THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410150240
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Marc Tibbs
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
How many times have you heard that drug dealers in black communities could be brilliant businessmen if only given the opportunity?
Or that black children can perform just as well, if not better, in school than white children when they eat breakfast every morning and get to bed at a reasonable hour?
It'll never happen, according to a recently published book, ``The Bell Curve,'' which maintains that whites are genetically superior to blacks when it comes to intelligence and that intelligence dictates one's station in life.
Authors Charles Murray, of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, and the late Harvard University professor Richard Herrnstein point to the genetic differences between whites and blacks as the main contributor to America's economic divide. Put simply, the smart get richer.
The book has sent sparks flying among scholars and social scientists alike.
Intelligence, the authors say, is genetic, and the proclivity of smart people to marry other smart people is widening the gap between society's haves and have-nots.
Blacks, on average, score 15 points lower on IQ tests than whites. Critics have argued that socioeconomic differences are to blame. But Murray and Herrnstein analyzed a vast number of intelligence studies and maintain that the racial differences persist even when the subjects are from the same economic background.
Blacks, some critics say, are less motivated to take intelligence and aptitude tests and therefore score lower. But again, Murray and Herrnstein point to other studies that show racial disparities in test scores even when motivational factors are nonexistent.
It's an alarming assertion, and given today's racial climate, one that could have far-reaching consequences.
Already, reviewers are condemning the book as more fodder in the racist cannon. Murray, whose most notable work to date is his 1984 book ``Losing Ground,'' has been pilloried as a racist of the worst order.
In ``Losing Ground,'' Murray characterized America's welfare system as doing more harm than good. ``Bell Curve'' expands on that theme by maintaining that poor families are doomed to inferiority and that, left to their own devices, they will only produce more mentally inferior offspring.
The book aims to prompt discussion about ``how to manipulate the fertility of people with high and low IQs.'' But it is a work rife with contradictions.
For example, East Asians score higher on intelligence tests than whites. But the authors don't call whites inferior. Jews score higher than any ethnic group. Yet, ``Bell Curve'' doesn't tout them as superior.
Perhaps the most telling fact isn't included in the book at all. It's a story from Murray's life as an adolescent in Newton, Iowa.
Along with a few of his friends, Murray burned a cross near the town's police station - an act he publicly regrets today. Murray was unavailable for an interview; his assistant, Jennifer Marshall, ventured this theory on why the young Murray performed such a hideous act:
``Just from knowing him, I'd say he probably just wanted to see the sparks fly,'' she said.
Sounds like ``The Bell Curve'' will give him an opportunity to do just that. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo of book cover
by CNB