What would that tell Saletan and his colleagues like Jensen and Rushton? It should tell him that "hereditarians" might not understand the most basic notions of causality and omitted variables bias.

If these studies were really proof of racial difference, Saletan's arguments would be acceptable, but it is not, and they are not. First of all, only genetic data can be used to prove genetic differences, and skin phenotype is not a very informative source of genetic data, and race is the most enviromentally salient signifier ever. Second, studies by Harvard economists show that neighborhood effects can explain 100% of the gap between whites and blacks on income, high school graduation, and 2/3 of the higher propensity to be a single mother. Other studies (profiled at link) find that 1/3 of the high school achievement test score gap between races can be closed in just one year by equalizing the quality of teachers. These results would be impossible if genetics were the source of variation. Other research finds that early childhood intereventions matter a great deal in shaping the brain (another environmental cause), but even this can and had been overcome as the other studies show.

Can anyone write for Slate so long as they feign being an ideologue?

JTR, this is an excellent post. In just one example of faulty reasoning, Saletan fails to adequately address the reduction in the gap between black and white IQ scores over time. Saletan makes the classic correlation equals causation mistake in arguing that while IQ gaps between blacks and whites have shrunk, they have not shrunk significantly in the last 20-30 years. Here, Saletan ignores a large number of other important factors from the last 20-30 years that could easily account for the lack of continued improvement in IQ scores.