Is it Cos I Is Black?

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I watched Rageh Omar's Race and Intelligence: Science's Last Taboo documentary on Channel 4, and those of you who've read my blog before will know that there are 2 reasons this is means something to me. For those who don't know me, I'm black, and a former member of Mensa. No, really, there's no need to applaud.

My experience with defining one's self-worth around an arbitrary number is a whole different thing which I've talked about before, but I've never touched on what it means to me, as a black person, to be this supposed 'freak of nature'.

Eminent (white) scientists have argued for years that there is an IQ gap between black, Asian and white people, with Asians coming out top, blacks coming bottom, and whites falling somewhere in the middle. Detractors argue that such tests, like the ones I sat, are biased. The questions appear to be suited to testing those who've had a similar upbringing and education as those who set the tests, and therein lies the fundamental problem of cultural bias. Those tests might assess spatial and verbal reasoning but don't take into account racial and cultural nuance; and, anyway, can you really sum up someone's entire intellectual capacity in a single number?

In any case, the myth has persisted that blacks are simply not as intelligent as whites, and the supremacists can hold on to this if they want, if it helps them maintain their delusions of superiority. I'm living proof that this is not the case!

The sad thing is, I think this has been internalised by black people, and to our detriment. It's not considered 'cool' by contemporary black culture and hence us, to be into studying, self-improvement, wearing your smarts on your sleeve. You speak well and like to read? Oooh, get you! You're a snob, you're a coconut, you're acting white. It's galling to know we are holding ourselves back partly because of the risk of losing a bit of 'cool factor'.

After discussing the subject with prominent academics, who sat with him and said 'yes, black people aren't as smart as whites and Asians; XYZ is what we tested to disprove that theory but our evidence proves it right', Omar put the 'race gap' theories to a couple of geneticists and neurologists. They dismissed the race-based theories as a nonsense; one even said the debate has only gone on for so long because we live in a racist society. Then they laughed until the wee ran down their legs at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

Other interviewees - anthropologists, educators, suggest that social, economic and class factors - environment - are more to blame. You know what? I think it's true. It's not nature, it's nurture.

Personal experience of the subject at hand hasn't handed me all the answers, though. That said, I came away from the program thinking that the scientists who believe there is a race gap in intelligence aren't going to change their views and attitudes; it does fall to black people, however, to change ours.

Race and Science Channel 4 season

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