N ovember 9, 1994 - T he P ortland O bserver
P age A2
NATIONAL'
zyV
hades Murray’s book,
The Bell Curve, is the
latest, clearest and
most systematic book penning
and underpinning for an all-out
conservative and racist attack
on public policy. It is a new
book with an old theme - white
racial superiority.
l 1
C O A L IT IO N
Charles Murray is a political
conservative with long standing He
is also a racist o f the first order who
is setting the political climate for a
racist school of thought and action.
The release and massive coverage of
this book, and its premise, on the eve
o f an election, where conservatives
and racists are attempting to gain
control of the House and the Senate,
is inspiring like-minded followers.
This column does not use the
term racist casually or loosely. We
define racism in four basic ways, and
in a particular order: The first being
as a systematic philosophy that de­
fines one race as superior and anoth­
er race as inferior. In fact, Murray
says Asians are the most superior
race. The second, prejudice (prejudg­
ing individuals on the basis of group
stereotypes); the third, behavior (ac­
tions such as castrations and lynch­
ings); and the fourth, institutional
(where the legal, social, economic
Murrayism Is Racism
The Bell Curve Is Racism
and political structures produce rac­
ist results even though, to the casual
eye, it may appear to be the result of
'"neutral" or "natural" causes or de­
velopments) all flow and follow log­
ically and naturally from the first.
That is why Murray is a racist o f the
first order. Murrayism equals rac­
ism.
Murray’s not-so-subtle premise
is that both genes and environment
play a role in achievement and suc­
cess, but. according to him, genes are
primary and white genes are superior
to black genes. Therefore, successful
white society should neither feel
guilty about not helping, nor obligat­
ed to help, those below them - it is
simply their natural fate. This is sim­
ply the philosophical underpinning
of a conservative economic and rac­
ist public policy which affirms a do-
nothing government.
Murray ’s Bell Curve is neither
logically, biologically nor theologi­
cally sound. Murray’s “white logic”
leads to the following illogic: “While
on the one hand,” he says “Black
people are inherently intellectually
inferior; on the other, these intellec­
tually inferior blacks are taking ad­
vantage o f intellectually superior
whites by taking their slots in school
and at work because o f government-
mandated affirmative action pro­
grams; and by taking their political
slots because o f the Voting Rights
Act."
In other words, the rationaliza­
tion is that "these intellectually supe­
rior white people (with economic
and political power), have written
laws against themselves in favor of
intellectually inferior blacks (with­
out economic and political power),
that have put themselves out of edu­
cation, jobs and political power.” If
true, such actions would hardly be
reflective o f intellectual superiority .
South Africa devised a form o f de­
mocracy that "shared power” which
we have praised and admire; but in
the U.S., so the rationalization goes,
"people with power, for the first time
in history, wrote laws against them­
selves.”
The g re atest dan g er o f
Murrayism is represented by the cur­
rent threat o f Shaw v. Reno before
the Supreme Court. The court will
act within the next nine months and
could make the ruling that the use of
race as a factor in social policy is
unconstitutional. The Voting Rights
Act - the most important piece of
social legislation of this century - is
critical to preserving our past gains
and aiding our future development
because voting rights are preserva­
tive of all other rights.
A long The Color Line
p e r s p e c t i v e s\
The Attack Continues
he Bell C urve” Is
/Latest I.Q. Salvo
cases alright, hitting all the right
buttons and using all the relevant
buzz words to keep the right wing I
politicians and
m edia ecstatic |
for days on end,
By
and that New
f I
Professor York Times tribe
Mckinley
of
m inority
Burt
bashers in o r­
gasms for a least
With the eru­ n
dite title, “The
Bell Curve" Intel­
ligence and Class
S tructure
in
American Life,”
two academic no­
bodies have thrust
a year.
themselves into the full glare ot the
Especially revealing is the au­
race and anthropological contro­
thors placement o f little boxes, “ca­
versy that should have been over
sually” inserted about the time they I
three-quarters of a century ago. But
feel the reader is saying to himself,
the ugly game of attacking the cog­
“hey, I’ve heard differently from I
nitive ability of minorities plays so
that and from reputable researches
well for the racist charlatans who
in the education field." The follow­
engage in this cruel sport.
ing is a case in point, where you may
The authors o f this ugly po­
recall that several years ago, I fur­
lemic in support of racial superior­
nished all the documenting neces­
ity, Charles Murray and Richard J.
sary (including citations to U.S.
