When someone uses a dog whistle, it emits a high-frequency sound that only dogs can hear. However, this method of hiding information in plain sight is not limited to dog trainers. In fact, people often use this tactic. For example, the sitting president, Donald Trump, has repeatedly called Black men and women “low IQ, stupid, dumb” or “dummy,” according to a Washington Post report. Instead of debating policy or legal issues, he personalized his attacks on individuals who disapproved of his candidacy and administration. He called Don Lemon, a journalist who criticized his leadership, the “dumbest man on television,” and claimed Omarosa Manigault Newman, his former advisor who wrote a tell-all book, was a “dummy.” He said Sunny Hostin, a co-host on The View, whose job is to share her opinion, is “one dumb woman.” Trump also took jabs at those in Congress, calling Rep. Maxine Waters, who supported his impeachment, “low-IQ,” and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who offered criticism of his performance in office, a “low-IQ person.” While these may seem like individual attacks, together they illustrate a pattern, albeit a flawed one, not a beautiful one like a quilt patched together, but a pattern, nonetheless. Insulting the intelligence of Black people is a dog whistle for racists.
Bayesian racism is an effort to rationalize discrimination against Black people or other marginalized groups. This is accomplished by endorsing stereotypes, such as the one that portrays Black people as intellectually inferior. In this way, white individuals can express racist attitudes by attacking an individual while denying the broader implications. In an email from cognitive scientist and AI researcher Joscha Bach sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2016, he proposed that “by genetic switch or other method you might be able to make blacks smarter by changing time for motor layer development.” While discussed in a scientific tone, this is no different from the pseudoscientific theories of the past, particularly those involving race. It’s concerning that someone who studies cognition would fall prey to racist stereotypes, given all the research debunking this myth. Ideally, those studying human behavior and how knowledge is acquired wouldn’t cling to falsehoods. However, racist attitudes remain prevalent in the modern era, even among white scholars and professionals. Before we go any further down this rabbit hole, let us pause to consider the concept of intelligence.
While intelligence is widely seen as a desirable trait, there’s significant scientific debate over what the term means. For example, the British psychologist Charles Spearman described general intelligence as an organism’s ability to “adjust itself to an increasingly complex environment.” A Romanian-born psychologist, David Wechsler, defined the construct as the “global capacity of a person to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment.” In 1983, American psychologist Howard Gardner proposed the theory of eight multiple intelligences, which included logical-mathematical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, and interpersonal intelligence — the ability to communicate and work well with others. Many theories attempt to describe what it means to be intelligent.
As any data scientist will tell you, there is no such thing as a perfectly valid or reliable theory or measurement. No matter how carefully they are constructed, they carry the same bias as those who constructed the instrument. This is so inescapable that scholars are encouraged to consider how bias affects the development of theories as well as psychometric instruments, even the most commonly used IQ tests. In a society that relies heavily upon white scientists’ definition of what it means to be intelligent, it should come as no surprise that there are racial disparities in performance on these measurements. Evidence also suggests that differences in these scores are misleading when gauging cognitive abilities. For instance, Mercer (1973) found that Black people whose IQ scores were “below 70 are more competent at routine tasks than whites with equivalent scores.” According to Crane, these findings showed “IQ tests are substantially biased against Blacks with low scores.”
In 1994, sociology professor Jonathan Crane noted “the belief that Blacks are genetically less intelligent than whites is surprisingly widespread among academics in relevant specialties.” Despite the abolition of slavery and the prohibition of racial segregation, this belief persisted well into the 21st century. But there was “no valid evidence to support that belief.” Crane’s study showed that environmental factors contributed to the gap between racial groups. Systemic racism, manifested in prejudicial laws and policies, has produced and maintained disparities. But there are still those who stubbornly believe Black people are intellectually inferior, and this prejudicial attitude causes harm. And the widespread endorsement of this stereotype has contributed to their being denied equal access to opportunities. This is the underlying premise behind the anti-diversity movement. The reason why some white people claim Black people “didn’t earn” their positions. While few will come out and say the quiet part out loud, those who assume someone is unqualified simply because of their race are buying into the myths of white supremacy and black inferiority. And they’re able to connect with like-minded individuals by using a dog whistle, referring to Black people as “low IQ.”
During my doctoral studies, I attended a colloquium where we were asked to discuss our research topics among students and faculty. My study focused on support and resistance to race-based affirmative action policies. A white professor responded that she was concerned Black students who benefited from these programs would be “in over their heads” if granted the same access to prestigious colleges as white students. While said with a sympathetic tone, the result of her belief dictating policy would be that Black students would continue to be denied opportunities at a significantly higher rate than white students. However, evidence contradicts her assumptions. Niu and Tienda (2010) found that while “Black and Hispanic enrollees arrive with lower average standardized test scores,” they “consistently performed as well or better in grades, first year persistence, and four-year graduation likelihood” compared to others. In other words, the notion that Black students are less capable of becoming high achievers is smoke and mirrors, not reality. Even those who are admitted to colleges with lower standardized test scores are as likely, if not more so, to complete their college programs. If the whole goal of these tests is to measure the likelihood of their success, then they are a poor measuring stick.
Given that Black students in America are more than twice as likely to attend underfunded schools, you wouldn’t expect both groups to perform equally. That would be like putting half a cup of sugar in a cake and expecting it to taste just as sweet as the one you put two cups of sugar in. According to the Learning Policy Institute, “a large and growing body of evidence shows that money, when spent equitably and effectively on key school resources, improves student outcomes and closes achievement and opportunity gaps.” As long as Americans run from this reality, that inequitable investment in black communities perpetuates inequitable outcomes, we will be trapped in this cycle. The truth is, Black people are called “low IQ” without any regard for the weak measurements used to determine who is intelligent, and they are taunted for having lower test scores than white students by those who overlook the clear social, economic, and political disadvantages they face. Under this context, calling Black people “low IQ” is more than teasing; it’s an effort to justify a racial hierarchy that affords white people access to opportunities, often at the expense of Black people and other racial minorities.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is republished with author's permission. Read more of Allison Gaines' work on Medium.