Race, IQ, the Media, and Golden's Post

Susan Love Brown (SL_BROWN@ACC.FAU.EDU)
Fri, 28 Oct 1994 17:20:22 -0400

I have followed the discussion on THE BELL CURVE with great interest
for the past week or so. Today, I went out and bought a copy and will
spend the weekend with it. At the risk of making Murray a
millionaire, I do want to know what he and Herrnstein have to say.

In the meantime, I think that Michelle B. Golden's point regarding the
behavior of the media is important. Television in particular is
capable of making people believe what is not true. I suggest that
anyone seeking an interesting point of view on this topic read Ishmael
Reed's AIRING DIRTY LAUNDRY -- that is the essay by the same name
(1993 Addison-Wesley). Reed is a gadfly (or troublemaker, depending
on your perspective) with very strong opinions on the way in which the
media portrays blacks and other minorities. The essay "Airing Dirty
Laundry" is superb, because it points to many specific cases of media
distortion of the truth about minorities and about crime and who is
committing it.

Well, back to THE BELL CURVE! More on this later.

Susan Love Brown