The Los Angeles Times has a surprisingly well-written and balanced profile of Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending, two anthropologists who’ve theorized that Ashkenazi Jews’ higher scores on IQ tests may be genetic in origin — and may be linked to Ashkenazis’ higher rates of some genetic diseases, such as Tae-Sachs.
The quoted academics are for the most part reasonable; they think the theory is plausible or implausible (not even the authors contend it’s anything like proven) on scientific grounds. But then there’s this:
“What are their theories about those on the opposite end of the spectrum?” asked Neil Risch, director of the Institute for Human Genetics at UC San Francisco, who finds the matter so offensive he can barely discuss it without raising his voice. “Do they have genetic theories about why Latinos and African Americans perform worse academically?”
That’s right. The director of the Institute for Human Genetics can’t stomach a theory about, um, human genetics.