Hermstein, write and declaim as if
Military Records) to prove that both
their respective schools had no li­
immigrants from southern Europe
braries; MIT (Phd. in political sci­
and
blacks had their cognitive abil­
ence), Harvard (Phd. in psycholo­
ities disparaged by manipulative
gy.) 1 say this because any compe­
techniques. I found out that north­
tent investigator o f the I.Q. phe­
ern black army recruits outscored
nomenon would not only have read
southern whites.
the relevant works of the noted Ste­
The American "Manifest Des­
phen Jay Gould (“The Mismeasure
tiny
Theory” (of superior races)
of Man” - “The Pandas Thumb”),
evolved
from research done by the
but would have studied many of the
peers
of
Sir
Cyril Burt. Gould in his
related and valuable references he
“The Mismeasure of Man, pp. 227-
most American cites register and vote gives in the first book.
228" blows away the racist conten­
Unfortunately for the profes­
significantly lower rates than Afri­
tion that southern Europeans are
sion of educational psychologist (?),
can Americans.
getting dumber:
H owever, black A m ericans the foremost practitioner of the art.
“But why should recent immi­
would be making a serious mistake if Sir Cyril Burt (1883-1971), proved
grants
be more stupid? To resolve
we approach the Latino community to be a faker o f the first rank,
this
conundrum,
Brigham invoked
as a “secondary factor” for multicul­ “Strange matching and correlation
the
leading
theorist
o f racism in his
tural political change and urban em­ o f pairs of 1 .Q.’s, collaborators who
day,
the
American
Madison Grant
never existed, and letters sent to
powerment.
(author
of
The
Passing
of the Great
Now is the time for African himself under assumed names, con­
Race) and the aging relic from the !
American leaders to take steps to gratulating him for his excellent
heyday of French craniometry,
reach out to Latinos, especially the work.” (Gould p.234, etc.) Howev­
Count George Vacher de Lapouge.
powerful Mexican-American com­ er we find that Arthur Jensen, Amer­
Brigham argued that the European
ica’s foremost proponent of the
munity in the southwest. Blacks and
peoples are mixtures to varying de­
Latinos usually share identical inter­ hereditary I.Q. theory' swallowed
grees, of three original races: 1)
the faker’s claptrap because it was
ests and goals on many issues: health
Nordics, “a race of soldiers, sailors,
care, job training and employment just what he wanted to hear. Calling
adventurers and explorers, but above
Burt a "bom nobleman, Jensen trav­
opportunities, education, affirmative
all, of rules, organizers and aristo­
eled the university circuit for years,
action, housing and social services.
crats.. . feudalism, class distinctions
The problem with the 21 st cen­ making a fabulous sum on the lec­
and race pride among Europeans
ture trail while denigrating the abil­
tury is the problem o f the “new color
are traceable for the most part to the
ities of African Americans.
line” - whether blacks. Latinos and
North.” They are “domineering,
Now this book. The Bell Curve,
other people o f color can overcome
individualistic, self-reliant... and as
is unique in the number and place­
their differences to construct a new
a
result they are usually Protes­
ment of disclaimers, as though the
democratic, multiculural majority for
tants” (Grant, quoted in Brigham, p
American public was even dumber
America.
