Because You Commented

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

[Introduction: I am in a good mood this evening. After publishing this essay, I plan to check my e-mail and overdose on Star Trek (The Original Series). I appreciate you all my faithful readers. Sometimes, however, I wonder what do you see in me and my words? I am a nobody writer after hours and before the clock strikes midnight. I don’t have a fancy Master’s of Fine Arts degree. Nor do I offer racial trauma every night for your appetite. I am a small-town kid who left home and began a family anew beside the Pacific Ocean. When it comes to race, I am at my best when I leave my color consciousness switch turned off. What do you see in me?]

Where Are the High IQ Black People?

The Bell Curve painfully exposed the immense importance and effect of those with IQ's in the upper realm ( >130). That is the Top 2 % of the general population. The fact that only 0.84 % of that group is Black bodes ominously for their future success and advancement. This especially since IQ has been established to be 80% heredity-influenced ( vs. environmental).

See The Wilson Effect, Thomas Bouchard, Psych.

Also, see The 30 Million Word Gap, study which established that Upper Middle Class children hear 30 Million more words by age 3 than Welfare children, most of whom are Black. — Commentator David M. Anderson

My Appreciation

I appreciate those readers who engage my essays. We all are so very busy these days with multiple obligations and commitments. I know I am. It takes time from an otherwise full schedule to set fingers to keyboard and offer a thoughtful rumination. My heart is warmed and I thank you, David M. Anderson. If I might, I will use your comment as my centerprise for this evening’s creative expression. No one has all the answers to these questions. I can offer my unique insights based upon 63 years of living life in my family and eco-system. Maybe, just maybe, my remembrances will advance the discourse in this regard.

As always, I write free of dogma and slogan words. Always.

I Know Where the High IQ Black People Are

They call me Husband, Dad, and Son. I call them Uncle and Aunt too. I reach out to them at Thanksgiving dinner as young cousins. I walk into them as I am leaving my office for the day, an Ivy League graduate of Dartmouth. They text me and I feel guilty for not remaining in better touch as a friend due to…the Mexican Amy Winehouse (a long, long story). I see them twice a month and call them Michael. They are there in the wild, and in my home.

Of what pain do you write, David, when it comes to The Bell Curve? I do not cross paths with over 40 million black Americans every day, so at one level I do not feel the pain. I have arranged my intimate and personal life so that I am awash with High IQ Black People. In fact, and to be honest, I grew up this way in this ecosystem. Other than my Sister and Dad, I was surrounded by High IQ Black People growing up. That is no shade on my sister. She fell close to the intelligence mean for black people, most likely because she was born that way. My Mom and Dad treated us the same and created the same positive environment for us as youngsters. We knew all of the same positive influences of highly intelligent uncles and aunts and cousins and ancestors. My sister just came out differently.

When you write of the pain, are you thinking of the constrained and limited conversations of the mind with a sibling? The inability to process information at the same speed? To make the same creative connections over the course of a conversation? I can understand that kind of familiar pain.

David, you are probably looking at the pain from a macro level. That any group effectively excluded from the top 2% in IQ will be consigned to the margins in the competitive battle of life, right? “bodes ominously for their future success and advancement.” Several quick observations as my very black Yale, third generation Jack and Jill legacy wife just walked into the room…

Individuals

It is the individual that matters. Whether a group garners a High IQ on average like the Ashkenazi Jews or a lower Low IQ like black Americans tells us nothing about the individual. We live our lives as individuals. We experience our lives as individuals. We break bread with uncles and aunts at Grandma’s home after church as individuals. If nine out of ten of your blood kin are smart, one will not attribute IQ to a skin color or a race. This was my experience growing up. In fact, David, this realization of growing up at the knee of High IQ uncles and aunts saved me from prejudice and low expectations of others.

But, and this is the important pain you are divining, the overwhelming majority of black children lack the genius aunt, the brilliant enterprenurial uncle, the epic family founder remembered like a Viking hero around the campfire. The lack of High IQ role models in individual black families reinforces the pattern of low IQ expectations. That reality is painful indeed.

Personality and Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Even if you and I waved a magic wand and moved up the IQ level for Black Americans as a group from 85 to 105 or even 110 or 115, I don’t think much would change. I doubt we would witness the Golden Age in Black Culture and Consciousness we both wish to see. Here is why.

I had a conversation with someone this weekend. In fact, I was belittled and berated, so it was more like a tongue lashing than anything else. The individual is a blood relation. No surprise to me, the person has a High IQ. Her IQ is easily above 130. She was acepted into the Governor’s School for the Gifted and Talented. A difficult personality, she refused the opportunity because she did not want to work that hard. She was offered an opportunity to attend a New England boarding school tuition-free. Could not be bothered to fill out an application. Dropped out of college after the first year. Job prospects unclear. This black young woman in the top 2% of IQ suffers from oppositional defiant disorder. She defies authority and creates chaos.

A high IQ alone for this young woman will not usher in the success and advancement you speak of, David. One needs the blessings of the genetic lottery when it comes to personality. How Oppositional Defiant Disorder Ruptures Families The vast majority of the homeless on the street have oppositional defiant disorder.

80% Heredity Influenced

I tend to agree with you, David. Perhaps, there is a range from 60% to 80% but I am not going to quibble. I see the generational inheritence of high IQ in Black American families.

