From: “Paul Fromm” To: cfirc@canadafirst.net
Subject: Japanese researcher sparks controversy over African IQ
Japanese researcher sparks controversy over African IQ

Low IQs are Africa’s curse, says lecturer
Researcher accused of promoting racist stereotype wins backing from LSE

By DENIS CAMPBELL

The Observer Sunday, November 5, 2006

LONDON — The London School of Economics is embroiled in a row over

academic freedom after one of its lecturers published a paper alleging

that African states were poor and suffered chronic ill-health because

their populations were less intelligent than people in richer countries.

Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, is now accused
of reviving the politics of eugenics by publishing the research which
concludes that low IQ levels, rather than poverty and disease, are the
reason why life expectancy is low and infant mortality high.

His paper, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, compares
IQ scores with indicators of ill health in 126 countries and claims that
nations at the top of the ill health league also have the lowest intelligence
ratings.

Paul Collins, a spokesman for War On Want, the international development
charity, said the research ‘runs the risk of resurrecting the racist

stereotype that Africans are responsible for their own plight, and may

reinforce prejudices that Africans are less intelligent’.

Collins added: ‘The notion that people in poor countries have inferior
intelligence has been disproved by much research in the past. This is
another example, which other academics will shoot down.’

“Eugenics”!

Philippa Atkinson, who chairs the LSE student union’s 85-strong Africa
Forum and teaches in the school’s Department of Government, said the
paper “reflects the now discredited theories of eugenics, which should
have been left behind.”

“Eugenics was a very influential discourse for centuries,” she said.
‘”It’s the discourse that colonialism and racism in America until the Sixties
were based on, and was part of the basis of apartheid too. Nobody could
prove that there are racial or national differences in IQ. It’s very,
very controversial to say that national IQ levels are low in Africa , and
completely unproven. It’s a surprise that the odd person would try to
bring it back,” she said.

However, she said the research contained some interesting ideas and
merited serious consideration, and stressed that academics such as
Kanazawa should not be deterred from exploring controversial subjects.

The reaction to Kanazawa ‘s paper will reopen the simmering debate
about whether academics are entitled to express opinions that many
people may find offensive.

The Observer revealed last March that Frank Ellis, a lecturer in Russian
and Slavonic studies at Leeds University , supported the Bell Curve
theory, which holds that black people are less intelligent than whites.
He backed the “humane” repatriation of ethnic minorities. Initially, the
university backed Ellis, despite protests by students and teaching staff,
but he took early retirement in July.

Cites work of other academics

Kanazawa declined to comment on either War on Want or Atkinson’s
allegations about reviving eugenics because, he said, other academics
had come up with the national IQ scores that underpinned his analysis
of 126 countries. In the paper he cites Ethiopia’s national IQ of 63, the
world’s lowest, and the fact that men and women are only expected to
live until their mid-40s as an example of his finding that intelligence is
the main determinant of someone’s health.

Having examined the effects of economic development and income
inequality on health, he was “surprised” to find that IQ had a much more
important impact, he said. “Poverty, lack of sanitation, clean water,
education and healthcare do not increase health and longevity, and nor
does economic development.”

The LSE declined to offer any opinion on Kanazawa ‘s conclusions but
defended his right to publish controversial research. A spokeswoman said:
“This is academic research by Dr Kanazawa based on empirical data and
published in a peer-reviewed journal. People may agree or disagree with
his findings and are at liberty to voice their opinions to him. The school
does not take any institutional view on the work of individual academics.”

Kate Raworth, a senior researcher with Oxfam, said it was “ridiculous” for
Kanazawa to blame ill health on low IQ and “very irresponsible” to reach
such conclusions using questionable and “fragile” international data on
national IQ levels.

Rumit Shah, chairman of the LSE student union’s 52-member Kenyan
Society, said lack of education was probably one reason why many
Kenyans die young. Aids, tuberculosis and malaria were key factors, too.

Kanazawa ‘s article was a “misrepresentation’ of the true causes of ill health
in Kenya , added Shah. “It portrays a bad picture of Kenya , because not
everyone in Kenya has an IQ of 72. If there was more education, Kenyans
would be wiser about their health.”