Debunking The Bell Curve


The Bell Curve sets up several premises which together add up to an ugly policy for America posing as science. Here's how to kill it.

 
Average Intelligence
Of what use is understanding average intelligence, especially considering that Americans are so ignorant?
 
Ek Jaenicke Traces TBC's Racist Roots
All the way back to Nazi supporters. This anti-integrative movement with such stupid racist publications like Murray / Herrnstein's "The Bell Curve", published and financed by international right wing and neonazi connections...
 
Lane Singer Debunks TBC
On several quick points.
 
Claude Steele Evaluates 'Stereotype Threat'
When capable black college students fail to perform as well as their white counterparts, the explanation often has less to do with preparation or ability than with the threat of stereotypes about their capacity to succeed. Educators at Stanford who tested this hypothesis report their findings and propose solutions
Yesterday's Prejudice, Today's Science
It is not enough to call Herrnstein and Murray racists because they would think we have been goaded into fearing the power of their Truth. If we resist their racism, then we must prove them wrong.
 
James White Debunks TBC
In my continuing assault and relentless attack on "The Bell Curve" and the kind of pseudo science it represents, I will go over IQ tests, what they are and how they are conducted or should be conducted.
 
Randolph T. Holhut Challenges TBC
Challenging the Racist Science of "The Bell Curve" Murray and Herrnstein claimed that the IQs of blacks are 15 points lower than whites, a claim that most of the mainstream media has treated as fact. The book's presence tapped into the resurgence of overt racism in American society, and helped people back up their prejudices with ``scientific'' proof. It is no surprise that the Right has seized upon the book as justification for abolishing welfare and other social programs to the poor. After all - they say - if Latinos and blacks are genetically doomed to fail, why should we give them money? ...

Leon Kamin of Scientific American Debunks TBC

An extensive review of the book. "At long last, Herrnstein and Murray let it all hang out: "Affirmative action, in education and the workplace alike, is leaking a poison into the American soul." Having examined the American condition at the close of the 20th century, these two philosopher-kings conclude, "It is time for America once again to try living with inequality, as life is lived...." This kind of sentiment, I imagine, is what led "New York Times" columnist Bob Herbert to the conclusion that "The Bell Curve" "is just a genteel way of calling somebody a nigger." Herbert is right. The book has nothing to do with science."
 
Tim Beardsley of Scientific American Debunks TBC
Evaluates the right wing agenda of the authors. "A tendentious tome abuses science to promote far-right policies". Even though boosting IQ scores may be difficult and expensive, providing education can help individuals in other ways. That fact, not IQ scores, is what policy should be concerned with. "The Bell Curve's" fixation on IQ as the best statistical predictor of a life's fortunes is a myopic one. Science does not deny the benefits of a nurturing environment and a helping hand.

How Media Let The Bell Curve's Pseudo-Science Define the Agenda on Race

Anyone who flipped through the footnotes and bibliography of Murray and Herrnstein's book could see that there was something screwy about their sources. And there is hardly a proposition in their book that had not been thoroughly debunked more than a decade ago by Steven Jay Gould's classic work on the pseudo-science behind eugenics, The Mismeasure of Man.

So why is The Bell Curve suddenly an "important book" that needs to have cover stories, news broadcasts, even whole magazines devoted to it? In large part, because the book is well-timed to take advantage of a resurgence of racism in U.S. media and society--a racism that does not want to face up to its own identity.

In a proposal outlining the book, Murray wrote that there is "a huge number of well-meaning whites who fear that they are closet racists, and this book tells them they are not. It's going to make them feel better about things they already think but do not know how to say." (New York Times Magazine, 10/9/94) The Bell Curve does indeed tell closet racists that they aren't racist, and makes them feel better by saying that their prejudices are grounded in science. "