Dear Mexican: I see lots of Mexican-Americans struggling in grade school and high school. Many Mexican-American activists claim it’s because they don’t speak English at home or the schools don’t teach them well. But I see lots of Asian-Americans in the same schools who do really well. Many of them also don’t speak English at home. The last time I went to a hospital, it seemed like Asians were 30% of all the doctors. I didn’t see a single Latino one. Why is it that one group consistently does better than the other? I don’t understand.
Gustavo Arellano replies: Dear Gabacho: Because Mexican students are stupid, while Asian students are geniuses—that’s what you and your ilk want to hear, right? This pregunta always busts me up, because no matter how many studies activists can offer examining the myths of model minorities and Mexican apathy toward academics—variables, educational background of parents, socioeconomic conditions of neighborhoods, the quality of schools blah blah blah—Know Nothings dismiss the facts. That’s not what they want to hear, and they don’t even care about solutions to the education gap. So I’ll just say it again to please ustedes: Mexican students are stupid, Asian students are geniuses. Happy? Of course you are! However, just because you wish something to be verdad doesn’t make it so—and if you don’t believe me, go see what happened to Mitt Romney’s dream of Mexicans self-deporting.
FROM THE COMMENTS:
Jim writes: The average IQ of Mestizos is not terribly different from the World average of about 90. However the psychometric evidence clearly shows that East Asian populations have average IQ’s roughly one standard deviation above the world average. Extensive IQ testing in countries like Japan and Korea substantiate average IQ levels of about 107-108. As for the average IQ of the Han it would be nice to have more data but clearly urban areas like Hong Kong and Shanghai have average IQ”s near 110.
People become very emotional about the differences in average cognitive level between different human populations but such emotionalism does not change the facts.
Barchester: “Strangely enough, the average Mexican’s intelligence is about 1 standard deviation below North Asians and Northern Europeans, which is a lot. This amazing fact explains why they do poorly on all international tests and why Mexicans have invented NO technology worth mentioning, or anything else for that matter.”
