Where Arthur Jensen got his "science" from - Robert E. Kuttner and his race extremist gang

From the ISIR 2012
conference program

Arthur Jensen is the guiding light along with J. Phillip Rushton of the International Society for Intelligence Research. The ISIR was very sad when they both died in 2012.

Jensen is even more important to the ISIR than Rushton, since the ISIR has been led by one of the most devoted of Jensen's disciples, Richard Haier and a closely allied organization, the Institute of Mental Chronometry was founded by Jensen.

John Jackson has an excellent study of Jensen's "science" at his blog. 

He points out that in Jensen's most famous race pseudoscience paper, How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement? Jensen wrote:

This is practically axiomatic, according to the geneticists with whom I have spoken…. Races are more technically viewed by geneticists as populations having different distributions of gene frequencies. These genetic differences are manifested in virtually every anatomical, physiological, and biochemical comparison one can make between representative samples of identifiable racial groups (Kuttner, 1967). (p. 80)

Jensen simply moves from a socially defined “race” like “black” to the claim that they are the same as a genetic population. He knows this because of “geneticists with whom I have spoken.” Which geneticists? He provides us with a citation with to (Kuttner, 1967). 

The citation is from an article, "Biochemical Anthropology" written by Kuttner, which was included in a book, Race and modern science. A collection of essays by biologists, anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists which was edited by Kuttner.

In the article Kuttner appears to think that measuring bodily fluids in a variety of groups will somehow provide a racial taxonomy:

"Race taxonomies in the past depended almost exclusively on the descriptive anatomy of skin and bone... The body contains many thousands of substances, some of which most certainly vary in quantity or type with ethnic identity. In this light it is regrettable to note how rarely until recent years tissue or blood studies were employed in anthropological research. (pages 197-198)

But Kuttner doesn't need thousands of substances because he has already determined racial classification in advance: on page 207 he refers to "three major races" identified as Caucasian, Negro and Asiatic Mongol. 

But throughout the article he makes observations of seemingly randomly-selected populations of uncertain identity and widely-diverging scope, much as with the work of Daniel G. Freedman. 

(E. O. Wilson cited Freedman's work in "On Human Nature," the book that followed "Sociobiology" and was written to defend Wilson's race pseudoscience claims.)

For example on page 211 Kuttner writes:

Further investigation revealed that American Indians of Sioux linguistic stock had elevated pepsinogen with an average of 30 percent greater than Caucasians...

So one group is "American Indians" who speak Sioux. He compares this tiny population to "Caucasians," one of the "three major races." 

He doesn't define who exactly counts as Caucasian and he sometimes uses the term "white" as a synonym. He identifies two sub-groups of Caucasians, "Europeans" and "White Americans" but there's no reason given for why he makes the distinction:

Plasma cholesterol values for Europeans and White Americans may range from 50 to 100 percent higher than for non-Caucasians inhabiting backward areas. (page 202)

So not only different "races" but "inhabiting backward areas" versus, presumably Caucasians inhabiting non-backward areas.

Kuttner does not seem to understand the concept of "controls." 

By the end of the article, he all but admits that he has proven nothing, but he's hopeful for the future:

It has not been the intention of this review to do more than sketch in the horizon. The task of introducing a dynamic new science is not difficult but to summarize it defeats the best efforts of any reviewer. It may be sufficient to say that in terms of new discoveries to come, biochemical anthropology promises to be an extremely stimulating contributor to our knowledge of human biology.

And this is the basis of Arthur Jensen's claim for "gene frequencies."

The collection of essays, "Race and modern science. A collection of essays by biologists, anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists", which appears to be the foundation of Jensen's racialist views, is written by racists, fascists and Nazis:

• Bertil Lundman served on the executive committee of the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics, an organisation that promoted eugenics and segregation, and the first publisher of Mankind Quarterly.

• Jan Czekanowski - "In the context of the racial theories of his time which have since been disproved by modern genetics,[2] Czekanowski classified Europeans into four pure races. The four pure races were the Nordic, Mediterranean (Ibero-Insular), Lapponoid and Armenoid."

