I have long wondered if lead poisoning might explain both high murder rates and lower average IQs among blacks. Lead poisoning causes violence and aggression and when children are poisoned, mental retardation. Since lead was removed from house paint in 1978, homes with leaded paint are automatically older homes, which means ghetto homes are high risk.
John Donohue some years ago claimed the decline in murder rates in the 1990s was because Roe v. Wade aborted a whole generation of black men, just in time to explain the fall in murder rates. Donohue's paper was a turd in a punchbowl. Pro-choice did not want to admit that murder was racially specific; conservatives were not interested in finding any silver lining in Roe.
Dr. Lott has argued that Donohue is mistaken because legal abortion was very common in many states commonly believed to be affected by Roe v. Wade. Some states actually had lower abortion rates after Roe.
Anyway, I am curious to see if there is a correlation between race and pre-1978 houses, especially before 1978. (Many blacks living in leaded housing in 1978 may not be today.)
I realize it would not be PC to find an environmental cause for two very destructive racial differences, and worse, a problem that we could fix in a generation, but you have to chase truth where it leads.
To my surprise, Mother Jones has published an article aimed at lead in gasoline
As you know, this is a very touchy subject. The Bell Curve is still lethal; scholars who touch on it often suffer the consequences. It is the "third rail."
ReplyDeleteEveryone is supposed to be tabula rasa, and everyone is supposed to be born with identical potential. To suggest that a group of people is different in any way except their skin color is considered outrageous and politically incorrect. Some racial groups are discriminated against; that is the *only acceptable reason* for them not to achieve at the same level as another group, and why so much effort is put into affirmative action to correct this problem.
Here is a worldwide distribution of IQ scores. It isn't broken down by race, but by area. It gives a pretty clear idea why no one has been able to uncover ancient cities with libraries full of scholarly scrolls in Africa. Lead in the paint or water does not account for Africans' lack of intellectual ability. It's not PC but I'll say it: it is hereditary.
https://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=2812
All modern dogs are descended from wolves. There is a huge difference between today's wolf and a chihuahua, but to suggest that human heredity has anything to do with intelligence is a no-no. It just can not be addressed.
Good luck with your study, but please be very careful. "Here there be dragons."
From what I have read, those two factors are fairly endemic to blacks worldwide, not just here in the US. Paint would just be an excuse. Could it be aggravating the condition? Possibly, but people would have to look for the baseline figures for blacks, and that would be problematic due to the PC factor.
ReplyDeleteThe average low IQ is pointed to as the reason that black run nations in Africa are uniformly disasters, with the same problems no matter what the economic situation may be.
A few more years, and South Africa will be indistinguishable from the rest of the mess that is Africa. Granted, the socialist/communist takeover has hastened the decline, so it is hard to point fingers precisely, but it is a lost cause there. Having a few bright ones driving the political scene just won't cut it, as the results there show.
The interesting question is why is it low, compared to others? So far, the leading thought is that since they stayed in the origin area, which was fairly rich in food, they didn't have to fight hard to live, and so never were forced to develop a smarter people. Interesting supposition. How do you prove it?
The coresponding question is whether any attempt was made to select US bound slaves for higher or lower IQ, either directly or indirectly? And, if so, how widespread might that effort have been? Because of PC effects, there may not be any answers available.
As far as the lead content of gasoline, IIRC, that type of lead is not a problem for humans. They demonized this back it the 70's to allow the use of catalytic convertors on cars, which the lead content would ruin. If it was a problem, that effect would have been seen in auto industry areas, and it never was. Until they started adding the crap, like CA does, to gasoline, it was common for mechanics to use it for cleaning purposes, including their hands. Not for a long time, now. Smog developed gasoline has become some really nasty stuff, and it now pollutes the ground with those additives. Clean the air, poison the ground water. All in the process of chasing the last little bit of smog. They are way past the point of diminishing returns on auto caused smog, but try telling a bureaucrat anything... F'ing idiots.
ReplyDeleteWill: Tetraethyl lead poisoning is widely documented: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673672912767/abstract
ReplyDeleteThe evidence of this was so clear the Reagan Administration speeded up the ban in the late 1980s, well past catalytic converters.
Eskyman: Lead poisoning might well explain lack of tabula rasa without an indication of genetic causes.
ReplyDeleteWill: Slaves were often in that state because of debt or being on the losing side of wars. There might be connection to IQ. Fixing lead exposure would be a worthwhile first attempt. Declining murder rates as lead has been removed makes sense for dropping violent crime rates. The real test will be if IQ differentials decline.
ReplyDeleteEskyman: That map is interesting but not sure where the data comes from. Which country's IQ score is the 100 from which the others are calculated?
Speculation: If there's a gene that makes people relatively immune to lead, that gene might be commoner in areas that have used lead the longest.
ReplyDeleteI have a relative who has her blood checked regularly for lead. But she didn't get it from lead paint (or leaded gasoline). Her occupation is making stain-glass windows which require large amounts of lead. She has problems but she is also incredibly functional and articulate (and she's well older then me who is over 50). This said I recently had the unfortunate pleasure of watching a young black man (no more then 21) verbalize Specialty (as in specialty coffee) as Spiceality. I truly doubt he had any lead in his blood.
ReplyDeleteClayton: The explanation is fairly simple. Historically, cities are population sinks, due to circumstances such as endemic disease. Survival and reproduction in cities is hard, and correlates with the abilities needed in a money economy and a society where texts and other abstracts can mean eating or starving.
ReplyDeleteThe culling can be brutal, and can take place in a few generations.
High-IQ populations have long histories of urbanization. Once the higher intelligence is developed, it persists and diffuses into the rural population.
Note that historically, when an ethnic group migrated to urban areas, they lived badly, in squalor and vice for a while, with high mortality. Then they got better. IMO, becaue the stupid ones had mostly died off.
Black Americans have the problem of arriving in urban areas after modern sanitation and construction and prosperity removed most of the dangers. One can live very badly, with minimal effect on mortality, compared to previous eras.
It appears that I was wrong regarding the effect of leaded gas on humans.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can't seem to figure out is how I came to the conclusion that neither the lead infused gasoline nor it's exhaust residue was harmful. My very vague recollection was that supposedly the particular form(s) of lead being used were not compatible with our bodies. Beyond that, it's a blank. Damned frustrating dealing with memory problems.
Anyway, this lead problem can be laid at the feet of GM. They ignored the health warnings of the Germans, where the process was invented, and found it easy to suborn enough medical/health professionals to push the acceptance of this on the public. This scam is very similar to how people have been pushing the "human caused glowbull warming" agenda. Throw enough money at some people, and you can convince them to ignore, or believe, almost anything.
http://www.lead.org.au/history_of_lead_poisoning_in_the_world.htm
Sorry Clayton, I've been unable to find the background data or methodology underlying that map.
ReplyDeleteI found lots of other maps, but few that gave the background or how they did their mapping; many links were 404'd or access was forbidden by Blogger.
Mostly I just searched using DuckDuckGo and search terms such as "IQ distribution by area/race" or variations on that theme. Hopefully you can do better than I've been able to!
As for the toxicity of the lead in gasoline, the grandfather of my friend was a mechanic and died of lead poisoning from cleaning his hands with leaded gas.
ReplyDelete