A few studies have purported to prove that with the right environmental stimuli Black children would develop IQs
similar to those of White and Asian children. The Milwaukee Project was the most famous of these, and inevitably it
attracted plentiful media coverage in its heyday. It was reported that through intensive early childhood intervention and
stimulation, underprivileged, slum-dwelling Black children had their IQs increased 30 points in comparison with the
control group.[101] The Washington Post wrote triumphantly that the project’s success “settled once and for all” the
question of whether kids of poor socioeconomic backgrounds are held back by environment or by heredity.
Unfortunately for the egalitarians, their euphoric media bubble burst when the Milwaukee Project’s director, Rick
Haber, was convicted and imprisoned for embezzling government money. While this is not directly relevant to the
results of the project, it does call into question the trustworthiness of its director. Howard L. Garber, longtime associate
of Haber, in 1988 issued a report on the project that revealed the IQ gains were artificial, having been achieved by
intensive practice on problems similar to those on the Stanford-Binet test, and that the kids’ IQs declined steadily after
leaving the program, with the gains never translating into academic success. Ultimately their abilities matched at the
same level as that of the control group, which, of course, had no intervention. [102] [103]
Herman Spitz, in his book The Raising of Intelligence, documents dozens of similar programs that failed miserably to
raise the IQ of Blacks. In their initial stages, the media gave them extensive coverage and rave reviews, but little
coverage of their ultimate failure. The pattern of publicity is identical to that under Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union.
Over the years there were many media blitzes proclaiming the remarkable success of various early intervention
programs. With embarrassing regularity the touted program was allowed to sink into quiet disrepute while the media
trumpeted the miraculous results of another new approach. [104] [105] [106]
Another example of media “proof” that Black-White differences are environmental is the coverage of the Chicago
Black teacher, Marva Collins. One of the most famous personalities in American education, Collins has gotten
extensive media coverage, including adulatory articles in The New York Times and sumptuous praise on the television
show 60 Minutes. She claimed that seemingly “unteachable” inner-city children between 5 and 10-years-old had soared
in standardized tests under her teaching methods and were reading and comprehending Tolstoy, Plato, and
Shakespeare. In spite of such incredible claims, the media never asked Collins for hard scientific evidence to
substantiate her assertions, nor has her “miracle” been successfully duplicated by any other psychologists and educators
in controlled studies. These kinds of miraculous stories, ever popular in the mass media, for good reason never find
their way into the scrutiny afforded by scientific journals.[107]
- From My Awakening by David Duke
