[Peace-discuss] More thoughts on institutional racism

[Ken Urban]

We've been having a discussion of IQ and statistics on the prairie green
list and it's reminded me of another form of institutional racism, that
of "science".  Specifically, people who argue scientifically or
statistically that races are distinct.  An example of this is the book
"The Bell Curve" which argues that class distinction is inevitable
because of 'well-documented' intelligence distinctions. 

Binet, the inventor of the IQ test said "Our purpose is to be able to
measure the intellectual capacity of a child who is brought to us in
order to know whether he is normal or retarded." Additionally, he
stated, "The scale, properly speaking, does not permit the measure of
the intellect, because intellectual qualitites are not superposable
[superimposable], and therefor cannot be measured as linear surfaces are
measured."

Intelligence has a long history of [mis]measurement, including
phrenology (studying the bumps on your head), craniometry (measuring the
volume of the skull cavity),  craniology (measuring various distances in
your skull), apishness (comparing people visually to apes) and has lead
so not only discrimination, but eugenics. Oliver Wendall Holmes upheld a
Virginia sterilization law based on IQ testing: "We have seen more then
once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their
lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already
sap the strength of the state for these lesser sacrifices. ...Three
generations of imbeciles are enough."

I've recently been skimming through Steven Jay Gould's "The Mismeasure
of Man" (The 'man' is intentional, as usually men were measured, also I
highly recommend it!) And, as always, I'm shocked by the racism that
existed in the past (and still exists today in various forms).  The are
excerpts from Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind", the leading
_textbook_ on human racial differences, where blacks are pictured next
to apes.  There are fudged craniometry measures showing that 'teutonic'
head size is larger than all others, 'negro' being the lowest.  Quotes
like Gustave Le Bon, founder of social psychology, in 1879, arguing
against educating women:

"A desire to give them the same education, and, as a consequence, to
propose the same goals for them, is a dangerous chimera ... The day
when, misunderstanding the inferior occupations which nature has given
her, women leave the home and take part in our battles; on this day a
social revolution will begin, and everything that maintains the sacred
ties of the family will disappear."

Our educational and scientific system is not free of racism or sexism,
in the past or in today.  Educators and scientists bring our own
personalities and ideals to the study of what we do and they appear in
the results.  I think we need to continually look out for this.  

I'm glad that we've had these discussions on racism, it's important to
discuss and think about and act against racism, as much as it is to talk
about and think about and act against war.
 
Brain joke (we're supposed to have fun, right):

A young man and a young woman died together in a car crash.  Their
organs were saved for transplantation. 

A couple of hours later, a person was diagnosed as in need of a brain
transplant by her doctor.  The doctor say she could do the transplant
and there were two brains to choose from, a man's and a woman's. The
young woman's was valued at $500 and the young man's was valued at
$3000.  

The patient asked, "why is the man's brain worth more than the
woman's".  The doctor replied, "it's never been used".

Sorry,

Ken