell Curve”, Race and Intelligence. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r0hqvPwvZM

Golash-Boza, T. M. (2015). Race & Racisms: A Critical Approach. New York: Oxford

University Press.

Herrnstein, R. H., Murray, C.M. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in the American Life. New York, NY: The Free Press.   

[Sincere Ignorance] (2015, Nov. 18). Jane Elliott How Can We Not Be Racist? | Sincere Message. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ZC5JaK0dA

Solorzano, D.S., Ceja, M.C., Yosso, T.S. (2000). Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate: The Experience of African American College Students. The Journal of Negro Education, 69 (No. ½), 60-73.