On CNN, Racist Theorist is an Expert on Intelligence

On Oct. 11, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported on a new study by J. Philippe Rushton, a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario. Aside from his slightly bemused tone, Gupta introduced Rushton as he might any academic psychologist. The subject of the segment was a controversial piece of research conducted by Rushton purporting to show that males, on average, are smarter than women.

It was hardly the first time Rushton argued for the superiority of certain groups of people based on genes. Although you never would have known it from the treatment CNN afforded Rushton, the British expatriate is among the world's most notorious race scientists. He has been ridiculed and attacked as a racist by many leading scholars, including Stanford population biologist Mark Feldman, who described one of his main books as "laughable." University of Washington psychology professor David Barash wrote that "bad science and virulent racial prejudice drip like pus" from the same book.

Also unmentioned in Gupta's segment were Rushton's ties to the Pioneer Fund, which he has headed since 2002. Started in 1937 by textile magnate Wycliffe Draper, the Pioneeer Fund's original mandate was to pursue "race betterment" by promoting the genetic stock of those "deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the Constitution." Today, it funds extremely controversial studies of race and intelligence, as well as eugenics, the "science" of breeding superior human beings. Rushton himself has received over $1 million in Pioneer funds.

Rushton, who has been investigated for allegedly violating Canadian hate-speech laws, first courted infamy in 1989 when he published work focusing on the sexual characteristics of different races. His findings: Blacks have larger genitals, breasts and buttocks--characteristics that Rushton alleges have an inverse relationship to brain size and, thus, intelligence.

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=707

Wow, so THAT's my problem. :dunce:

I mean mine's pretty flat, big yes, but I have to wear a belt.

Maybe there is great significance to if you wear a belt or not?! I say, in the name of science, bend over yonder and let me get a good look! :evilgrin:

Lots of "documentary evidence" that revolves around one "Lexington Steele" to back up his thesis. Especially pictures.

Especially pictures. ;-)

I am already making some inferences about Dr. Rushton. :eyes:

What a sexist, racist idiot.

also employs a rightwing joker named salim mansur, who spews his vomitus in the 'sun' chain. mansur is supposedly a muslim who sees everything bush inc does as a jaw dropper....years ago, a horrific story about U. of Western Ontario and polar bears: they soaked 3 bears in oil and threw them into freezing water to measure the ability of the bears to survive such things...the bears died. The story never got much play, as is usual....

Not much reliable info out there, but from what I can tell, the scientist in question, Nils Oritsland, was Norwegian, and in the late 70s (when the experiment in question seems to have been done, as it is cited to 1981) was at the University of Guelph. He appears to have made some valuable contributions to knowledge about polar bears as well.

Perhaps Snopes should sort it out.

As for Mansur: really, do most universities in the world, or at least the world of liberal democracies, have right-wingers on faculty?

I've never held any particular brief for the UWO, having left high school, and London, a year early at least partly to escape enrolment there myself (by going somewhere else first), but it isn't quite the great satan of academia.

he must be hung like a horse :crazy:

as a way to compensate for his own shortcomings.

...subjects to participate in this pseudo-scientific survey. After all he did get to measure the genitalia of over 2,200 subjects <1,100 male and 1,100 female>. I wonder how he was able to measure the brain size? Do you think he actually removed the brains of his subjects and weighed them?

What a total load of horse shit, these eugenicists never stop trying to pawn off this junk science on the population. Look at Condi Rice, she has no tits, no ass and I really doubt if her brain is any bigger than Dubya's brain.

in prestigious, referred journals.

While some/many/most of his conclusions are controversial, the scholarly literature does report an effect of genetics on various inheritable traits.

For example, Scientific American has an article “Unsettled Scores Has the black-white IQ gap narrowed?” in the January 2007 issue.

Of course, most of his articals are in the journal of which he happens to be editor-in-chief.

And then there's the Pioneer Fund.

The guy's a white supremacist.

I would have answered jody's post myself ... but I can't.

So hey, ditto.

from people who apologize for eugenicists.

naive reader would jump to such a conclusion.

research conclusions are valid or not?

The Scientific American link I gave above says:


What's the answer?

I don't know but I do believe such issues must be discussed because they have a major effect on public policy.

It's a pop science magazine.

Secondly, no. There's no scientific basis for white supremacy.

"I don't know but I do believe such issues must be discussed because they have a major effect on public policy."

I agree. White supremacists have no business making public policy.

it as a summary of different views on a controversial subject.

Let's say CNN brought on David Irving, the noted holocaust denier.

Would you cite David Irving's peer-reviewed history papers, and suggest that holocaust denial is a legitimate historical question?

Just different views on a controversial subject?

inheritance or supported by fact.

A well read person can only conclude that the scholarly community in his specialty is divided and I have no idea what the percentage split is.

If you deny that division, then I strongly suggest you study more about the issue raised in the OP.

Racism, and pseudointellectualism.

"A well read person can only conclude that the scholarly community in his specialty is divided and I have no idea what the percentage split is."

