Re: Intelligence, Genetics and Equality (was "The Paradoxes...)

[George Cunningham <gkc@LOUISVILLE.EDU>]

Leo,

My only point is that citing Cavalli-Forcza's writing as evidence for the lack of a biological basis for race is like citing  Jensen or Murray as experts who deny the existencce of racial differences in intelligence.  Those out there who wish to argue for the importance of race use Cavalli as their major source.  For just one example see Arthur Jensen's _G Factor_.

George K. Cunningham
University of Louisville 

-----Original Message-----
From: Assessment Reform Network Mailing List
[mailto:ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU]On Behalf Of Dr. Leo Casey
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2000 2:10 PM
To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU
Subject: Re: Intelligence, Genetics and Equality (was "The Paradoxes...)


May I be so bold as to suggest that you actually read the book, instead of 
condemning it on the basis of a book review? Especially since, if you want to 
resort to arguments by authority (of book reviewers), the much more thorough 
and longer review in the _New York Review of Books_, which was written by 
someone who actually knows something about the subject at hand, says quite 
the opposite of what you present the _New York Times Book Review_ as saying.

May I also point out that neither I or Cavalli make the contention that 
'races' do not exist. They clearly do exist as a 'social category,' in which 
certain physical features are given a social meaning. What I would contend -- 
and what I understand Cavalli to say -- is that this social category has no 
rational, scientific basis: when one studies the genetic distance and 
proximity between populations which contrast in terms of these physical 
features (i.e., which are socially defined in terms of race), there are no 
significant links between the biological qua genetic determination of those 
physical features and all of the other qualities that racists would attribute 
to different races (ie, varying levels of intelligence, moral character, 
etc.).

For the record, here are two passages in which Cavilli addresses the issue:

"We can see only the body's surface, as affected by climate, which 
distinguishes relatively homogeneous populations from another. We are 
therefore misled into thinking that races are 'pure' (meaning homogeneous) 
and very different, one from the other. It is difficult to find another 
reason to explain the enthusiasm if nineteenth century philosophers and 
political scientists like Gobineau and his followers for maintaining "racial 
purity." These men were convinced that the success of whites was due to their 
racial supremacy. Because only visible traits could be studied then, it was 
absurd not to imagine that pure races existed. But today we know that they do 
not, and that they are practically impossible to create. To achieve even 
partial "purity" (that is, a genetic homogeneity that is never achieved 
spontaneously in populations of higher animals) would require twenty 
generations on "inbreeding" (e.g., by brother-sister or parent-children 
mating repeated many times). Such inbreeding would have severe consequences 
for the health and fertility of children..."

"...the variation between races, defined by their continent of origin or 
other criteria, is statistically small despite the characteristics that 
influence our perceptions that races are different and pure. That perception 
is truly superficial -- being limited to the body surface, which is 
determined by climate. Most likely only a small bunch of genes are 
responsible, and little significance is attached to them, especially since we 
are progressively developing a totally artificial culture."

To wit, book reviews notwithstanding, the weight of real scientific 
knowledge, in the form of genetics, blows the _Bell Curve_ hypotheses, with 
their psuedo-scientific racism, out of the water.     

George Cunningham writes:
Leo,

I found it amusing that you would cite Luigi Cavalli-Sforcza new book Genes, 
People, and Languages as evidence for the non-existence of races. I assume 
that you read the New York Times review by Jared Diamond.  For the benefit
of those at Stanford with whom he must work and the unacceptability of 
academic work supporting races, Cavalli-Sforcza denies the existence of race 
and then he publishes this book and the 1994 Magnum opus The History and 
Geography of Human Genes which document the differences between races. The 
1994 book cover is a color coded map of the different races.  He states in
that book: "The color map of the world shows very distinctly the differences 
that we know exist among the continents: Africans (yellow), Caucasoids 
(green), Mongoloids … (purple), and Australian Aborigines (red). The map does 
not
show well the strong Caucasoid component in northern Africa, but it does show 
the unity of the other Caucasoids from Europe, and in West, South, and much 
of Central Asia."

Steven Sailor says:
"Basically, all his number-crunching has produced a map that looks about like 
what you'd get if you gave an unreconstructed Strom Thurmond a paper napkin 
and a box of crayons and had him draw a racial map of the world.

In fact, at the global level, Cavalli-Sforza has largely confirmed the 
prejudices of the more worldly 19th Century imperialists. Rudyard Kipling, 
Cecil Rhodes, and Francis Galton could have hunkered down together and 
whipped up something rather like this map in honor of Queen Victoria's 
Diamond Jubilee."

Does Cavalli-Sforcza sound like someone who does not believe in race?

George K. Cunningham
University of Louisville


Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who 
want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and 
lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L
to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L
to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU.