ABSTRACT
For as long as societies have created racial classifications of Homo sapiens, the notion of innate differences in intelligence between groups has been with us. Referring to these differences by the term “innate” means that racial differences in intelligence are hard-wired, genetic, biological, and therefore deterministic of the kinds of people that we are or can hope to become. While no one would deny the fact that some individuals are smarter than others (however we might measure intelligence), is there good evidence suggesting that certain races are, on average, smarter than other races? And if such evidence does exist, what is the basis for suggesting that it is due to differences in our biological nature, rather than a result of environmental nurture or some combination of the two? And what about the very definition of intelligence? Is there only one kind of intelligence, and can it be measured by IQ tests and represented by a single score? Although intelligence is a word we routinely use and the meaning of which would seem to be easily understood, a closer examination will reveal that it is not a simple concept to define or measure. In this chapter, we will explore the history of the notion that human races have different genetically determined levels of intelligence and the evidence both for and against it. Is there really a biological connection among race, intelligence, and genetics? Or is the apparent inequality on IQ test scores between different social or racial groups simply a by-product of the unequal distribution of wealth, access to education, and other forms of social status and power in society? In a word, does the evidence support the existence of racial differences in intelligence, and if it does, are these differences the result of nature or of nurture? These are some of the questions and issues we will discuss in this chapter.
