While a high IQ is often touted as a status symbol — a sign that the person who has it is amongst the most intelligent in the world — there’s actually a disparity, rooted in racism and white supremacy, in who earns a “genius-level” IQ ranking.

In 1998, Brookings released a report that explained how Black people — especially Black Americans — consistently score lower than white Americans on standardized IQ tests. While the gap has narrowed since 1970, “the typical American black still scores below 75 percent of American whites on almost every standardized test. This statistic does not imply, of course, that all blacks score below all whites. There is a lot of overlap between the two groups. Nonetheless, the test score gap is large enough to have significant social and economic consequences.”

So, when someone is certified as having a “high IQ,” it’s a good thing. But it’s even better if that “someone” is a Black man or woman, especially — according to Forbes — when a perceived low IQ is used by racists to claim the “innately lower intelligence” of Black people.

These Black men and women, however, have proven that they not only have a high IQ, but their IQs are — in some cases — higher than that of Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. Today, we salute these shining examples of Black excellence. More of this, please!

High IQ

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