Subsaharan African Average IQ - a global, undeniable phenomenon

Psychometrics is statistics, not politics. There is an established methodology for constructing and evaluating IQ test items, not a person.

No, but it's reliable, valid, and easy to use.

 

Yes who decides what goes on the IQ test...the Chinese?

Could you get back to addressing the point instead of switching your argument every two seconds? Your original claim was that IQ tests were culturally biased, but when I asked why Asians excel over Whites/Europeans, you went off on a tangent about Asian culture. So are you arguing that IQ tests are culturally biased in favor of Asians and against everyone (to a greater or lesser degree) else?

 

Just going to jump in here real quick. Rioting when it's *highly likely* you're in the top 1-2% income by global metrics for 'economic justice' is a sign of intelligence nowhere. It takes quite a leap to believe in street smarts or whatever you think it is these dummies (who are largely of a certain ethnic group as has been discussed) possess as some alternative form of intelligence. Or wisdom or self-awareness for that matter.

 

Sure, I'd say you are correct. There are individual differences. I used to tutor math. But I also saw the student's work ethic, and level of ability coming in as bigger factors as well. Someone who hasn't practiced well in doing the basics of math when they are young are just missing something that is difficult to learn as they get older. The culture they grew up in and whether their parents encoraged them is another factor.

 

The Europeans raped, robbed and pillaged Africa for many, many years. It's a miracle there are any natural resources left at all in Africa.

 

I don't know, Trump is just creepy - is he Orange or White though?

 

No, it's not. That's why so many places ban them for use in schools. There is no known way to make them not culturally biased.

I told the story of the kid who was an immigrant. Entering school he was tested as educable retarded and placed in short bus classes yet he graduated college during which he was always on probation because he was "retarded". I forgot to mention that he began his crusade against those tests during his valedictorian speech while still on probation.

Search school districts ban IQ testing.

 

Why do the Trump boys have to hire native Africans to help them hunt despite their superior intellect and weaponry?

 

Trump is proof that you can go far with little intelligence.

 

I have this chat frequently with people who ask me why I'd leave the US to live here. I ask them why do so many villagers who come to the city we live in return to their villages? Schools are better in town, electricity exists, running water not always but potable water always, cold beer....It's simply a question of comfort. I'm comfortable with what I do and am content. Some villagers never become comfortable with city life.
I would add that hunter is a profession, not a means of survival. You'd be hard pressed to find a village without crops and farm animals. There are hunters that provide a change. Given a choice between goat or gazelle I'd go with the gazelle. If the hunter comes home empty handed it's usually not a big deal to anyone except the hunter who doesn't get paid. Gatherers also go after the items that are not domesticated, like Frenchmen seeking truffles. Their main diets are cultivated crops but they have seasonal treats that sometimes make it to town.

 

If you read "Why Nations Fail" you'll find that in the middle of the Congo existed a tribe that prior to the arrival of Belgians had schools, medical doctors(don't underestimate the skills of an herbologist), universal health care, police, jails, trial by jury. Everything a modern society had at the time. Where would that tribe be today had it not been enslaved by the Belgians?

Technological developments in Europe were largely driven by their bloodthirsty and greedy rulers and people. War often drives technology, he who had better weapons could conquer more. Merchant navies followed military ones. Look at all the research paid for by the DoD. We might not have the internet today without DoD money. That is but one small example. Russia got a man to space before the US because they had to build bigger rockets to transport ICBMs than the US did whose bombs were much smaller. On and on war drives technology.

 

That would refer to the Lele and the Bushong. Read a bit deeper and you could find that these two tribes were much like the black community of today, in that one group (the Bushong) worked to be prosperous and improve life, the other group (the Lele, living just across the river) did just the opposite- it was lazy, war-like, avoided work, abused women and attacked other tribes. Sounds similar to the conditions we see today in some ways. The good neighborhood, the bad neighborhood.

The Bushong were absorbed in to the "kuba Kingdom" ruled by a king and elites, which exists today as part of the Congo. The Lele seem to be too, but they developed some very strange social rules. They fought over women- not trade goods or anything else. About 10% of the women are "village wives", whom anybody could have sex with through the day, but were to belong to a limited number of men at night. Multiple wives were also normal. These wives, were bargained for, stolen, captured- obtained in a variety of ways.

While there is some interesting aspects of these people, however social success over time is not one of them.

 

Not all that long, actually. Scramble for Africa started in the 1880's and ended in the 1960's, so 80 years. Hardly enough time to denude the continent of natural resources. In two decades, the Europeans will have been gone longer than they were there.

 

I have to agree. Some people are born with much higher IQ's than the average. So it isn't education or association. It's genetics I suppose.

 

And, we know that the African tribes were slaves traders as far back as 1000 years before any Europeans came, taking caravans of slaves across the desert to sell in Egypt and north Africa.
The Europeans didn't bring that business to Africa, either.

 

This tribe didn't know how to read or write. That tribe would be in exactly the same place.

 

Why?

 

I believe that statement is really pretty accurate.
While we aren't all given the same genetic talents, everybody has something of value. The trick is to find what you have, and make the most of it. Kids are learning even before birth; it happens in terms of being in the presence or order or anger, and as babies what they see and hear are imprints shaping their perception and thinking long before they can speak the language. They see what we do- and we set the precedents they use to perceive the world. It doesn't mean they have to follow what their environment gave them, but it is far more likely that a good environment will help them flourish and a poor one will help them fail. Parents have the job of raising strong, healthy adults, people who can handle life on their own by the time they come of age. A great many neither understand the weight of that responsibility, nor accept it- and the children pay the price, as well as the society they live in.

 

No, it didn't end in the 1960s. South Africa and Rhodesia are two places that didn't achieve freedom until much later than that.

 

That's right, but if you start off with a small box you're not going put much in it.

 

Saying populations can't differ genetically in significant ways is even more political.

The validity of a test is how well it measures what it claims to measure. In the case of well-constructed IQ tests, that is pretty well. IQ correlates well with other factors we would expect intelligence to correlate with, such as academic success, learning speed, vocabulary, and the subjective judgments of experts based on personal interactions.

This will show up in the distribution of correct, incorrect and null responses.

It's known that subject motivation is a factor in test performance, as well environmental inputs such as noise, interruptions, how well a subject slept the night before, etc. The more time, effort and money is devoted to testing, the better the measure obtained. It is unfortunately true that many such tests are administered by poorly motivated and/or under-resourced administrators, which results in low data quality.