A well read person concludes that eugenics is a bad joke, and a pox on science and the scholarly community, and has been for the last eighty years. The percentage split? About 100/0.

"If you deny that division, then I strongly suggest you study more about the issue raised in the OP."

You know, I somebody told me the same thing just the other day. He was convinced there were plenty of scientists who still had doubts about global warming.

Suggest I study? What's on the suggested reading list? The bell curve?

The issue raised in the OP? The issue raised in the OP is that CNN's got white supremacists on.

Unfortunately the holocaust was the culmination of centuries during which Jews were persecuted by European countries, persecuted IMO because they dared to be different and they were very successful.

Subject to verification, I believe Rushton says Jews have a higher IQ than most other racial groups as they are most commonly used.

are people like Rushton, and the people who believe him.

of Jews over two millenniums.

On the other hand, perhaps you are using holocaust to refer to several million people other than Jews who died at the hands of Nazis.

asshole there.

Rushtons publications
Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2006). The totality of available evidence shows race-IQ gap still remains. Psychological Science, 17, 921-922.

Jackson, D. N., & Rushton, J. P. (2006). Males have greater g: Sex differences in general mental ability from 100,000 17- to 18-year-olds on the Scholastic Assessment Test. Intelligence, 34, 479-486.

Rushton, J. P. (2006). Book Review. Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 853-855.

Rushton, J. P. (2005). Ethnic nationalism, evolutionary psychology, and genetic similarity theory. Nations and Nationalism, 11, 489-507.

Rushton, J. P. (2005). Rasse, Evolution und Verhalten. Graz, Austria: Ares Verlag.

Rushton, J. P., & Bons, T. A. (2005). Mate choice and friendship in twins: Evidence for genetic similarity. Psychological Science, 16, 555-559.

Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2005). Thirty years of research on race differences in cognitive ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 11, 235-294.

(The above article was immediately followed by four commentaries and our response. The commentaries are by Robert J. Sternberg, Richard E. Nisbett, Linda S. Gottfredson, and Lisa Suzuki & Joshua Aronson, and our response is below.)

Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2005). Wanted: More race-realism, less moralistic fallacy. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 11, 328-336.

Rushton, J. P. (2004). Genetic and environmental contributions to prosocial attitudes: A twin study of social responsibility. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences, 271, 2583-2585.

Rushton, J. P. (2004). Placing intelligence into an evolutionary framework or how g fits into the r-K matrix of life history traits including longevity. Intelligence, 32, 321-328.

Rushton, J. P., Skuy, M., & Bons, T. A. (2004). Construct validity of Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices for African and non-African engineering students in South Africa. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 12, 220-229.

Rushton, J. P. (2003). The bigger bell curve: Intelligence, national achievement, and the global economy. . Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 367-372.

Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2003). African-White IQ differences from Zimbabwe on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised are mainly on the g factor. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 177-183.

Rushton, J. P., Skuy, M., & Fridjhon, P. (2003). Performance on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices by African, East Indian, and White engineering students in South Africa. Intelligence, 31, 123-137.

Rushton, J. P., & Rushton, E. W. (2003). Brain size, IQ, and racial-group differences: Evidence from musculo-skeletal traits. Intelligence, 31, 139-155.

Rushton, J. P. (2002). The Pioneer Fund and the scientific study of human differences. Albany Law Review, 66, 207-262.

Rushton, J. P. (2002). New evidence on Sir Cyril Burt: His 1964 speech to the Association of Educational Psychologists. Intelligence, 30, 555-567.

Rushton, J.P., & Whitney, G. (2002). Cross-national variation in violent crime rates: Race, r-K theory, and income. Population and Environment, 23, 501-511.

Skuy, M., Gewer, A., Osrin, Y., Khunou, D., Fridjhon, P. & Rushton, J. P. (2002). Effects of mediated learning experience on Raven’s Matrices scores of African and non-African university students in South Africa. Intelligence, 30, 221-237.

Rushton, J. P. (2001). A scientometric appreciation of H. J. Eysenck's contributions to psychology. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 17-39.

Rushton, J. P. (2000). Race, evolution, and behavior: A life-history perspective (3rd Edition). Port Huron, MI: Charles Darwin Research Institute.

Rushton, J. P. (2000). Race, evolution, and behavior: A life-history perspective (2nd special abridged edition). Port Huron, MI: Charles Darwin Research Institute. (English Internet edition; Chinese Internet edition; for other translations see the book's homepage: Charles Darwin Research.org)

Rushton, J. P. (1999). Ethnic differences in temperament. In Y. T. Lee, C. R. McCauley, & J. Draguns (Eds.), Personality and person perception across cultures (pp. 45-63). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Rushton, J. P. (1999). Secular gains in IQ not related to the g factor and inbreeding depression – unlike Black-White differences: A reply to Flynn. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 381-389.

Rushton, J. P. (1998). The “Jensen Effect” and the “Spearman-Jensen Hypothesis” of Black-White IQ differences. Intelligence, 26, 217-225.

