A Scientific Debate on Race and Intelligence - Part 2 of 11

Setting: John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Event: A time to heal - education as the power to eliminate racial prejudice in America
Date: March 22, 1997

Joseph L. Graves debates J. Philippe Rushton on the significance of racial differences in IQ as well as the role that evolution and genetics play in determining human intelligence and behavior.

Dr. Graves is an evolutionary biologist who has a B.A. in biology from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in Environmental, Evolutionary and Systematic Biology from Wayne State University. He is the author of The Emperor's New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium.

Dr. Rushton is a psychologist who has a B.sc. from Birkbeck College at the University of London, a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and a D.Sc. from the University of London for work on altruism in children. He is the author of Race, Evolution and Behavior: A Life History Perspective.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Joseph L Graves
• J Philippe Rushton
• scientific racism
• racist
• racialism
• racialist
• race
• evolution
• behavior
• life history theory
• evolutionary biology
• genetics
• environment
• dysgenics
• eugenics
• intelligence
• IQ
• psychology
• psychometrics
• biological determinism
• racial differences
• heredity
• hereditarianism
• science
• pseudoscience
• debunked
• refuted

[EgalitarianJay]

@Wanda7771 No. Africans are more genetically diverse because humans have lived in Africa longer than anywhere else. It takes time for mutations to arise so the longer a population has been around the more mutations it will have.

[constance380]

This is true to group africans all as one is stupid and bilittling to my people blacks an africans are the most diverse people on this planet...

[leotakesleo]

@constance380 : this just a stupid video. Dont waste your time! This monkey in the video thinks that his dad is a monkeY! lol

[EgalitarianJay]

@cabadejo Look up the article Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans by Jennifer Pinkowski. It says the following about this finding, "The Neanderthal DNA appears in the modern human genomes randomly, suggesting it offers no evolutionary benefit and is merely a genetic relic." This is obvious. The anatomical differences between modern humans and Neanderthal are very distinct. DNA analysis indicates ancient inbreeding but their contribution to the gene pool is insignificant.

[EgalitarianJay]

@cabadejo Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal are members of the genus Homo thus there is even more similarity between a Neanderthal and a Human as between human and Chimp. Cross breeding between the species would have to be done at a very high level to have major evolutionary impacts on the offspring. Consider the way a person who is 1/2 European and 1/2 African looks. Now consider how someone who is only 1/8 or 1/16 mixed with another race looks. Neanderthal mixture is much less than that.

[cabadejo]

@EgalitarianJay To be fair EJ the change in one nucleotide base pair can have a monumental impact on an organism. I see there is a 98% similarity between the chimpanzee and human genome. Thus a 1-4% admix of Neanderthal has the potential to make very big differences. We cannot be certain about Neanderthal IQ genes or the potential impact of adding them to the human genome. The interaction of a new gene set can have unforeseen implications.

[EgalitarianJay]

@TheBigLeeg Your comments are right here for everyone to see. I don't need to lie to people who can clearly read for themselves what you said. You initially claimed this video doesn't address the new scientific findings that non-Africans have some Neanderthal DNA. You claim this is relevant to intelligence. What is your source? Let's start with that. Name your source for the argument you are making.

[TheBigLeeg]

@EgalitarianJay YOU ARE SERIOUSLY DENSE! 1st I have never made the statement you continue to infer. QUOTE ME ANYWHERE MAKING SAID STATEMENTS! As far as 1-4% being insignificant. I challenge you to say that on a genetics forum. FOR THE LAST TIME, QUIT PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH! It seems you are more intrested in spewing your opinions just to hear yourself. Rather, than doing the research and having an intelligent discussion on what impact this new finding might reveal, if anything.

[EgalitarianJay]

@TheBigLeeg You've already made an ignorant comment by saying that 1-4% Neanderthal ancestry in non-Africans had a genetic impact on their intelligence and that this finding is relevant to this debate. It's not. Neanderthal did not have some kind of superior IQ genes that made non-Africans smarter and 1-4% admixture is tiny not significant. I uploaded these videos to educate people. You need to do more research and think more critically.

[EgalitarianJay]

@TheBigLeeg You accuse me of being politically correct but I'm talking science and common sense here. The Neanderthal were wiped out and only a few of their genes survive in modern humans because some of them intermarried. This whole race and intelligence mess was started by racists with an ideological agenda. It's like a religion. A rather pathetic religion at that. Why do you feel the need to believe you are better than other people because you were born looking a certain way?

[EgalitarianJay]

@TheBigLeeg 1-4% is a tiny amount. We're talking about admixture here not similarity in DNA. 4% Neanderthal equates to 4 per 100 ancestors being of Neanderthal descent. It's a very small fraction of your overall DNA and there is no reason to assume this had any impact on intelligence. Neanderthal are extinct as there are no pure Neanderthal living. What you're saying is like claiming a Native American tribe that was wiped out lives on because some Whites have 4% of their DNA.