High school science fair project questioning African American intelligence sparks outrage    Sacramento Bee .......Diana Lambert And Anita Chabria

Students, parents and staff at C.K. McClatchy High School are upset over a science fair project by a student in its elite magnet program that questioned whether certain races of people lack the intelligence to handle the program's academically challenging coursework.

Some of those outraged by the racially charged project say it points to a larger problem: the lack of ethnic diversity in the school's elite HISP program.

The project that started the controversy was titled "Race and IQ." It raised the hypothesis: "If the average IQs of blacks, Southeast Asians, and Hispanics are lower than the average IQs of non-Hispanic whites and Northeast Asians, then the racial disproportionality in (HISP) is justified."

The project was put on display with others on Monday afternoon to be judged by a team of community members as part of the fourth annual Mini Science Fair. It was removed Wednesday morning after students, parents and staff complained. The science fair was open to students and parents.

The controversial project also included a bibliography and quotes from five books, one a text from 1904 called "The Essential Kafir" that argued South African blacks were intellectually inferior to whites. The term "kaffir" has since evolved into a racial slur in South Africa, where it is sometimes referred to as the "k-word."

"I think that a lot of people, especially of color, are really hurt and upset by this," said Chrysanthe Vidal, a senior in the HISP program.

She said the student who prepared the report has a history of making racist remarks in class. He is described by peers as a boy of Asian descent and a participant in the accelerated Humanities and International Studies program, or HISP. The Sacramento Bee did not speak to the student and is not identifying the minor.

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