Rushton, J. P. (1998). The new enemies of evolutionary science. Liberty, 11 (No. 4), pp. 31-35.

Rushton, J. P. (1997). Race, intelligence, and the brain: The errors and omissions of the ‘revised’ edition of S. J. Gould's The Mismeasure of Man (1996). Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 169-180.

Rushton, J. P. (1997). Cranial size and IQ in Asian Americans from birth to age seven. Intelligence, 25, 7-20.

Harris, J. A., Rushton, J. P., Hampson, E., & Jackson, D. N. (1996). Salivary testosterone and self-report aggressive and pro-social personality characteristics in men and women. Aggressive Behavior , 22 , 321-331.

Rushton, J. P., & Ankney, C. D. (1996). Brain size and cognitive ability: Correlations with age, sex, social class, and race. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review , 3 , 21-36.

Rushton, J. P., & Osborne, R. T. (1995). Genetic and environmental contributions to cranial capacity in Black and White adolescents. Intelligence , 20 , 1-13.

Rushton, J. P. (1992). Cranial capacity related to sex, rank, and race in a stratified random sample of 6,325 U.S. military personnel. Intelligence , 16 , 401-413.

Rushton, J. P. (1989). Genetic similarity, human altruism, and group selection (with commentaries and author's response). Behavioral and Brain Sciences , 12 , 503-559.

Rushton, J. P., Fulker, D. W., Neale, M. C., Nias, D. K. B., & Eysenck, H. J.(1986). Altruism and aggression: The heritability of individual differences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50 , 1192-1198.

Rushton, J. P., Brainerd, C. J., & Pressley, M. (1983). Behavioral development and construct validity: The principle of aggregation. Psychological Bulletin, 94 , 18-38.

Philippe Rushton. There's one we forgot to apologize for.

In UWO's favour, last year it awarded an honourary degree to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the tireless fighter for women's reproductive rights who did time for violating the abortion provision of the Criminal Code. UWO did this despite the offensive organized by the (ineffective) anti-choice brigade in Canada.

And to be fair to us poor Canadians, there's enough blame for him to go around. He was born in England (where he did his post-secondary education), reared in South Africa, and awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship by the US outfit in question.

And of course we also get to claim David Suzuki, one of Rushton's most outspoken adversaries.

I mean, he'd feel right at home.....RIGHT???

the fact that CNN gave this bozo a forum and lent him its credibility?

CNN. Credibility.

Eye of the beholder and all that!

That they have gone 'fox' is pretty obvious. Look for even more wacknuts on CNN then ever before. If that is possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_F._Ellis">Thomas F. Ellis was the director from 1973-1977. According to his wiki entry, he was Jesse Helms's 1972 campaign manager, and an important backer of Reagan in 1976. In 1982 he followed Tim LaHaye as the director of the powerful http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121170&page=1">Council for National Policy. He was http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0D71430F932A05754C0A961948260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fR%2fRepublican%20Party">co-chairman for Jack Kemp's 1988 presidential run, (compared to http://www.skepticfiles.org/socialis/bushnazi.htm">who GHWB had on his campaign that year, Ellis was a lightweight in this regard). In 1996, Ellis was also http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B14F73E5D0C718DDDAB0894DE494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fF%2fForbes%2c%20Steve">an "informal advisor" for Steve Forbes's presidential run.

Another fellow researcher at the Pioneer Fund was British "racialist" and eugenics advocate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Pearson">Roger Pearson. Pearson started the neo-Nazi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_League_%28neo-Nazi%29">"Northern League" in the UK in 1958. He was brought to the US in 1965 by Willis Carto, who founded the anti-semitic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Lobby">Liberty Lobby. In 1977 Pearson joined the editorial board of the Heritage Foundation's publication Policy Review and it goes without saying how profoundly influential the Heritage Foundation was on the rise of the New Right and still is today.

From 1975-1980 he headed up the Council on American Affairs (CAA), which was the US branch of Reverend Moon's far-Right/neo-Nazi infested World Anti-Communist League (WACL). Pearson ran WACL itself from 1978-1979. After the WaPo did an expose on WACL's Nazi-connections, Pearson was forced to leave his position Policy Review, with several of his Heritage Foundation colleagues joining hte editorial advisory board of Pearson's Journal of Social and Economic Studies. This publication was heavily cited in The Bell Curve. There's some more interesting info on Pearson http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/047.html">here.

Be sure to pick up Russ Bellant's excellent books http://www.amazon.com/Coors-Connection-Philanthopy-Undermines-Democratic/dp/0896084167/sr=1-1/qid=1169160218/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2695951-3976711?ie=UTF8&s=books">The Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthopy Undermines Democratic Pluralism and http://www.amazon.com/Old-Nazis-Right-Republican-Party/dp/0896084183/ref=ed_oe_p/104-2695951-3976711">Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party: Domestic fascist networks and their effect on U.S. cold war politics for more on this and similar topics.

Happy reading! :-)