U Penn on Track to Fire Amy Wax

The U Penn president got fired fired for her lame answers to congressional questions about whether Penn allowed advocacy of exterminating Jews.

So does Penn have free speech? No.

It is still trying to fire one of its distinguished professors, Amy Wax.

I think she is Jews, but her opinion about Palestinian Arabs is not the issue.

Here are her statements that are being used to fire her.

Appendix 1. Examples of inequitably targeted disrespect:

1. “I’ll just come right out and say it right, that on average blacks have lower cognitive ability than whites. You know, that’s just a fact. It’s a fact which you can be persecuted for stating. But it is a fact.”

2. “Groups have different levels of ability, demonstrated ability. Different competencies, that they, and you know, you don’t just say that. Given the realities of different rates of crime, different average IQ’s, people have to accept, without apology, that blacks are not going to be evenly distributed through all occupations. They’re just not. And that’s not a problem. That’s not due to racism. That’s due to these differences.”

3. “I think the crime problem in this country, I’m sorry it is true, is overwhelmingly, certainly within cities, it is a black problem. It is a minority problem, okay? Overwhelmingly. I mean your chance of being, you know, a victim of gun violence by a white person in New York City, is essentially non-existent.”

4. “The basic idea is that, at this juncture in African-American history shall we say, in the United States, the main problems that are holding blacks back are really problems of behavior and not of overt racism, discrimination, really what society is doing to us, but the choices people are making. And I identify the main areas of difficulty as educational under-achievement, high crime rates and family breakdown.”

5. Low-income students may cause “reverse contagion”—infecting more “capable and sophisticated” students with their “delinquency and rule-breaking.”

6. “I often chuckle at the ads on TV which show a black man married to a white woman in an upper-class picket-fence house….They never show blacks the way they really are: a bunch of single moms with a bunch of guys who float in and out. Kids by different men.”

7. “We indulge the assumption, which I will say, we now see was overly, overly optimistic that blacks would be in the same position as whites if we had not, uh been a racist society.”

8. “... I mean, there are a lot of things that blacks themselves could reform to make their lives better, not have such a high out-of-wedlock birth rate, for example. Use drugs less, you know, be more obedient to law, stop committing crimes. These are all behaviors that are within the power of the people to change. So there is a lot of room for improvement.”

9. Asking whether “the spirit of liberty beat[s] in the[] breasts” of Asian people.

10. “As long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”

11. “And this hideous monstrosity, the diversity, inclusion and equity bureaucracy, which that is filled with mediocrities. You know people who don’t care about truth seeking, don’t care about academic values, couldn’t be scholars if their life depended on it, you know, are just kind of time-serving true believer bureaucrats ... It’s welfare for the, you know, for the barely-educated upper middle class, really.”

12. Speaking of University students: “And they have become these cowed, benighted sheeples. I mean, it’s just unbelievable. So not only are they, you know, thoroughly intimidated, as they should be, but they are ignorant. They know nothing.”

13. “We could have admitted women, which you know, fairness requires that we open channels of opportunity to women, although I will say that, you know, the crusty old patriarchs of old, in being reluctant to do that, they were kind of on to something.”

14. “So, women, on average, are more agreeable than men. Women, on average, are less knowledgeable than men. They’re less intellectual than men. Now, I can actually back up all those statements with social-science research.... They know less about every single subject, except fashion.”

15. “I mean, a lot of local governments, big city governments, they are not in the hands of what we would call legacy Americans. They’re not in traditional hands. They are being run like third world countries, frankly, in many respects... it’s a mixed bag...But I just worry that, you know, these corrupt grifters are going to take over our cities, have taken them over in part and, you know, bring us back to third world conditions...So we really have to be afraid of that and be vigilant. And of course, it’s all mixed up with race. So nobody feels like they can criticize these big city governments when, for example, they’re in black hands, that if they’re not well run, they can’t say anything negative...”

16. “I have been called a racist. I lost count of how many times I’ve been called a racist, and my view at this point is, you know, being a racist is an honorific. To be called a racist means you notice reality and to me that’s a positive thing not a negative thing that’s an occasion for praise and admiration.”

17. Some cultures are “not equal in preparing people to be productive in an advanced economy,” including ..... “the anti-‘acting white’ rap culture of inner-city blacks,” and “the anti-assimilation ideas gaining ground among some Hispanic immigrants.”

These are mostly facts, or personal opinions. There is no academic freedom unless a tenured professor is allowed to make statements like these.