White Folks…Dumber Than Nigerians

[kalm]

A slightly dated article for sure, but facts is facts. Nigerians are smarter than the average white american. It's probably genetic.

Nigerian immigrants have the highest levels of education in this city and the nation, surpassing whites and Asians, according to Census data bolstered by an analysis of 13 annual Houston-area surveys conducted by Rice University.



Although they make up a tiny portion of the U.S. population, a whopping 17 percent of all Nigerians in this country held master's degrees while 4 percent had a doctorate, according to the 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, 37 percent had bachelor's degrees.


In comparison:
To put those numbers in perspective, 8 percent of the white population in the U.S. had master's degrees, according to the Census survey. And 1 percent held doctorates. About 19 percent of white residents had bachelor's degrees. Asians come closer to the Nigerians with 12 percent holding master's degrees and 3 percent having doctorates.
The Nigerian numbers are "strikingly high," said Roderick Harrison, demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that specializes in researching black issues. "There is no doubt that these are highly educated professionals who are probably working in the petrochemical, medical and business sectors in Houston."

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Data- ... 600808.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Having been there........I think this thread is going to be really funny

[kalm]

Having been there........I think this thread is going to be really funny

Nigeria or college?

[BlueHen86]

I'm not surprised, Nigeria is a nation of wealthy princes. Their banking system sucks, but on the plus side they keep Western Union is business.

[Chizzang]

Having been there........I think this thread is going to be really funny

Nigeria or college?

You crack me up... so...Can I select "neither" for Alphajazz

[JohnStOnge]

I don't know if I'd have guessed right if you'd asked me ahead of time but I don't think it's that surprising. As I understand it our country likes to "select" immigrants who are highly capable when it's able to see to it that they come here through the legal process. Nigeria's not right across the border so that Nigerians who want to come here can just wade across the river, jump over a fence, etc. They're probably way more likely to be required to be skilled and/or educated to get here.

Note: I wrote that before I read the entire article. If you read the article you will see an explanation and, though I was not entirely correct in my thought process above, it IS related to immigration law/policy. I also don't think I was entirely wrong in my thought process. I think that we are still dealing with a situation where there is a "selection" process by which the Nigerians we see here as immigrants are generally from the upper strata of the Nigerian population in terms of intelligence, etc.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Having been there........I think this thread is going to be really funny

Nigeria or college?

Both

[kalm]

I don't know if I'd have guessed right if you'd asked me ahead of time but I don't think it's that surprising. As I understand it our country likes to "select" immigrants who are highly capable when it's able to see to it that they come here through the legal process. Nigeria's not right across the border so that Nigerians who want to come here can just wade across the river, jump over a fence, etc. They're probably way more likely to be required to be skilled and/or educated to get here.

Note: I wrote that before I read the entire article. If you read the article you will see an explanation and, though I was not entirely correct in my thought process above, it IS related to immigration law/policy. I also don't think I was entirely wrong in my thought process. I think that we are still dealing with a situation where there is a "selection" process by which the Nigerians we see here as immigrants are generally from the upper strata of the Nigerian population in terms of intelligence, etc.

Oh. So it's socio-economic then?

[Chizzang]

Nigeria or college?

Both

So you went to college in Nigeria then right..?

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Both

So you went to college in Nigeria then right..?

No

[JohnStOnge]

Oh. So it's socio-economic then?

And biological, I think. That's the thing. I don't think socioeconomic status is independent of innate ability. I think that to a certain extent innate ability is a factor in socioeconomic status. There's no doubt that being from a better environment helps but at the same time I think that innate ability is to some extent inherited and you're more likely to be in a better environment if your parents have innate ability that you will to some extent inherit. It's always going to be hard to separate the effects.

I think that what we are seeing when we see Nigerian immigrants in the United States is, for the most part, part of the cream of the crop of Nigerians in terms of innate ability.

I did some Googling before I responded and didn't post on it but I think that if you were to look at the education level of Nigerians overall to Americans overall you'd find that the "average" educational attainment level of Americans overall is substantially higher. Very substantially higher. I also saw one site that put the average IQ of the Nigerian population at 67 (http://www.nationmaster.com/country-inf ... /education" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Also if you click on "Tertiary Enrollment Rate" on the page at that link it will take you to a page at http://www.nationmaster.com/country-inf ... enrollment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; where the United States is ranked #1 and Nigeria is ranked 116. What we're seeing here are cream of the crop people.

