Those who tacitly concede the genetic component of IQ, yet claim "IQ isn't
everything" have woven themselves a tatty straw man -- neither author, nor
any proponent of hereditarianism, claim this. For those who claim this data
is "oppressive," prove it. Generally speaking, it has been the predominately
low-IQ underclass that has financially oppressed the middle and
upper-classes that support the underclass's opulent transfer payments. In
short, the claims made in the Bell Curve stand or fall on their own, apart
from Third Reich bogeymen and appeals to pity, emotions and the consequences
of accepting such claims.

The main thesis of the Bell Curve is that scholastic performance, job
placement, criminality and even automobile accidents correlate strongly with
IQ. Of course, because the Bell Curve's data shows that some racial groups
(mainly blacks and Hispanics) are overrepresented on the left half of the
Bell Curve, liberals will be quick either to deny that IQ means anything, or
that it does, but that the IQ-gap can be explained by socio-economic
standing. But as Herrnstein and Murray point out, wealth attainment and IQ
are closely correlated. That is to say, one's IQ is largely a casual factor
of their socio-economic standing, not the other way around as egalitarians
so often assume.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0029146739/