Low IQs are Africa's curse, says lecturer


Researcher accused of promoting racist stereotype wins backing from LSE

Denis Campbell
Sunday November 5, 2006
The Observer

The London School of Economics is embroiled in a row over academic freedom after one of its lecturers published a paper alleging that African states were poor and suffered chronic ill-health because their populations were less intelligent than people in richer countries.
Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, is now accused of reviving the politics of eugenics by publishing the research which concludes that low IQ levels, rather than poverty and disease, are the reason why

life expectancy is low and infant mortality high. His paper, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, compares IQ scores with indicators of ill health in 126 countries and claims that nations at the top of the ill health league also have the lowest intelligence ratings.

Paul Collins, a spokesman for War On Want, the international development charity, said the research 'runs the risk of resurrecting the racist stereotype that Africans are responsible for their own plight, and may reinforce prejudices that Africans are less intelligent'.

Collins added: 'The notion that people in poor countries have inferior intelligence has been disproved by much research in the past. This is another example, which other academics will shoot down.'

Philippa Atkinson, who chairs the LSE student union's 85-strong Africa Forum and teaches in the school's Department of Government, said the paper 'reflects the now discredited theories of eugenics, which should have been left behind'.

'Eugenics was a very influential discourse for centuries,' she said. 'It's the discourse that colonialism and racism in America until the Sixties were based on, and was part of the basis of apartheid too. Nobody could prove that there are racial or national differences in IQ. It's very, very controversial to say

that national IQ levels are low in Africa, and completely unproven. It's a surprise that the odd person would try to bring it back,' she said.

However, she said the research contained some interesting ideas and merited serious consideration, and stressed that academics such as Kanazawa should not be deterred from exploring controversial subjects.

The reaction to Kanazawa's paper will reopen the simmering debate about whether academics are entitled to express opinions that many people may find offensive.

The Observer revealed last March that Frank Ellis, a lecturer in Russian and Slavonic studies at Leeds University, supported the Bell Curve theory, which holds that black people are less intelligent than whites. He also believed that women did not have the same intellectual capacity as men and backed the 'humane' repatriation of ethnic minorities. Initially, the university backed Ellis, despite protests by students and teaching staff, but he took early retirement in July.

Kanazawa declined to comment on either War on Want or Atkinson's allegations about reviving eugenics because, he said, other academics had come up with the national IQ scores that underpinned his analysis of 126 countries. In the paper he cites Ethiopia's national IQ of 63, the world's lowest, and the fact that men and women are only expected to live until their mid-40s as an example of his finding that intelligence is the main determinant of someone's health.

Having examined the effects of economic development and income inequality on health, he was 'surprised' to find that IQ had a much more important impact, he said. 'Poverty, lack of sanitation, clean water, education and healthcare do not increase health and longevity, and nor does economic development.'

The LSE declined to offer any opinion on Kanazawa's conclusions but defended his right to publish controversial research. A spokeswoman said: 'This is academic research by Dr Kanazawa based on empirical data and published in a peer-reviewed journal. People may agree or disagree with his findings and are at liberty to voice their opinions to him. The school does not take any institutional view on the work of individual academics.'

Kate Raworth, a senior researcher with Oxfam, said it was 'ridiculous' for Kanazawa to blame ill health on low IQ and 'very irresponsible' to reach such conclusions using questionable and 'fragile' international data on national IQ levels.

Rumit Shah, chairman of the LSE student union's 52-member Kenyan Society, said lack of education was probably one reason why many Kenyans die young. Aids, tuberculosis and malaria were key factors too.

Kanazawa's article was a 'misrepresentation' of the true causes of ill health in Kenya, added Shah. 'It portrays a bad picture of Kenya, because not everyone in Kenya has an IQ of 72. If there was more education, Kenyans would be wiser about their health.'

I am not surprised I am currently taking an African politics course at the moment as a floater in another university of London uni and I am disgusted about the way they discuss Africa. They still clearly see Africans as inferior.

That crap is not even worth arguing about.

Freedom of speech and expression though, is a much more interesting subject.

I might care to add that this little man's studies include;

Single menmake better scientists.

Beautiful people tend to have girls.

Marriage tames genius, and kills creativity in men.

Engineers have more sons, nurses have more girls.

The Myth of Racial Discrimination in Pay in the United States.

Is "Discrimination" Necessary to Explain the Sex Gap in Earnings?"