• J. D. J. Hofmeyr - "Soon after its launch in 1960, Hofmeyr joined the international advisory board of the Mankind Quarterly, a pugnacious journal conceived by right­wing intellectuals as a reaction against the liberal anti­racism of postwar anthropology in the United States and Britain. Through the networks of The Mankind Quarterly, and with the support of Pretoria University, Hofmeyr became closely involved in promoting a profoundly racialised view of human genetics geared to the defence of high apartheid."

• Ilse Schwidetzky, worked with Nazis, published Racial Psychology in Mankind Quarterly.

• Luigi Gedda, far-right Italian politician and eugenicist, one of the founders of Mankind Quarterly.

• David C. Rife wrote in Mankind Quarterly in his review of Carlton Coon's The Origin of Races that the book was "a new milestone in our knowledge of the evolution of men. It should be on n the book shelves of all scientists, as well as of others who are interested in the history of mankind. It is undoubtedly being viewed with serious concern by the advocates ages of egalitarian nonsense."

• C. D. Darlington - "Asked by a reporter for The Sunday Times whether or not he was a racist for this connection to John Baker, who believed that no civilizations had ever arisen in Africa, all "negrids" had a "fetid smell" and were "less evolved,"[11] Darlington replied: "Well, I'm regarded as one by everyone except the Jews, who are racist, and who utterly agree with my views."

• Corrado Gini - "Focusing on the problem of the degeneration of the Italian race, Gini had a tremendous influence on Benito Mussolini's (1883-1945) political campaign, and shaped Italian social sciences for almost two decades. He was also a committed racist, as documented by a series of indisputable statements from the primary literature. All these findings place Gini in a linking position among early Italian eugenics, Fascism and official state racism."

• A. James Gregor - "In 1959, Gregor joined with Robert E. Kuttner to found the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE), where Gregor acted as secretary. According to Gregor, the organization was founded to restore "an intellectual climate in the U.S., and throughout the Western World, which would permit a free and open discussion of racial ... problems." The organization was funded by segregationist Wickliffe Draper to oppose the civil rights movement.[4] As part of this group, Gregor was also an assistant editor of, and contributor to, Mankind Quarterly, the organization's journal."

• George A. Lundberg argued in Mankind Quarterly for the right to discriminate.

• Friedrich Keiter - Nazi anthropologist

• Frank C. J. McGurk - American racist employed by various academic establishments like Villanova University

• R. Travis Osborne - pro-segregationist, director of the Pioneer Fund and was one of 52 signatories of Mainstream Science on Intelligence, a public statement written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal as a response to what the authors viewed as the inaccurate and misleading reports made by the media regarding academic consensus on the results of intelligence research in the wake of the appearance of The Bell Curve earlier the same year.

Several of the 52 signatories, including Gottfredson, went on to become prominent members of the International Society for Intelligence Research. Mainstream Science is posted to the ISIR website and called a "classic."

When Kuttner wasn't trying and failing to demonstrate a scientific underpinning for traditional race classifications, he was succeeding at being an extreme racist.

From Kuttner's Wikipedia entry:

Kuttner opposed miscegenation and believed it was "unnatural", only found amongst zoo animals.[2] He described his own position as "scientific racism". He identified as a Nordicist and argued against racial equality.[1] Kuttner stated that Negroes were racially inferior, they had failed to build and create civilization and they lacked intelligence.[1] He testified in Congress to oppose school integration.[3] Anthropologist Robert Sussman described Kuttner as a "lifelong neo-Nazi".[2]

Kuttner collaborated on racial ideas about "biopolitics" with Eustace Mullins.[1] He wrote for Roger Pearson's Northern World, the floundering The American Mercury and was an editor of the Mankind Quarterly. He edited the essay collection Race and Modern Science in response to the 1967 document Statement on Race and Racial Prejudice issued by UNESCO. Race and Modern Science was negatively reviewed by Sherwood Washburn, who described it as a "useful source book for racists. Anthropologists need not bother with it."[4] 

From neo-Nazi to Arthur Jensen to the International Society for Intelligence Research. Of course the ISIR has many many other racist and neo-Nazi contributors, but Jensen is the most important.