I don’t know if the email you quoted (thanks for that, BTW, it’s a treat to have access to a primary source without needing to chase it down) is racist, but it does sound very ignorant to me. It makes unwarranted inferential leaps, e.g. from “skin and hair color are definitely genetic” to “some part of intelligence is genetic”, omitting the very different length of developmental chains leading from genes to pigmentation on the one hand, and intelligence on the other.
Let’s be careful here. The letter does not assert baldly that “some part of intelligence is genetic”. Rather, the letter asserts that some evidence “suggests to me that some part of intelligence is genetic”.
Furthermore, that particular inferential leap does not begin with the observation that “skin and hair color are definitely genetic”. Rather, the inferential leap begins with the claim that “Women tend to perform less well in math due at least in part to prenatal levels of testosterone, which also account for variations in mathematics performance within genders.” Therefore, at least with regards to that particular inference, it is not fair to criticize the author for “omitting the very different length of developmental chains leading from genes to pigmentation on the one hand, and intelligence on the other.”
[ETA: Of course, the inference that the author did make is itself open to criticism, just not the criticism that you made.]
I say all this as someone who considers Occam to be pretty firmly on the side of nongenetic explanations for the racial IQ gaps. But no progress in these kinds of discussions is possible without assiduous effort to avoid misrepresenting the other side’s reasoning.
Let’s be careful here. The letter does not assert baldly that “some part of intelligence is genetic”. Rather, the letter asserts that some evidence “suggests to me that some part of intelligence is genetic”.
Furthermore, that particular inferential leap does not begin with the observation that “skin and hair color are definitely genetic”. Rather, the inferential leap begins with the claim that “Women tend to perform less well in math due at least in part to prenatal levels of testosterone, which also account for variations in mathematics performance within genders.” Therefore, at least with regards to that particular inference, it is not fair to criticize the author for “omitting the very different length of developmental chains leading from genes to pigmentation on the one hand, and intelligence on the other.”
[ETA: Of course, the inference that the author did make is itself open to criticism, just not the criticism that you made.]
I say all this as someone who considers Occam to be pretty firmly on the side of nongenetic explanations for the racial IQ gaps. But no progress in these kinds of discussions is possible without assiduous effort to avoid misrepresenting the other side’s reasoning.