Wouldn’t it be fair to say that getting out of the ‘hood is a symbol of higher intelligence? And just hanging around and wollowing in the filth, without making any effort to improve your lot, wouldn’t that be a sign of somewwhat lower intelligence?
As you can see from my handle, I’m a Midwesterner. In all three of the major Midwestern Jewish Frum communities, the frum lived in the ‘hood, were invaded by that element, and figured out how to rearrange their situation and not be impacted by it. Ask any Detroiter about Dexter, 12th Street, or Northwest. Ask a Clevelander about 105th Street, or a Chicagoan about Douglas Blvd-the West Side, South Shore, or Austin. We were there, the neighborhood tanked, so we moved and built a better neighborhood.
They, on the other hand, just live in it, and engage in the more and more of the behavior that causes it. Single parent home, gangster lifestyle, drug usage, dropping out of school . . . . So is the lower intelligence a result of those conditions, or possibly a cause?