A Bad Precedent (John Speaking)
						MAIN PATH: Malik
				Fred		Malik

Let's go back to Devin's case. Devin is what some people call a scientific racist. He doesn't actually dislike or abuse any of his black students. But he believes that the statistics on IQ and various intellectual skills support the conclusion that blacks are, on the average, less intelligent than whites. He also thinks that certain groups of Jews are more intelligent on the average than whites. I want to make two points:

• Every few years someone in academia takes this sort of position and there is an enormous hoopla about it. There are protests and demands for dismissal. The bulk of the academic community rises up and condemns him. And, after a while, it blows over. It is easy to exaggerate the harm done. I think most of Devin's students - black and white - regard him as a curiosity, not a threat.
  

• The precedent here could be very harmful. If the administration is allowed to revoke tenure from Devin because of his ideas, they can do it to others who have other ideas. The prudent thing to do is to prevent anyone's tenure from being revoked because of his or her ideas.

Ariadne Home	Hate Speech Bibliography	Hate Speech Home