Why Beautiful People Are More Intelligent. (To be honest with you I could agree with this one. )

Most of his stuides are too open to "chance", and the fact that he looks for these things in the first place suggests something entirely different, and quite clearly obvious.

Violent men have more sons is another one of his papers.

Maybe a study should be conducted, exploring why racist academics get more funding.

@Kunjufu:

What the hell is an IQ test? What is "intelligence"? How do you measure "iintelligence"? Of course Europeans will define intelligence in a way that they come out on top. From what I've heard, IQ tests are set up with questions that are based on European/White culture. I am sure that if Blacks created IQ tests, we would come out on tops.

The fact that poor Africans don't do well with IQ tests, should not be shocking since they have less access to quality education. But that does not mean that Africans are less intelligent than those in wealthier nations with better access to education.

Amin wrote:
They dont see you as inferior. Thats just what the way they want you to think.

AmeriJamCan wrote:
There is no standard IQ test that measures everyones intelligence. Those kind of tests cant be that perfect anyway.

when America was at war with Japan, theydetained in concentration campsnationals from that country because their presence within the midst of Americans posed an immediate threat, what with their loyalties and such. Hitler incresed the number of Jews gassed in the ovens each time he would get hit hard by the allies, because he believed they were behind the only movementthat could spoilhis idea of what the ubermensch was about.

the presence of minorities within a country at war with the minority'scountry of originis for obvious reasons alwaysa problem, but then inthe modern world, where countries consider themselves civil-ized, concentration camps, or anything similar,are out of the question. instead, covert and psychological warfare is waged againstminorities with the aim of inducing a state of being that is less dangerous to thehost country. this is the reason why Muslims and their religion are underthe spotlightin the west today. think about this: a lot of these muslims grew up here in the west, and consider themselves nationals of these various western countries. they have worn their hijabs all this time and it was no issue until the war in the middle east. consider the many other people with their religious attire, some with tire like objects on their heads and locks from each side of the head, walking about and nobody is saying a thing about that.

Africa is a continent at war. the poverty and disease thatplagues the continent is definitely not Africa's own doing. no doubt we have dumb Africans aiding and abetting,but then they are not a reflection of the group's intellectual diversity. in fact, this group of people are present in every society but are kept in check. this is the natural way things should be. only when a group gets conquered does this balance get disturbed whereby this group of cowards gets turned against their own people by the manipulations of the conquering party.

Africans know this, and more. this knowledge remains a thorn in the side of countriesembroiled in the African disaster because they have minorities from African countries in their societies whose resentment regarding the issue works against the good of the whole.this happens to be one of thereasons why Diaspora Africans have to be told they are different from Africans on the continent, why Africans have to be told they caused their misery on themselves, why we are constantly under all manner of attacks, from dope pumped into the communities, leaders inhibited, guns rampant in minority communties, etc.

the rubishy papers on African intelligence will not cease to come forth because the need for them is so much, and true to the word there is a known conspiracy about the funding of such research. there is a vested interest in making these reports, and no matter how many times they are refuted, like the official 911reports that have been proven to be fake that we nonthelesskeep seeing all over the corporate media, they will reapear in a new guise.

this thing about Africans being less intelligent than Europeans: why would the proponents of the apartheid system who believed Africans were inferior and in need of western tutelage thwart independence struggles in the specific manner they did? why do western governments eliminate African activists, and only activists and other people who mean Africans well? why are good African leaders undermined? if Africans were unintelligent anyway, then there would be no need to sneak and destroy the good things they try to do for themselves because they will not succeed anyway. theyhave inferior minds after all, right? the whole attempt to make Africans believe they are less intelligent than others,that this is the reason they are where they are, while all other activities against Africans continue remainsa desperate attempt to enforce inferiority, then turn around and say "look at them, they are indeed inferior", at the same time convincing the victims this is why they suffer in the world today.

frigin dude's more stupid than can be imagined meeting himself around corners like that...

Wereit not for my ownfine-tuned and well researched trail, I might take this false assertion to heart!

However, I am among thosehere who"know" the real, camel "cough" truth:Modern Civilization is built upon African Knowledge, WisdomandTruth, period!

And, I continue to stand on the fact that Global White Supremacy is the Greatest Known Evil in the WorldToday and agreewith Ra Un Nefer Amen and Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing who are of the smae mindset! http://www.blackchat.co.uk/theblackf...m26/23893.html

I Am Fine 1952 And I Approve This Message!