Sometimes data or information that seems completely disconnected can tell a story when taken together. I experienced that recently. Over the course of a few days I saw a number of posts on X that caught my attention. First was a post stating that “Whites make up only 8% of the world’s population… so in fact, we are the minority.” That 8% is down from a peak of approximately 25% in the 19th century.
A tenured professor at the University of Winnipeg, who has become the focus of a dispute over course material that draws connections between race, IQ scores, and the likelihood of committing murder, insists his claims are factual and shielded by academic freedom.
According to a Manitoba Labour Board decision document from October 2024, a student lodged a complaint against the professor, who teaches in the university’s psychology department, over claims made during class.
The complaint alleges that the professor “has explicitly said that Black individuals’ IQ scores may be lower because of genetics,” adding that he has also “presented data showing that Black people are 4.5x more likely to commit murder than White people.”
“Academic freedom” only applies when White people are villainized.
Grab some popcorn there’s going to be a witch burning!
Here’s why we no longer talk honestly about police race-based data h/t NeoCon
“To even talk about whether there might be a genetic element to educational attainment and social inequality breaks a huge social taboo – particularly on the political left, which is where you say your own sympathies lie. The spectre of eugenics looms large, and no one wants to create a honeypot for racists and classists. To be clear, it is scientifically baseless to make any claims about differences between racial groups, including intelligence, and you are not doing that. But why go here?”
Oh my! The left discussing their most feared taboo! In the Guardian no less!
Ruha Benjamin also suggested the hunt for more data to explain things just ends up being a barrier to acting on what we already know we need to do to fix the academic achievement gap…
“I disagree that we already know what to do. If you look at meta-analyses of educational interventions, you see most of their effect sizes are zero. Most of the things we try in education, even when they are well intentioned and well funded, make no difference to students’ lives. It is a fiction we have this army of effective, scalable solutions just waiting in the wings. Figuring out what works for whom and when is very hard. The risk of not talking about genetics is continuing the status quo, where we are much less effective at intervening than we could be.”
Covid can cause a ‘substantial’ drop in intelligence in people recovering from the virus, research has suggested.