Some families have been swimming in the high IQ water for generations. Study them. Learn from them. I know a Black American family. Exhibit 1. All grandchildren — college educated or college bound, including Stanford and Yale. Two daughters Ivy League, One daughter Salutatorian of her college class. Mom — Two master’s degrees. Dad- High native intelligence from all accounts, although uninterested in college. Paternal Grandfather — “Music Professor.” Maternal Grandfather — Business Administration degree and investing wizard. Maternal Grandmother — College Graduate. Greatgrandparents — High Judicial Clerk, Real Estate Investor, International Musician. Greatgreatgrand parents — Member of Congress, Professor. Greatgreatgreatgrandparents — Wealthy landowners. These positions highly correlate, I would suggest, with a high IQ over generations. Rather than bemoan the many who fall short in IQ, learn what elevates working high IQ over six generations in a Black American family. Is there something in the water or is assortive mating the missing piece of the puzzle?

Environment doesn’t get us very far since these generations have been around and striving at an elevated level since 1790. That means Slavery, Reconstruction, Redemption, the Great Migration to the North, the Civil Rights Movement, Affirmative Action, Today.

Exhibit 2 would be the Houston family of Washington, DC. There were at least three generations of black lawyers since the 1890s. How did that happen? What was the reason? Did the Houston men make wise choices in marriage over the course of a century? Study them and maybe solve the high IQ problem.

Exhibit 3 would be the Robinson family of Richmond, Virginia. I don’t have the IQ numbers but I sense the Robinsons were traveling at a high IQ level over the course of four generations. There was great grandfather Spottswood W. Robinson who just upped and walked off the plantation one day. He was better than slavery. That is a high IQ move with great risk. He founded a successful saloon in Richmond. There was grandfather Spottswood W. Robinson, Jr., a law professor and real estate lawyer in Richmond. That level of professional achievement is consistent with a high IQ. There is father, Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Spottswood W. Robinson, III. Spottswood III would earn the highest grade point average in the history of Howard Law School and serve as a Dean of Howard Law School. Clearly, a high IQ father. Finally, the legacy greatgrandson Spottswood W. Robinson, IV, a graduate of Howard Law School and a former Richmond lawyer.

A consistent inheritance of high IQ in a Black American family over four generations, I would suggest.

Exhibit 4 would be the Wilkins’ family of Chicago. Every generation over a century blessed with high cognitive ability:

J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr. (1894 - 1959) The son of a Missouri Baptist preacher, J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr. studied mathematics in college and was tapped for Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Chicago. A lawyer and labor leader, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Wilkins, Sr. Undersecretary of Labor for Labor Affairs. He was the first black to attend Cabinet meetings.

J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. (1923 - 2011) A child prodigy, Wilkins Jr. attended the University of Chicago at the age of 13. He was the youngest student in the history of the University. A nuclear scientist, a mechanical engineer and mathematician, Wilkins Jr. worked on the Manhattan Project and served as President of the American Nuclear Society in 1974.

Julian Wilkins Son of J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr. and brother of J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr., Julian Wilkins became the first black partner at a major law firm in Chicago in 1971.

David B. Wilkins (1956 - ) Son of Julian Wilkins and Grandson of J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr., David Wilkins pretty much achieved all the honors Harvard can bestow. He graduated from Harvard College with honors and Harvard Law School with honors where he served on the Law Review. David clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall before returning to teach at Harvard Law School where David is now a tenured law professor.

Timothy Wilkins (1964 - ) Brother of Harvard Law School Professor David S. Wilkins, son of major law firm partner Julian Wilkins and grandson of Undersecretary for Labor J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr., Timothy graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1986 and received a JD/MBA from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He is a partner in a major law firm.

Conclusion: I wrote about where are the High IQ Black People from afar. In my personal life, I never associated High IQ with a race or skin color. I was blessed. When I met my future wife for the first time, she had to check three boxes. She had to be attractive to me. She had to have a family. And, above all these things, she had to be smart. I had vowed to marry a Yalie/smile.

Tonight, I know someone who is walking on the edge of love. All I could say was (1) she’s smart and (2) she fits well within our family. Ironically, these criteria set me apart from all Black Americans except for the 0.84% as you note. Could this be the real unspoken pain beneath The Bell Curve? That to live an intellectual life full measure means one observes others of one’s racial group from so far away?

I leave you with musings about High IQ Black Americans and Jack and Jill:

“Beginning with an intensive children’s mentoring program they call “Jack and Jill,” these families constantly expose their children to black role models who are doctors, lawyers, dentists and so on – they are not allowed to become entertainers or sportsmen and are never exposed to any such “role models” no matter how rich they are. These children then qualify to very good universities before proceeding to elite professions that demand a pretty high IQ while also paying very well. They use their wealth from these professions to continue supporting the activities of Jack and Jill and their own adult versions of the elite children’s group!

The writer of the book was himself a product of this enduring “secret” project and his family is a classic example of this defiance of Jensenian regression to the supposed black mean: he went to Princeton and Harvard Law School while his only sibling, Richard, went to Tufts and became an orthodontist who set up his own successful dental practice in North Carolina.

The book attracted a lot of controversy and some opprobrium because of the embarrassment that some of these black families felt when this exposé was published, especially for their disdain for “mainstream” black culture. The writer was only half apologetic.”

And one more thing, David — rest assured young children in Jack and Jill grew up hearing millions of words just like other Upper Middle Class kids. The first book I read to my first baby at home by the fireplace was American Constitutional Law by Laurence Tribe. Thank you for your comment.

Good evening!