Race and IQ, Heredity and Oppression
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By J. P. Farr, Ed.D
The measurement of intelligence is psychology's most telling accomplishment to date. Nowhere else has there arisen so potent an instrument as the objective measure of intelligence. According to Gall, Borg, and Borg (1996), "intelligence tests provide an estimate of an individual's general intellectual level by sampling performance on a variety of intellectual tasks. These tests often include items on such tasks as vocabulary choice, mathematical problem solving, reading comprehension, and short-term memory of digits."
Hale (1982) opined that the American educational system has not been effective in educating African American children. The emphasis of traditional education has been on molding and shaping African American children so that they fit into an educational process designed for white middle-class children. This would make it easier to continue developing measurement tests for middle-class America, without having to make any significant change and to continue to ignore the overwhelming implications of the disparities in the test scores between the races. We know that the system is not working because of the disproportionate number of African American children who are labeled hyperactive and who are being given drugs as tranquilizers. Some African American children are able to control their behavior; those who are not are usually in the lower- income levels and are labeled as disruptive, prescribed medication, and placed in problem classes where expectations are low. We know that the system is not working because of the disproportionate number of African American children who are being suspended, expelled, pushed out of schools, and ignored. Are any of these factors taken into consideration when the "overwhelming " evidence to support genetics over environment is being espoused and the effect of social oppression is evaluated?
References Comer, J. P. & Poussaint, A. F. (1992) Raising African American Children. New York: Penguin Books. Gall, M.D., Borg, W. R., & Gall, J. P. (1996). Educational Research. New York: Longman Publishers USA. Hale, J. E. (1982). African American Children: Their roots, culture and learning styles. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press. Herrnstein, R. J. (1971). I.Q. in the Meritocracy. Boston: Little Brown and Company. Herrnstein, R. J. & Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: The Free Press. Jensen, A. R. (1980). Bias in Mental Testing. New York: The Free Press. McGoldrick, M., Pearce, J. K., & Giordano, J. (1982). l Ethnicity and Family Therapy. New York: Guilford Press. Miller E. M. (1995, Spring). Race, Socioeconomic Variables, andIntelligence: A Review and Extension of the Bell Curve. Mankind Quarterly, XXXV (3), 267-291 Owens, R. G. (1995). Organizational Behavior in Education. (5th ed.) Needham, Heights, Ma: Allyn and Bacon. Popham, W. J. (1993). Educational Evaluation. Needham Heights, Ma: Allyn and Bacon |
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