New Right ethnic inequality

• Murray and Herrnstein - New Right


  • East Asians earn a higher score IQ than white Americans, especially in verbal intelligence.
  • Birth rates of highly educated women are decreasing.
  • New immigrants are less hard working, less imaginative, and less self-starting.
  • There are racial differences in intelligence - cognitive elite inter-marry
• Marxist Bourdieu criticises Murray and Herrnstein as IQ tests are impossible to not be linked to cultural capital, such as households with better educational toys and books. IQ tests are widely criticised for cultural distortions.
• Mead - New Right


  • Ethnic minorities are disadvantaged through cultural differences as they have not internalised Western norms of individualism.
  • Not due to racism or exclusion
• Mead's theory was strongly criticise and withdrawn for 'racist ideology'. Marxists and Weberian's blame structural problems rather than blaming culture
• Murray - New Right


  • Single parents who live off benefits are the heart of the underclass.
  • Illegitimacy rates from absent fathers, particularly in ethnic minorities, promote a culture of dependency and reliance on welfare benefits.
  • These children are more likely to be wild and badly behaved and the culture of poverty will perpetuate itself due to inadequate socialisers.
• Shildrick, a Marxist, criticised Murray's study as poverty is due to multiple forms of deprivation and social exclusion, not internalised poor attitudes. Studies into Glasgow and Middlesbrough, the two most deprived areas, showed no evidence of a culture of dependency.