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As a black person...I really really really don't want HBD to be true
This doesn't mean I think it's wrong. It's just that I think that the conclusions you'd have to draw from it being correct are just so awful for me.
I view it as nothing short of tragic that a people who suffered so much due to being viewed as inferior, who struggled for so long to be viewed as equals and treated with dignity, who endured all kinds of injustices in the hope that we would overcome...only for science to prove that it was fruitless all along. It's so dispiriting the possibility that all the problems in our community: crime, poverty, ignorance, are intransient. How are you supposed to deal with that without becoming utterly nihilistic?
I'll probably have a longer more essay-type post for next week's thread but I just want to get my raw emotions about it out here before then.
It's just so unfair. It fills me with anger and sadness and rage and I can't stop thinking about it. I don't want it to be true...I don't want it to be true. It's so unfair
Assuming you're not a troll, props to you for the intellectual openness to be willing to even consider this.
I don't think this is true. First, there were genuine injustices being suppressing people, and it's good that those are gone. But secondly, there's still a ton of room for growth. At the very least, every axis where things have gotten worse can be at least as good as the previous state, and that's just the minimum. There's plenty of room for growth across the board.
I'll note that this is not implied! Even most hereditarian IQ researchers think that the IQ gap is not purely genetic, and all of those other things seem like they can be modified more easily than IQ. They certainly have changed over time, and there's still a long way to go in which things can be improved. (Of course, bringing about large-scale cultural shifts is still no easy matter.)
On a less serious note, I didn't know that intransient was a word. It's a little funny that it's meaning is not super far from intransigent, though it makes sense. in+trans+eo vs in+trans+ago, I think.
I'll also note that there is, of course variation. If what people say is accurate, and the US black mean is one SD below the white one, then that still means that about a sixth of blacks are smarter than the white average. That's definitely not nothing.
I can't disagree with much of the general sentiment, though: it isn't fair, and I certainly understand caring about the people of a group that you identify with more broadly.
I'll also note that following Richard Hanania, white conservatives probably have to accept this too, a little: the liberals have captured education and the universities, and so the average conservative white IQ is lower than the average liberal one. (Again, averages. There's a ton of overlap.)
I'm not sure how this will be change populations in the future, as different groups of people have more or fewer children, or as IVF+genetic screening and selection have effects.
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