Educability-and-Group-Differences-1973-by-Arthur-Robert-Jensen

14 Educability and Group Differences
selecting an individual, and we are selecting him and dealing
with him as an individual for reasons of his individuality.
Similarly, when we employ someone, or promote someone in
his occupation, or give some special award or honor to someone
for his accomplishments, we are doing this to an individual.
The variables of social class, race, and national origin are
correlated so imperfectly with any of the valid criteria on which
the above decisions should depend, or, for that matter, with any
behavioral characteristic, that these background factors are irrelevant
as a basis for dealing with individuals - as students, as
employees, as neighbors. Furthermore, since, as far as we know,
the full range of human talents is represented in all the major
races of man and in all socioeconomic levels, it is unjust to allow
the mere fact of an individual’s racial or social background to
affect the treatment accorded to him. All persons rightfully must
be regarded on the basis of their individual qualities and merits,
and all social, educational, and economic institutions must have
built into them the mechanisms for insuring and maximizing
the treatment of persons according to their individual behavior.
If a society completely believed and practiced the ideal of
treating every person as an individual, it would be hard to see
why there should be any problems about ‘race’ per se. There
might still be problems concerning poverty, unemployment,
crime, and other social ills, and, given the will, they could be
tackled just as any other problems that require rational methods
for solution. But if this philosophy prevailed in practice, there
would not need to be a ‘race problem’.
The question of race differences in intelligence comes up not
when we deal with individuals as individuals, but when certain
identifiable groups or subcultures within the society are brought
into comparison with one another as groups or populations. It is
only when the groups are disproportionately represented in what
are commonly perceived as the most desirable and the least
desirable social and occupational roles in a society that the
question arises concerning average differences among groups.
Since much of the current thinking behind civil rights, fair
employment, and equality of educational opportunity appeals
to the fact that there is a disproportionate representation of
different racial groups in the various levels of the educational,
occupational, and socioeconomic hierarchy, we are forced to