1820; 2) Alpines, who are “submis­
than the authors claim African
sive to authority both political and
Americans to be. The book opens
religious, being usually “Roman
with a famous quote from the phi­
Catholics” (Grant, in Brigham,
losopher Edmund Burke (A v in d i­
p.183) and whom V acher de
cation ofN atu ral Society) which
Lapouge described as “the perfect |
posits virtue as dependent upon
slave, the ideal serf, the model sub­
the K now ledge o f T ruth. One
ject
(p. 183); 3) M editerraneans,
turns the page to the table o f
o
f
whom
G rant approved, given
co n ten ts and is im m ed iately
their
accom
plishm ents in ancien
percent while Hispanic unemployment launched into a descrip tio n o f
G
reece
and
Rome, but whom
dropped from 15.3 percent to 8 per­ “The C ognitive E lite.” This list­
Brigham
despised
because their
cent," said Edmund Peterson, chair­ ing is im m ediately follow ed on
average
sco
res
w
ere slig h tly
by a list o f “C ognitive C lasses
man of Project 21 advisory council.
lower than the A lpines.
These statistics support what and Social B eh av io rs.”
Brigham then tried to assess
So
much
for
political
correct­
many of us in the African-American
the amount o f Nordic, Alpine and
community have been saying all along ness, let’s get down to basics and
Mediterranean blood in various Eu­
really
examine
this
ebony
rift-raft;
- the best way to economically em­
ropean peoples and to calculate the
(5)
Poverty,
(6)
Schooling,
(7)
Un­
power the disadvantaged is though
army scores on this scientific and
employment, Idleness and Injury,
economic growth.” Peterson said.
racial basis, rather than from the
(8) Family Matters, (9) Welfare De­
political expedient of national ori­
pendency, (10) Parenting, (11)
gin.
Crime. (12) Civilty and Citizen-
(Continued next week)
ship. Yep, the authors get down to
W mf
Building Latino-African-American Coalitions
D r . M anning M arable
he future of American
1 dem ocracy resides
VLx within this nation’s
multicultural population.
by
|J
» •*
At the center of our ethnic and
racial pluralism is the growing rela­
tionship between Latinos and Afri­
can Americans. Two recent events
symbolized for me the prospects and
possibilities for this dialogue between
America’s two largest groups of col­
or.
This September, Concordia Col­
lege of Moorhead, Minn, sponsored
an
ed u catio n al
forum
on
“multiculural ism," featuring a debate
between myself and Linda Chavis,
formerly the highest-ranking Mexi­
can-American in the Reagan Admin­
istration and an unsuccessful Repub­
lican senatorial candidate in Mary­
land. Chavis had established her rep­
utation as a conservative critic of
affirmative action, and a defender of
the reactionary “English Only" ref­
erenda and legislation aimed at sup­
pressing bilingualism. Before an au­
dience o f more than one thousand
people, Chavis, condemned the
movement toward multicultural edu­
cation as “divisive.”
Chavis insisted that other ethnic
and religious minorities, such as Jap­
anese Americans and Jewish Ameri­
cans, had successfully overcome dis­
crimination without affirmative ac­
tion policies. But her argument failed
to take into account the historic spec­
ificity of how racism w as construct­
ed within America’s economy and
political institutions. For both blacks
and Mexican-Americans, the pattern
of inequality experienced by both
groups was deeply rooted inside the
system of power and privilege, rein­
forced by violence. Conservative
minorities from Chavis to Clarence
Thomas refuse to define racism as
“prejudice plus power," because such
a definition would point toward the
fundamental transformation of the
power structure o f white America.
Half a continent away last month,
in El Paso, Texas I was invited to be
keynote speaker for the annual awards
banquet o f the Black El Paso Demo­
crats. Significantly, about one third
of the more than 350 guests in atten­
dance were Mexican-Americans. In
my address, I reminded the diverse
group that we collectively had to
espouse a politics of multicultural
cooperation, constructing bridges
between neighborhoods and com­
munities which appeared to be divid­
ed by culture, class, color and lan­
guage, but which actually shared basic
common interests.
El Paso has a Chicano commu­
nity which represents 70 percent of
the city’s half million residents. Yet
relatively few prominent political
positions are controlled by Mexican-
Americans. An atmosphere o f plan­
tation politics and paternalism remi­
niscent of the pre-black power era
still pervades Latino relations with
the powerful minority “Anglo" com­
munity in Texas, as well as else­
where throughout the U.S. Latinos in
— k
(• • •
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Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
* ¿-»N V
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- ’ 1
by
S tan F aryna
Minorities benefitted dispropor­
tionately from the economic polices of
the 80s, according to representatives
of Project 21, a Washington, D.C.