[BlueHen86]

Oh. So it's socio-economic then?

And biological, I think. That's the thing. I don't think socioeconomic status is independent of innate ability. I think that to a certain extent innate ability is a factor in socioeconomic status. There's no doubt that being from a better environment helps but at the same time I think that innate ability is to some extent inherited and you're more likely to be in a better environment if your parents have innate ability that you will to some extent inherit. It's always going to be hard to separate the effects.

I think that what we are seeing when we see Nigerian immigrants in the United States is, for the most part, part of the cream of the crop of Nigerians in terms of innate ability.

I did some Googling before I responded and didn't post on it but I think that if you were to look at the education level of Nigerians overall to Americans overall you'd find that the "average" educational attainment level of Americans overall is substantially higher. Very substantially higher. What we're seeing here are cream of the crop people.

Like I said, wealthy princes, the country is full of them. Wealthy princes and rich uncles, although I don't know how long that will last, they keep dying off.

[D1B]

And biological, I think. That's the thing. I don't think socioeconomic status is independent of innate ability. I think that to a certain extent innate ability is a factor in socioeconomic status. There's no doubt that being from a better environment helps but at the same time I think that innate ability is to some extent inherited and you're more likely to be in a better environment if your parents have innate ability that you will to some extent inherit. It's always going to be hard to separate the effects.

I think that what we are seeing when we see Nigerian immigrants in the United States is, for the most part, part of the cream of the crop of Nigerians in terms of innate ability.

I did some Googling before I responded and didn't post on it but I think that if you were to look at the education level of Nigerians overall to Americans overall you'd find that the "average" educational attainment level of Americans overall is substantially higher. Very substantially higher. What we're seeing here are cream of the crop people.

Like I said, wealthy princes, the country is full of them. Wealthy princes and rich uncles, although I don't know how long that will last, they keep dying off.

Let em die. According to the emails in my McAffe quarantine folder, I'll take in millions on their Life insurance policies.

[BlueHen86]

Like I said, wealthy princes, the country is full of them. Wealthy princes and rich uncles, although I don't know how long that will last, they keep dying off.

Let em die. According to the emails in my McAffe quarantine folder, I'll take in millions on their Life insurance policies.

I get the emails too. I noticed that they are getting better at spelling.

Maybe all the bad spellers are dying off first. Sounds like an interesting study for JSO. He can start by googling dead Nigerian spellers.

[Skjellyfetti]

I also saw one site that put the average IQ of the Nigerian population at 67 (http://www.nationmaster.com/country-inf ... /education" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

Talk about terrible methodology.

From the nationmaster link:

Average IQ of different countries according to the controversial book "IQ and the Wealth of Nations"

So... wiki'd "IQ and the Wealth of Nations"

Sounds slightly better than pulling numbers out of their asses... but, not by much.

Central to the book's thesis is a tabulation of what Lynn and Vanhanen believe to be the average IQs of the world's nations. Rather than do their own IQ studies, the authors average and adjust existing studies and use other methods to create estimates.

For 104 of the 185 nations, no studies were available. In those cases, the authors have used an estimated value by taking averages of the IQs of neighboring or comparable nations. For example, the authors arrived at a figure of 84 for El Salvador by averaging their calculations of 79 for Guatemala and 88 for Colombia. Including those estimated IQs, the correlation of IQ and GDP is 0.62.

To obtain a figure for South Africa, the authors averaged IQ studies done on different ethnic groups, resulting in a figure of 72. The figures for Colombia, Peru, and Singapore were arrived at in a similar manner.

In some cases, the IQ of a country is estimated by averaging the IQs of countries that are not actually neighbors of the country in question. For example, Kyrgyzstan's IQ is estimated by averaging the IQs of Iran and Turkey, neither of which is close to Kyrgyzstan—China, which is a geographic neighbor, is not counted as such by Lynn and Vanhanen. This is because ethnic background is assumed to be more important than proximity to other nations when determining national IQ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the ... of_Nations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Pwns]

JSO is basically correct. Just look at how educated US muslims are compared to other religious groups and to the US population at large. It's certainly not because predominately muslim countries are full of learned and high-achieving individuals.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... pbul5olCeA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;