In the past, it was common to characterize different groups of people bluntly. For example, about the appearance of the dark-skinned African population, it could be said even in school textbooks that "the negro is black or brown in color, the hair is black and curly like sheep´s wool. The lips are strong, the nose is low and the teeth are crooked."
The characterization did not only concern people´s appearance, but also all kinds of claims were made about the nature of different races. For example someone could have said that "a negro never works if he only has enough to eat". Or "they are never angry, that´s why they are too cheerful. Our rowers also sing and talk from morning to night."
Today such characterizations are not scientifically justified nor acceptable. However, forbidden topics are not limited to words that sound stupid or to inaccurate generalizations, but for example scientific inquiry of mental differences between different human groups or people´s cultures are considered politically incorrect.
This is despite the fact that we know, for example, intelligence to be inherited quite similarly to height - and that there are hereditary differences in people´s heights between groups of people. Logically it would be concluded - if that was not politically incorrect - that intelligence differences between different groups of people are highly probable.
These thoughts came to my mind, when I was reading one of the recent news from Haiti. According to it, serious violence is taking place in the country due to increasing prizes of food. The situation was described as "a real battlefield. It is impossible to estimate how many people have died."
As you may remember, when Haiti became independent, a massacre of nearly all the remaining white men, women, children was conducted. In just three months several thousand whites were killed, including those who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population.
Thereafter, Haitians have had dominantly African ancestry. At the same time, the country is the poorest in the Western hemisphere, and - as now - suffers time after time from violence. Neither have we seen welfare states created by African people in Africa (although the Republic of South Africa has been able to keep and even increase its relatively high standard of living after whites stepped out from the power). The question not scientifically addressed is, that does the genetics or culture of Haitians as Afro-American have anything to do with their poverty?
Naturally I have no answer to that, but in my opinion it would be beneficial if such questions could be subjected to scientific inquiry. If it would be proven that people or culture of a country matters, that information could also be used in finding ways to minimize such an effect if negative. In contrast, refusing research on forbidden topics will only guarantee the continuation of people´s suffering in the future.
Previous thoughts on the same topic:
American black population more vulnerable to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2
World Resources Institute had an arrogant demand
Seeing sex developed novel cultures