African-American group promoting
new leadership for a challenging new
century. Increase business and em­
ployment opportunities, coupled with
an end to double-digit inflation made
life easier for the African-American
community, the group claims.
For the past four years, cynical
journalists and politicians have tried
to paint the 80s, the so-called “Decade
of Greed,” as an era of unprecedented
despair for America’s disadvantaged.
This assault has even spilled-over into
this year's congressional campaigns
with some candidates asserting that
the public faces a choice between new,
positive approaches to America's eco­
nomic troubles and a return to the
failed “trickle-down” economics of
the 1980s. Members of Project 21
challenge the notion that “trickle-
down" economics failed.
“Between December 1982 and
January 1989, black unemployment
dropped from 20.4 percent to 11.4
Von+oge. P o i
Youth and Students Should Organize
ba , R
R O on
B
N
D aniels
ne of the
most
disturbing aspects of
__ the current state of
emergency afflicting the black
nation is the precarious plight
of African American youth.
©
1 *
•
To be young and African in
America today is to confront condi­
tions and dangers that are frightening
to say the least. Never before have
African American youth faced such
an epidemic of drugs, crime, vio­
lence, incarceration and self-destruc­
tion. The brutality of generations of
racist oppression and decades of bla­
tant neglect seem to have conspired
to place a large segment of this gen­
erations' black youth at risk.
In the midst of some horrendous
conditions, however, there are still
some very hopeful signs. Though
there is an understandable concern
about gansta rap and negative black
music, a generation of rappers have
also emerged with positive, revolu­
tionary messages in their music in the
¿
»
<1, ■< A
«.
finest tradition of the black freedom
struggle.
These rap-activists are challeng­
ing young people to become the van­
guard of the black liberation move­
ment. The resurgence of gangs w ith
the attendant violent turf battles is
also a terrify ing phenomenon in black
communities. On the positive side,
however, the rebellion in south cen­
tral Los Angeles produced a truce
between the Crips and Bloods that
has spawned a nationwide urban
peace and social justice movement; a
movement which has sponsored suc­
cessful gang peace summits in sever­
al cities across the country Rites of
passage programs for young African
American males and females are also
spreading across the nation After a
lull in the late 70s and early 80s,
black student organizations are alive
again on college university campuses
and black student activism is on the
rise. And, one of the most encouraging
developments in recent times was the
thousands of young people who flocked
to the N A ACP under the leadership of
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis.
As an extension ofthis develop­
ment, it has also been inspiring to
witness the young people at work on
the youth and community empower
committee of the National African
American Leadership Summit O f
the working groups within the sum­
mit process, the youth committee has
been the most active and produced
the most tangible proposals for ac­
tion. The committee is working to­
wards a national African American
youth day, a national African Amer­
ican youth summit and a liberation
summer project.
I take note of these positive de­
velopments because the current cri­
sis within the black community re­
quires and demands that a new gen­
eration of leadership forge to the
forefront of the black liberation strug­
gle. Throughout the history of our
struggle, from the sit-in movement
which confronted southern segrega­
tion in the U.S.. to the Soweto rebel­
lion which rocked apartheid in South
Africa, African youth have stepped
forth at critical moments in the life
and times of our people to give new
vision, energy and vitality to the black
freedom struggle, indeed, within the
U.S., it was the Student Non-violent
Coordinating Committee which be­
came the cutting edge of the civil
rights revolt and a key catalyst for the
movement to black power, black na­
tionalism and pan-Africanism.
It’s time, past time for African
American youth and students to em­
ulate the example of their historical
forebears and organize an renewed
assault on the bastions of white su­
premacy. There are a lot o f weary
warriors from my generation who are
anxious to share the torch and pass
the torch. The struggle for the liber­
ation of our people must continue.
This generation of African Ameri­
can youth must become the vital link
in the continuous chain of the black
freedom struggle No struggle, no
progress
(Hire ^ o rtla n b Ofrbseruer
(I SPS 959-680)
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