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Current pseudo-science

urrent day pseudo-science continues to be popular and
infl uence policy-makers - It is important to point out in
Cthis history lesson that similar racist “scholarship” is
unfortunately alive and well today.

Charles Murray and Richard Hernstein in The Bell Curve:
Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. - 1990s
Bestseller. In the Bell Curve they say:

• The high rates of poverty that affl ict certain segments of
the population are determined more by intelligence than by
socioeconomic background.
• They call the poor the Cognitive Underclass
• They argue that the expanding inequities of our society,
wealth distribution, success in school, access to good jobs
are biologically determined.
• The Bell Curve naturalizes and excuses these inequities
and turns them into the inescapable symptoms of biologi-
cal class fate. Associating “cognitive underclass” with
every form of “frowned upon” social behavior from crime
to teenage motherhood. 14
The Bell Curve provided pseudo-scientifi c cover for
attacks on the poor and on people of color by declaring
that poverty and other social inequities were biologi-
cally determined.

Policy Impact

• Charles Murray worked for the Manhattan Insti-
tute, a conservative think tank, which supplied
many of Mayor Gulliani’s policies.
• This thinking justifi es harsh welfare reform poli-
cies, the criminalization of poverty - 2 million
people are in jail in the U.S. (1/4 of the world’s 8
million total)
• Argues that poverty is caused by genetic inferior-
ity.
• Restricts immigration, particularly of people of
color.
• Conservatives pushing welfare reform are push-
ing welfare mothers to be temporarily sterilized
with Norplant. Norplant, a temporary sterilization drug, employed racist stereo-
typing in their advertising – adopting the conservative message
that welfare mothers should be temporarily sterilized.

10 The Construction of Race & Racism The Construction of Race & Racism 11