t tests. It also points to the fact that ethnicity by itself is not a good predictor of achievement. This is in line with mountains of evidence gathered over the last two decades which debunk the myth that race is correlated with intelligence. The horrors of World War II awoke the world to the reality that associating inferiority with a particular ’race’ can have dire consequences. More recent sociological investigations have questioned the entire notion of race. Race can be seen as a way of classifying a group of people based on physical traits that have been given a social meaning. It is a social construction used to maintain a hierarchy, which favours the dominant ‘race’. Having darker skin does not correlate with lower intellectual abilities but does correlate with lower socio-economic status. As we have seen low SES also correlates with ethnicity. It would suggest that the mere belief the visible minorities are intellectually inferior puts them at a socio-economic disadvantage, which leads to poorer intellectual development. In order to properly assess the variance in intelligence across humanity, we must first strip away some of the widely held myths about social groupings. It is extremely important to examine and deconstruct the social meaning behind existing groupings such as race, gender, and sexuality before we can properly asses what environmental factors contribute to the formation of human intelligence. Intelligence as a privilege There is no doubt that the people who demonstrate greater intellectual ability are accorded more freedoms and privileges in our World. As I have iterated intelligence is not a value-neutral concept and is subject to social construction. The first of these constructions is that particular types of intelligence are more valuable to human evolution. Scientist who posses high level of, what Gardner termed, logico-mathematical intelligence are accorded greater prestige while soc...
