So, this is well written and does bring up some valid points. But there are some serious issues:
First, your comment about defining racism misses the point: The issue there was specifically whether individuals are being racist and what that means. You seem to be arguing that that might not be terrible relevant. But that doesn’t undermine that discussion at all.
Another issue is that there a large set of minorities which have succeeded quite well in the US despite having had serious issues in the past. The Chinese and the Jews are excellent examples (the second curiously enough seems to be overrepresented here.)
so many people here tend to view IQ as primarily-genetic, whereas I tend to view it as more a measure of proficiency at functioning in an industrialized, highly-individualistic, mostly-urban capitalist society.
This confuses me in that you seem to be arguing that ability to function in an “industrialized, highly-individualistic, mostly-urban capitalist society” must not be genetic. But all the time traits which evolved in one context turn out to be relevant in a new environment. Incidentally, there’s a fair bit of evidence that conscientiousness matters as much if not more than IQ for actually succeeding in modern societies. (See e.g. this paper).
First, your comment about defining racism misses the point: The issue there was specifically whether
individuals are being racist and what that means.
I think it’s sort of important to understand what Property X is before we can meaningfully argue about whether a given case specimen has Property X, let alone whether it’s meaningful to group them in Reference Class X. Isn’t it putting the cart before the horse to do it the other way?
Another issue is that there a large set of minorities which have succeeded quite well in the US despite
having had serious issues in the past. The Chinese and the Jews are excellent examples (the second
curiously enough seems to be overrepresented here.)
The Chinese and the Jews have hard remarkably different outcome distributions, and Jews in the US generally fit into the “white” category these days (and have for a long time). I’d avoid over-presuming on the amount of success Chinese-Americans have had, too—see the Model Minority Stereotype, and consider that for most Asian Americans they’ve only enjoyed comparable gains to many whites at the cost of having to work two to four times harder to achieve it.
Even then, I’d still hardly call Chinese Americans included in mainstream-society; they’re still predominantly seen as “other” by whites except insofar as they assimilate.
What I’m arguing is that most people here seem to view IQ as “general intelligence” rather than context-specific functional level, and I don’t think that’s warranted. If you mean the latter when you say IQ, then we agree that far, but I haven’t found it safe to assume that here.
Assuming we do agree on that point, I’d add that as to whether it’s primarily genetic, I am skeptical, and while I would not call the question inherently uninteresting, I think it’s been poorly-framed and doesn’t warrant anything like the level of attention it receives compared to the many other questions that could be asked. The specific questions that seem to occur to people and their level of interest strikes me as very skewed.
So, this is well written and does bring up some valid points. But there are some serious issues:
First, your comment about defining racism misses the point: The issue there was specifically whether individuals are being racist and what that means. You seem to be arguing that that might not be terrible relevant. But that doesn’t undermine that discussion at all.
Another issue is that there a large set of minorities which have succeeded quite well in the US despite having had serious issues in the past. The Chinese and the Jews are excellent examples (the second curiously enough seems to be overrepresented here.)
This confuses me in that you seem to be arguing that ability to function in an “industrialized, highly-individualistic, mostly-urban capitalist society” must not be genetic. But all the time traits which evolved in one context turn out to be relevant in a new environment. Incidentally, there’s a fair bit of evidence that conscientiousness matters as much if not more than IQ for actually succeeding in modern societies. (See e.g. this paper).
I think it’s sort of important to understand what Property X is before we can meaningfully argue about whether a given case specimen has Property X, let alone whether it’s meaningful to group them in Reference Class X. Isn’t it putting the cart before the horse to do it the other way?
The Chinese and the Jews have hard remarkably different outcome distributions, and Jews in the US generally fit into the “white” category these days (and have for a long time). I’d avoid over-presuming on the amount of success Chinese-Americans have had, too—see the Model Minority Stereotype, and consider that for most Asian Americans they’ve only enjoyed comparable gains to many whites at the cost of having to work two to four times harder to achieve it.
Even then, I’d still hardly call Chinese Americans included in mainstream-society; they’re still predominantly seen as “other” by whites except insofar as they assimilate.
What I’m arguing is that most people here seem to view IQ as “general intelligence” rather than context-specific functional level, and I don’t think that’s warranted. If you mean the latter when you say IQ, then we agree that far, but I haven’t found it safe to assume that here.
Assuming we do agree on that point, I’d add that as to whether it’s primarily genetic, I am skeptical, and while I would not call the question inherently uninteresting, I think it’s been poorly-framed and doesn’t warrant anything like the level of attention it receives compared to the many other questions that could be asked. The specific questions that seem to occur to people and their level of interest strikes me as very skewed.