It is important to note that measuring such a complex and intricate phenomenon as intelligence has always been a difficult and convoluted task. It has been further complicated by historically racist ideologies and pseudoscience of eugenics. Even if there were some statistically significant differences, one ought to evaluate the methodological bias and avoid using statistics to define an individual. Race and IQ can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for some students because it outlines expectations.
Intelligence is not a one-dimensional human attribute, which can be evaluated, compared, and measured through IQ alone since there is emotional intelligence as well as an example. In academics, race and IQ can become a self-fulfilling prophecy since the stereotype becomes ingrained into each student’s identity and societal expectations of him or her. For instance, a stereotypical claim that an Asian American student is good at math and academically more primed to succeed due to his or her IQ manifests in a lingering stereotypical social expectation. The latter puts a great deal of pressure on Asian American students to meet the expectations since he or she want to belong in how the surrounding social environment views him or her.
Similarly, a group carrying a stereotype of low IQ becomes defeatist, where neither encouragement nor expectation is provided. The controversy over race and IQ continues to resurface in the United States due to historic and systemic racism. In other words, racism still exists in the US primarily because of how the nation was established and developed by oppressing one group for the benefit of another. Some laws and policies still carry racist roots, which is true even in academics sustaining the controversy.