One of the most striking great contradictions in American society is that even as we valorize the importance of equality we spend a great deal of effort devising ways of demonstrating our essential inequality with each other. We are tested throughout our lives - starting at ever earlier ages in the public school system these days - so that we can be ranked against our fellow citizens in our democracy. This would be problematic enough (for a democracy depends upon its citizens believing that on a fundamental level we are all equal) if these tests were accurate. However, many people argue that all tests are culturally biased; that is to say all tests reflect the underlying cultural assumptions of the person who has created the test. This is true even when the person or people designing the test is trying to be fair: We cannot help but be influenced by our culture. The result of this fact is that those who come from different cultures will score less well on the tests because they will approach them from a different perspective - and difference in test-taking is equivalent to being wrong. It is because of subtle cultural biases that standardized tests, including IQ tests unfairly penalize those who are not white and middle-class. Others argue that while significant cultural differences might distort test findings (an illiterate peasant from Mali, for example, will obviously not do well on an exam written in English) in general IQ tests are constructed so that they can fairly assess intelligence of (for example) anyone who has grown up in the United States and can read English.
Ogbu (in Greenfield & Cocking, 1994) is among the many scholars who argues that IQ tests and similar tests of general intelligence are flawed when used with minority groups (either minority groups living inside the United States such as African-Americans or other Western nations or entire minority populations, such as Sub-Saharan Africans) because he believes tha...