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From: mbb@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (martin.b.brilliant)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Inheritance of IQ
Message-ID: <2407@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Date: 19 Jul 89 16:17:48 GMT
References: <3072@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 29

From article <3072@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>, by geb@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU (Gordon E. Banks):
> ..... if it were true that
> orientals were more intelligent than the other races, it might lead
> to racist theories and discrimination.

Not if we remember what some of us have said already.  If you say
orientals are more intelligent, you mean that in some statistical
sense.  If you practice racism, you make decisions about individuals
on the basis of race.

The fact is that there are many individuals of any race A who are more
intelligent than many individuals of race B, regardless of your
definitions of A, B, race, and intelligent.  The definition of "many"
does make a difference; I would estimate it as at least one-third of
the race, probably more.  Proof by contradiction: if that were not so,
the question of which race is more intelligent would have been obvious
a long time ago.

I have no problem with statistical comparisons of race with race.  But
we all have a problem when someone makes a false extension from facts
about averages to facts about individuals.  The false extension is
racism; the statistical fact is not.

M. B. Brilliant					Marty
AT&T-BL HO 3D-520	(201) 949-1858
Holmdel, NJ 07733	att!hounx!marty1 or marty1@hounx.ATT.COM

Disclaimer: Opinions stated herein are mine unless and until my employer
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