ABSTRACT
Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray believe that intelligence is the most reliable predictor of success in life. At the top, the intellectual elite graduate from the best colleges and hold the best jobs. At the bottom, the intellectual underclass suffers poverty, crime, and unemployment. According to Herrnstein and Murray, intelligence is predominantly an inherited attribute. The intellectual underclass was less fortunate in the genetic lottery. The Bell Curve suggests that social policies like affirmative action, universal preschool, and social welfare are ineffectual ways of solving the inequalities in American society. These policies continue to be objects of political debate. This social gap happens to mirror racial divides in America. Herrnstein and Murray link social position to genetic inheritance, which therefore links intelligence to race — and offers an intellectual justification of the dominance of white people in American society.
