Competence is a relative concept. There was a time the British thought the Jews made lousy military material. In the last 70 years no one has defended that idea!

There was a time when it was assumed that African Americans would never be good at baseball (okay, I got that from the movie "Look who is coming to dinner").

There was a time when it was assumed the Japanese would never be a modern country, due to their Shinto beliefs.

There was a time that it was believed the Irish would always be a poor country because they were lazy and unintelligent. Today their per capita is much higher than that of the British.