Is Genius Genetic, or Environmental?  

Do grat minds think alike? People with very high IQ's are unique and usually in a class by themselves. The highest IQ's recorded Goethe and Swedenborg both with IQ's over 210. Geniuses are also for the most part a product of their times. Most have to have an environment with which to grow and flourish. They cant always be under stress or have an extra burden.

With that in mind, a genius list must be taken in context. For instance some one who born a slave or into severe oppression probably never got an opportunity to expand their horizons and grow intellectually. While thinkers like Ben Franklin and Shakesphere who relatively well to do at young ages with conformative social settings which would have been very conducive to research and learning.

The African slave community would have had a hard time producing geniuses. Slaves were under constant oppression and degradation and had to use almost all their wits to just survive. It would have been very hard to produce genius under those circumstances.

However there have some descendents of slaves who rose up and showed their intellectual capacity. One the most famous thinkers of the 20 century was W.E. B Dubois, who wrote some 100 books and help found what became the NAACP. Paul Robeson despite constant harassment and discrimination was a All American football player, and Phi Beta Kappa at Rutgers and went to become a Rhodes Scholar and well known actor and activist. George Washinton Carver despite being brought up during a harsh reconstruction one the greatest scientist of all time, Manipulating the peanut into many new uses.

For genius to flourish there must be a combination of good genetics and a stable and nurturing environment except in the most extreme cases. Of course in some casesa part of their genius is overcoming the obstacles to bring their genius out. The descendents of African slaves were able to overcome their circumstances and rise to their destiny. Barack Obama is the epitomy of that destiny.