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Certainly culture plays a role, but it's hard to argue that the reason a non-representative proportion of olympic runners are black is due to culture. http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2008/... really demonstrates this fact.

What that picture doesn't show, though, is that there are a lot of almost-world-class sprinters who are european, asian or of other ethnicities. The edge that being of a certain ethnic background gives you in sprinting is only really important at the very top of the competition. I'd imagine that for the majority of people, training and dedication make up a far larger component of their success or failure at sprinting.

Interestingly, in the article it indicated that genetics appeared to play a bigger role in the intelligence of wealthy people. I'd imagine this is a similar situation. Genetics may give you a slight edge at the very top of academia, but otherwise education is the key.

Education is the low hanging fruit in increasing overall intelligence.



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