quote:

And that’s my issue. I want someone to attempt to answer these questions without getting shutdown by the PC crowd. You don’t solve a problem by pretending it doesn’t exist.

I'm of the mind that in all likelihood, the data behind The Bell Curve is solid, accurate and well researched.

But, science, even well researched science, is almost never complete. Just a few points off the top of my head although by no means comprehensive.

1. Assuming there are differences in the distribution of IQs by race/ethnicity, the distributions are STILL largely overlapping(same by sex). Hence, anyone using it for individual assessment is silly. We're simply talking about very similar curves where the median is slightly shifted right or left.

2. There are different types of intelligence. I hate to use dogs as an example, but they make for an easy analogy. A hunter who needs a pointer won't think an Australian Shepherd is very smart. A herder won't think very highly of the Pointer that the hunter uses.......while our societies definitely have a bias towards certain types of intelligence, it isn't universal. The more we know about varying intellectual capacities, the more we'll know about how to maximize EVERYONE's. We won't try to teach a fish to climb trees and then say the fish is dumb because it can't.

I also think that if we genuinely studied the subject without fear of what we'd find, we'd end up fleshing out data like in TBC and discover detail that has heretofore gone unnoticed.

But, we just don't ever want to do that shite. Be it race. Sex. Or any other sacred cow, we run around pretending all humans are alike and by extension, approach every problem as if there can be no causes beyond socially nefarious ones(isms....)