Ann Medlock on Public Radio
Rounding the Bell Curve
You can't have escaped it—the uproar over the new book, The Bell Curve. It's everywhere. A veritable blizzard of words in newspapers and magazines, on the news broadcasts and the talk shows.
Like most of the people who are opining about this book, I haven't read it. But I am on the waiting list at the library. In the meantime, I've read, watched and listened to dozens of sober analyses and many an outright hissy fit, and I'd like to point out that there's a blank spot in all this coverage. You know that the book says white people tend to inherit higher intelligence than black people. But did you know that the book also says Asians tend to be born smarter than blacks and whites? How come these black and white pundits aren't talking about that? I keep wanting an Asian scholar to chime in with a nyah nyah neh nyah nyah.
For a serious thought about The Bell Curve, I have to tell you a story. The last time we went through this one, it was 1969 and Arthur Jensen was proclaiming that blacks had lower IQs than whites so programs like Head Start weren't ever going to work. At a symposium I attended in Manhattan, William Buckley was asked his opinion of Jensen's work. Buckley—the guy whose mental neurons are firing so fast he rockets right past most of his interview guests. The guy who seems so total an elitist that people want to punch his lights out.
You know what he said? Get this—"I simply transcend the issue. There are so many more
important measures of the value of a human being than intelligence." I was astonished—I had found common ground with William F. Buckley. Anything was possible. Now, as we go through this one yet again, I'm not hearing that crucial and simple truth being said. Even if The Bell Curve were right about average inherited intelligence being different among the races—and that's hotly disputed even if everybody agreed that IQ tests are a reliable measure of intelligence—and there's a huge disagreement about that—intelligence still would not be the most important measure of any human being's value. Intelligence isn't a factor in whether or not you're a coward. A liar. Goof-off. Egomaniac. Humorless nerd. Heartless, take-no-prisoners striver. So how about some perspective here? Aren't the people you treasure in your life the ones with character—with traits like courage, compassion, commitment, spirit, and a sense of humor? Whether you're thinking about your friends, relatives, or the people at work, I bet their IQ's are not what determines their value for you. Even in hiring employees, my mental check list puts character before intelligence every time. Of course, if you were convinced there is a link between intelligence and race, and if you got a tumor in your frontal lobe, you might consider race in seeking the smartest doctor around. Anybody know a Chinese brain surgeon? |
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