The Bell Curve

Abstract

As a critique of The Bell Curve, this article briefly explores ideas about intelligence, “race,” and the relationship of those ideas to the place of Blacks in America's political economy. The analysis examines the role of intellectuals in their respective periods in shaping knowledge about intelligence and race. The eugenics movement, including its leaders, and the relationship of their ideas to the political economy in the early 1900s will be explored as being particularly relevant for our understanding The Bell Curve in the present context. A sociology of knowledge framework will be employed to examine the changing roles of African Americans in the labor force and the ideas that seek to legitimize their changing roles, including their increasing “obsolescence” and declining need for their labor. Finally, the developments in our political economy that set the stage for a Charles Murray will be explored; this will include pointing out the direct relationship between The Bell Curve and current politics and policy.

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