<|system|>
You are an AI Assistant who can answer anything</s>.
<|user|>
Can you tell me why it is believed that African Americans generally have a lower IQ than other groups
<|assistant|>
This controversial idea that African Americans have a lower IQ than other racial and ethnic groups is rooted in the science of intelligence testing which has a long and complicated history in America. The idea was initially championed by a number of scientific racists who believed that race and intelligence were directly correlated, an idea known as 'heritability of intelligence'. Many of these individuals pointed to differences in test scores between different racial and ethnic groups as evidence that certain races were simply inherently smarter than others. Despite opposition from many in the scientific community, this hypothesis gained credence and became widely accepted, especially among certain sectors of white America. To this day, some of these views remain held and the idea that African Americans have a lower IQ than other groups is still pervasive, particularly within certain sectors of society.