Does IQ Depends Upon Race?

It was during the days of colonialism when major parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America were controlled by the white rulers of the East India Company and the inability of the natives non-whites in resisting them from taking over the reins of their country led to this popular belief that "whites are superior to non-whites and have more IQ." However, this is absolutely baseless and is a false notion. Racism has just been politicized here.

Arthur de Gobineau (1816-82) made this lie a popular one when he divided the entire humanity into black, yellow and white races and further went on to claim that only the pure white was noble. His misconception continued till the 19th century when Nobel Prize winner in 1962, James Watson asserted that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of the African nations and its citizens" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that the Africans' intelligence is the same as ours whereas all the testing says otherwise."

All these people were living in a fool's paradise. This was proved when immediately after making this statement, Dr Watson was forced to resign from his post of chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Although some of the scientists did support Dr Watson by coming up with their own misleading accounts, it was ultimately proved by a study carried out by psychologist Elsie Moore at the Arizona State University that there is no difference in the IQ of whites and blacks.

Dr Moore was further supported by Joseph Fagan of Case Western Reserve University and Cynthia Holland of Cuyahoga Community College who tested the whites and blacks on their verbal ability. Although the whites did have substantially better knowledge of words, but when their ability to learn new words was tested, it was found that they were not superior to the blacks. The blacks performed at par with the whites. The whites' better knowledge of words was just because of their social upbringing in better conditions, it had nothing to do with their color or race.

Although one cannot deny the fact that blacks and minorities lack basic educational facilities and are not properly represented in administration or governing bodies, it would be absolutely wrong to say that this is because they are inferior to the whites and their IQ is lower. It is the social evils like racism and poverty which has led to these misconceptions in the society and it's high time that we get rid of this!