Historical Development of Racial Context

The notion of inherited differences is an ancient one; however, the concept
of racial classifications is more recent. According to psychologist Wade Nobles,
the Western idea of race emerged during the sixteenth century as
Europeans began to colonize other parts of the world. As they came into
contact with people who looked different from them, many Europeans developed
the notion that some races were superior to others. This belief often
was given as a justification for slavery and other oppressive activities.
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was critical in promoting the belief
that human differences were a result of heredity and genetics. His notion of
“the survival of the fittest” led psychologists to research racial differences in
intelligence in order to understand the successes and failures of different
human groups. Francis Galton, Darwin’s cousin, was instrumental in furthering
the hereditarian perspective in psychology. In his book Hereditary
Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences (1869), he attempted to illustrate that genius and prominence follow family lines. He also began the
eugenics movement, which supported the use of selective mating and
forced sterilization to improve racial stock. The Bell Curve is simply a more recent
argument along the same lines. Nothing really new is added to the argument.
There is a bit more sociobiological jargon and a mass of statistics,
but they do not hold up to careful scrutiny.
Following Galton’s lead, many psychologists embraced the notions of inherited
racial differences in intelligence. The pioneering work of anthropologist
Franz Boas, in attacking the popular conception of race, fostered
research to attack the myths attached to that concept, including the myth of
inherent superiority or inferiority. G. Stanley Hall, the founder of the American
Psychological Association, believed that African people were at a lower
evolutionary stage than Caucasians. By the beginning of the 1900’s, psychological
testing was being widely used to support the view that intelligence
was hereditary and was little influenced by the environment. More recently,
Burt, Herrnstein, and Jensen have argued in favor of an overriding genetic
factor in intelligence.
There were also early efforts to challenge the hereditarian perspective in
psychology. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, Herman Canady and Howard
Long, two of the first African Americans to receive graduate degrees in psychology,
produced evidence showing the importance of environmental influences
on IQ test performance. They were concerned about increasingly
prevalent “scientific” justifications for the inequality and injustice experienced
by African Americans, American Indians, and other groups. Fighting
racism was a major reason Leon Kamin became involved in the debate about
race and intelligence. He gathered the original information that had been
reported by scientists and reexamined it; Kamin was responsible for discovering
that Burt had reported false information. He also noted that many
hereditarians misused and misinterpreted their statistics.
Hereditarians maintain that racial differences in IQ test scores are primarily
caused by genetics and that these scores do reflect differences in intelligence;
environmentalists say no. It has not been proved definitively that
IQ tests measure intelligence; however, the evidence does suggest that performance
on IQ tests is determined by the interaction between genetic and
environmental influences. The quality of the environment will determine
how well people will reach their potential. In a society where the history of
certain groups includes oppression, discrimination, and exclusion from opportunity,
it is difficult to explain differences in achievement as being primarily
inherited. Instead, it would seem to be a more important goal to eliminate
injustices and to change the conditions of life so that all people could
do well.
Sources for Further Study
Devlin, Bernie, et al., eds. Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to
“The Bell Curve.” New York: Springer, 1997. A number of psychologists and social scientists respond to the claims of Richard Hernnstein and
Charles Murray.
Fancher, Raymond E. The Intelligence Men: Makers of the IQ Controversy. New
York:W.W. Norton, 1985. Examines the historical contexts of the IQ controversy.
The life experiences of the major hereditarians and environmentalists
and how these experiences influenced their perspectives are
emphasized. This book is easy to read and does an excellent job of making
complex statistics understandable.
Goldsby, Richard. Race and Races. 2d ed. New York: Macmillan, 1977. Provides
straightforward and accurate information about issues of race, racial
differences, and racism. There is a balanced discussion of both the
hereditarian and environmentalist perspectives of the IQ controversy.
Enjoyable and easy to read for high school and college students alike.
Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. Revised and expanded ed. New
York: Norton, 1997. Gould replies to the work of Richard Hernnstein and
Charles Murray, questioning both their motives and their methods.
Guthrie, Robert V. Even the Rat Was White. 2d ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
2004. Provides an excellent historical view of how psychology has dealt
with race as an issue. The first section of the book focuses on methods of
study, early psychological testing, and the development of racism in the
profession of psychology.
Hernnstein, Richard, and Charles Murray. The Bell Curve. New York: Free
Press, 1994. This book argues that differences in black and white IQ
scores are genetically based.
Jensen, Arthur R. Bias in Mental Testing. New York: Free Press, 1980. An attempt
to deal comprehensively with the issues of IQ testing and bias.
Jensen challenges the criticisms against IQ tests and offers research to
support his view that group differences in IQ test scores are not attributable
to bias.
Kamin, Leon J. The Science and Politics of IQ. New York: Halstead Press, 1974.
Discusses the political nature of the role psychologists have played in support
of IQ testing. The role of psychologists in the eugenics movement
and in education is discussed. Includes strong critiques of the work done
by Cyril Burt and Arthur Jensen.
Montagu, Ashley, ed. Race and IQ. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Written to challenge the interpretations offered by the hereditarians.
Most of the articles included were previously published in professional
journals or popular magazines. Some of the chapters contain very technical
material; however, the authors generally do an effective job translating
this into more understandable language.
Derise E. Tolliver; updated by Frank A. Salamone
See also: Intelligence; Intelligence Tests.