Out of curiosity what is the difference in average iq of an afirican vs an american or european?
It depends upon "who you ask to", litherally. Historically, answers range from none to a lot.
And is there any data to suggest a coralation between the average intelligence of a group and the intelligence of the group as a whole or the leaders of the group?
Once again, it depends upon who you ask to. Scientifically we don't have any satisfactory definition of what is and what is not intelligence. Scientificlaly, we don't even know if intelligence can be measured at all. It could be like measuring happiness -something too complex and subjective to be defined.
As a rule of thumb, people who will answer you is people who already think that there are differenes, that intelligence can be measured and compared as to confirm their previous assumption that caucasian male are superior... although scientifically, the most likely answer so far to "which human races there are" is: "one"...
--is average intelligence an intelligent way of ranking intelligence in groups?
Provided that intelligence tests just measure the abbility to perform intelligence tests, and that the abbility to perform intelligence tests is strongly culture-related, we don't have any evidence that "intelligence" as measured in "intelligence tests" is actually measuring any innate difference between individuals... let alone groups!
And if iq tests a culturally biased (what isn't) do africans make anti-european tests?
Intelligence tests are a white men's hobby... some blacks have made tests to show the superiority of black over white, but they learned that in the USA and from white men doing exactly the opposite...
See, intelligence tests were born in France. Their purpose was to identify children with learning handicaps so they could attend correction classes that stimulated their learning abbility. They were never supposed to measure anything, nor to rank the children from "best" to "worst"; just identify in advance the children who would need "mind gymnastics" (brain training) to keep the pace with their schoolmates. That was done and it worked greatly, and was the origin of what eventually would become special education once the stimulation techniques were applied too to patological cases.
The history of intelligence tests as a tool for discrimination and racism began in the USA, when a group of jingoists figured that those tests measured intelligence (wrong) and ranked people from best to worst (wrong) and so coudl be compared (wrong) in order to prove how "native" American, white, anglos-saxon, protestant, where superior to the "immigrants" (eastern and southern european, jew, and of course Irish). They succeded in their atempt and that led to the 1924 Immigration Act, which amongst other things ensured that millions of Jew would stay in Europe all the way to auschwitz...
You can read a detailed and devastating history about intelligence tests, their origin, their racist use and the deadly mistake that convicned serious scientists that they were really measuring intelligence, in this very interesting book: "The mismeasure of man", but Stephen Jay Gould. A MUST read to anyone who ever wondered wether IQ tests measure intelligence or just the abbility to perform IQ tests...
