Noted bigot Charles Murray invited to present at Koch “seminar”

June 25, 2014

Last week, we highlighted some of the GOP bigwigs who recently spent a weekend palling around with the Koch brothers at a cushy resort in California. The Nation posted a copy of the agenda for the semi-annual retreat, and another name stood out to us: Charles Murray, who was invited by the event’s organizers to speak on Sunday evening.

If the name Charles Murray doesn’t ring a bell, allow us to refresh your memory. Under the guise of being a social scientist, Murray has propagated several blatantly racist and misogynist theories. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies Murray as a White Nationalist, he has used “racist pseudoscience and misleading statistics to argue that social inequality is caused by the genetic inferiority of the black and Latino communities, women and the poor.” Murray is currently listed as a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and his work most recently bubbled up after Representative Paul Ryan cited Murray’s work in his dog-whistle remarks about our “inner cities.” Murray’s most infamous work, The Bell Curve is the 1994 book where he laid out his theory that low intelligence is to blame for the underclass’ stature, using scientific research with ties to eugenics and the white supremacist movements, according the SPLC.

The cryptic agenda for the seminar lists Murray as a dinner speaker, which is notable if only because we certainly couldn’t bear so much as the thought of food after reading about Murray’s work, which Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has likened to “racist sewage.”

Paid for by American Bridge 21st Century Foundation