Professor Olufs
Department of Political Science
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, Washington
984447-0003

Dear: Professor Olufs

The intent of my argument is to discourage any serious academic thougth about Herrnstein and Murray's racial intelligence theories. My aim is especially true for African American students and lay persons in general. At issue is the persistent legacy of ommission of critical black racial thought in the white classroom. This is particularly true for white students when race and intelligence theorist like Herrnstein and Murray are introduced into the curriculum. White students more often than not have been nutured and tauught the victimless virtues of independence, capitailism and democracy. As I will point out in detail, white students in general bring to the classroom little or no knowlege of America's great black intellecuals. As a consequence of enduring white paternalism in American cirriculumm, white students are today intellectually void of any modern or historical rebuttal regarding black people. Whenever racial discourse emerges, black students in the white educational environment find themselves uncomfortable and equally defenseless as their white counterparts. Thus, if white students were taught the writings of Americas great Negro academics, the Bell Curve and its race and intelligence therorizing would have little or no classroom value.

Ensconced principally in their intolerance of anti-Semitism, Jews have learned well the unredeemable values found in the race inferiority therorist and rethoricians. Adolf Hitler had twice been awarded the World War I Iron cross and is considered even today as having political genius. Yet, it is absurd and ridiculous for anyone to believe that if Hebrew students during the Reich had spent more time analyzing the theories of Mein Kampf, they would have somehow been spared from anilhilation. For precisely the same reasons, Jews today generally dismiss the writings and orations of Lewis Farakhan, National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam and author of Torchlight For America. They also dismiss the likes of Dr. Leonard Jeffries, the controversial former head of the African American Studies Department City College of New York and others deemed anti-Semitic. Christian students and the Christian community at-large routinely dismiss the writings of well known atheist or anyone espousing a viewponit considered as "satonic." Why should the ability to dismiss race theory be any different for black students than it is for Christians, Jews or white students in general?

For decades European and Western scholars have written and based their academic careers on studying the degraded plight of blacks in Africa and America. High infant mortality rates coupled with the devastating effects of American urbanization suggest a scenario for blacks that borders on genocide. If scholars are even half correct about the plight of black life in America, then clearly Charles Murray and the like minded are the last persons black people need to study. Nevertheless, despite persistent questions concerning data and interpretation, the Bell Curve takes care to point out the intellectual deficiencies of blacks in general. Charles Murray's Bell Curve fits comfortably in the category of materials that while writing and researching on blacks in an insidious way, offers no solutions, plan of action or strategies that would abate and improve the predicament of American blacks. Like Jews who are generally intolerant of anti-Semitism, Christians who are dogmatic in their views about homosexualality and abortion, - I too, dismiss racialized text materials that offer little or no redeeming academic or educational value. Therefore, I disagree with your assessment that my characterization or arguments in my Personal Perspective was not an argument against Charles Murray. I would only ask that I be shown the errors in my thinking. At a time when excess black deaths (from all combined causes) will reach one-hundred thousand by decades end, coupled with the resurgence of conservative republicanism, I am compelled to ask: what long term value for blacks can be found in Charles Murray's theory of race and intelligence? In any event, there is nothing more to be gained by my belaboring the point, there is however another point of contention that disturbs me.

Most black students know that George Washington is "the father of our nation who could not tell a lie" and who "chopped down the cherry tree." They also know of "honest Abe, who freed the slaves." Why is it that on average, white students nationally know little to nothing about W.E.B Dubois, David Walkers articles, Thomas Jefferson's response to Benjamin Banecker, Frederick Douglas's fourth of July oration or Martin Luther Kings letter from the Birmingham jail? It is no wonder that The Bell Curve receives the attention it does when one considers the one sidedness of education in America. If white students nationally were taught the words of Fredrick Douglas with the same fervor as black students were taught about the "cherry tree,"- in any classroom Charles Murray and the like minded would never be taken seriously. Do you suppose that white teachers and school boards around the nation have summarily dismissed these great American writers? Jews at-large have dismissed the anti-Semitic oratory of Lewis Farakhan, - in like manor, black students in general should dissmiss the racial therorizing found in Charles Murray's Bell Curve.