Race And Culture: by Thomas Sowell.

Prior to the horrors exposed post wwii that were committed in the name of of a superior race and culture, it was not only assumed that the two were inextricably joined at the pale colours level but widely so practiced by the said pale colour populace in the world. Post the exposure of the logically correct (but horror at a humanitarian level of concerns of course) extreme of this practice in the camps run by nazis, this theory of race and culture superiority fell into a ditch of disrepute, where it was taboo to speak of this but only acceptable to attack a practice of this in the world when the practitioners were not actually of the races assumed superior due to the said pale set of colours.

A double standard emerged where a European ancestry was silently assumed to be superior in any case and was given a better treatment of every sort and at every level in the world, but the rest of the world was lumped together and admonished, wherever possible, about such assumptions and practices. Since the phrase "wherever possible" is of key importance here, a hierarchy emerged silently, with pale colours European ancestry at the top; Oriental (Chinese, Japanese chiefly) and Mid-oriental (Mediterraenean, west Asian, Central Asian - mainly Islamic) but also others (southeast Europe was low in world hierarchy, west and north being above) at the undefined middle, Africa excluding Egypt and other north African parts undoubtedly at the lowest rung, regions such as southeast Asia or Pacific islands or Caribbeans or natives of Americas and most Latin Americans either forgotten or used and forgotten - and India of course at the receiving end of an ever battering ram of accusations of inequality in various names, chiefly due a strong resistance to conversion without accompanying violence of the sort that would erupt if a conversionist faith attempts such practices and escalations of conversion in a land where another conversionist faith is the rule with options really not allowed.

During the era that this was happening, much of other parallel theory and practices came up, such as lack of rigour in education in name of liberal freedom with values scrapped in name of ideals of individual but really no real progress for individual student, resulting inevitably in low levels of literacy and accomplishments in public schools through US and a low regard for teachers, which in turn resulted in an exodus of intelligent and well read, well educated men and women from teaching profession unless they could quickly get a tenure in a university - well, who in their right minds would like to be at the receiving end of a battering ram of accusations and disrespect and occasional violence after giving a life to caring for young of other people unless they lacked any opportunity elsewhere!

All this did nothing to improve a racial equality, while the lowering of requirements in schools merely resulted in a bullies rule until it came to job market. Culture became a dubious word best limited to ballet, opera, classical music et al, playground of rich and hobby of intelligentsia, while masses stayed away happily and watched sports on television (tickets were easier for corporates and other rich) while drinking beer and eating chips and ordering more food from the kitchen as wives fumed silently - they were not allowed to join the male buddies on the couch as often as not, since loosening of discipline made a buddy goggling a wife possible without reprimand for him and sometimes a bad end for the wife.

Naturally, obesity followed resulting in a good thing for economy what with dieting industry, pills and so forth, surgery, gyms and spas to make up for the travails, a higher end for the well to do and other facilities for those that could afford that much. Walking to the market to shop has been not merely unfashionable but physically nearly impossible in US and increasingly elsewhere too last half a century or so. Some places have a pharmacy one can walk to, others not even that, so emergencies require driving as well. Unless one is ok with far more expensive alternatives.

While all this proliferated with the world generally aping cultures of races and nations of European ancestry, the politically correct stance was to give a mouthing to environment being all theory of culture and progress and opportunity, while in reality most downtrodden people of whatever race had little access to these vehicles of rising above poverty and other ills of the sort - and no possiblity was envisioned where culture, education, hygiene, knowledge et al were not necessarily associated to an abundance of all latest toys sold for profit, although it was right before everyone's eyes blinkered shut tightly.
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Truth is, the two factors of genome and environment do not battle necessarily, they co-operate as well, and affect one another in striving for evolution. Thus children of intelligent parents do inherit intelligence to varying degrees - since genome is complex and a guarantee would require a high level of intelligence in all relatives of ancestors of the baby - but an intelligent and educated mother enhances the level of intelligence of the child of an intelligent and educated father. This inheritance is true of many traits that can be learned in environment as well, such as hygiene practices or aspiration to knowledge.

But a confusion is made when race and culture or other facets of human achievement are linked in that it is assumed that such a link is necessarily racist, and this is due to the fact that an assumption of superiority of pale colouring races persists as much as one of superiority of European ancestry. This assumption is due to the simple fact of everyone being able to see a set of colouring inherited - blue or green eyes, red or yellow hair, pink or sallow or pale cheeks - while a perceived intelligence arouses animosity of the most vicious sort unless accompanied by the right set of colours and gender, preferably accompanied by European ancestry as well.

As a community interacts they swap and share genes, traits, habits, food, hygiene, information, likes and dislikes, knowledge, and more - forming a race simultaneously with an interlinked set of intangibles we name culture, and the two are interlinked. What is not seem immediately is that a visible similarity of two people does not immediately make for a similar level of intelligence or culture, since other factors affect everything as well, and there are different communities within every given race, sometimes stratified by money-defined class as in US, sometimes by social stratification by caste as in Europe (royalty, aristocracy, landed gentry, traders, professionals ...), and sometimes by a multitude of complex factors including a differently defined caste (based on ancestral set of professions and work, rather than monarch bestowed titles and lands as in Europe). And within a community which is usually a part of a race and not whole of it, culture and intelligence and other traits are as similar as they might be within a set of relatives gathered at a wedding.

Yes, there is a link - and yes, it is all affected by environment and vice versa as well, and genome is as affected by learning as vice versa - and it is not about pale colours up, monochrome down, sepia in between, with almond eyes an exotic over the next hill level. It is far more complex than that.

And this is true of gap across gender as well. Mothers affect children positively and daughters specially, and infant daughters of educated mother and an aspiring grandmother are known to be far more attached to books and learning and capable of dealing with electric wires than daughters of conventional mothers, while an ease about gender roles in environment and ancestry (the two are interlinked in a family of course) is known to have produced much beloved sons who are far more interested in playing with dolls than their sisters with storytelling of high complexity, going on to not literature for a career necessarily but to electrical engineering and finance.

Give the children all you can, let them have all you can of the good things others around can provide by example and teaching, and you help cultural evolution of humanity within your own little circle of race, community, family. It is only a little different from money - those that have money may lose it fast but culture slowly, and those that aspire to have either or both can, with generations doing better than ancestors. That is evolution.
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And while we are at it, poverty has as little to do with lack of culture, hygiene or learning and knowledge, let alone intelligence, as pale colourings do. Millennia of unwed priests has made Europe forget that learning need not be associated with riches, since poor had to toil for living and church personnel was given the leisure and almost monopoly over knowledge (inquisition being very useful in weeding out any counterexamples effectively for present and future by burning and fear respectively) while rich alone could indulge in bathing, clean clothes, and other time consuming activities that needed assurance of not needing to make a living. But then with Anglican church emerged a class that was both poor and educated, namely the Vicar's family, including daughters, who had to be exemplery in every way - hygiene, learning, clean clothes - and cultured as well. This however did not stop from the phrases like "unwashed poor" being exported to colonies, where observed facts might have contradicted the phrase (Braahman are and were always poor - until the opening of migration and subsequent IT revolution that included everybody who could - but nevertheless bound to set examples in learning and knowledge and hygiene by very definition of their status, and others are bound equally to follow within the boundaries of their work needs), if only the need to look down on the ruled never mind how superior they were in any field did not make blinding a need for the rulers.

Poverty is as unrelated to intelligence, culture, learning, hygiene and knowledge as are gender and colour of any body parts. Community one grows up within, including family and neighbourhood and school and relatives and nation, do form an essential part of contributing factors. Then it is up to oneself.