To reply to Ronald, It is really kind of useless to talk about "race" and IQ without taking into consideration the nurture question -- how are children in a given society trained from the time they're born? What kinds of skills are taught in school? What are the teaching and testing methods? What are the survival needs of a member of the society? Jared Diamond, in "Collapse", points out that New Guineans display vastly greater intelligence in dealing with their environment than a Caucasian would. But I have little doubt that a Caucasian child raised by New Guineans would acquire those skills just as well. African Americans are at such a huge educational disadvantage in our society that I don't think anyone can make generalizations about their abilities on IQ tests. In any case, most African Americans are really of mixed heritage. So what does that do to the genetic argument? Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Linguistics Linguistics Minor Advisor English Dept. Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184 Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596 Dept. fax: 805-756-6374 E-mail: [log in to unmask] URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/