July 31, 2005

Diversity v. Freedom, Chapter CLXXXVII: The Case Of Andrew Fraser

My latest VDARE.com column is up:

Diversity v. Freedom, Chapter CLXXXVII: The Case Of Andrew Fraser

By Steve Sailer

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

If Voltaire were alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave.

The latest collision between "diversity sensitivity," the highest ideal of the present age, and such outmoded concepts as academic freedom has a VDARE.com contributor, Australian law professor Drew Fraser, as the victim, because he had the
the temerity to write a letter to a local newspaper.

"A Sydney university has banned a controversial law professor from teaching after he publicly aired his views on non-whites and Africans in Australia. Canadian-born Associate Professor Andrew Fraser was cautioned by Macquarie University last week over a letter he wrote to a suburban newspaper…University vice-chancellor Professor Di Yerbury responded with a three-page memo to staff announcing that Professor Fraser would not teach until further notice…" [Outspoken Academic banned from teaching]

Connoisseurs of irony will treasure the university's justification:

"Professor Fraser yesterday rejected an offer by the university to buy out his contract and launched a bitter attack on Vice-Chancellor Di Yerbury, describing her as an 'intellectual coward'. Professor Yerbury responded by suspending Professor Fraser from teaching, citing a report in The Australian yesterday in which he claimed a group called Smash Racism was planning to disrupt his classes… 'We have a duty to act decisively to protect his safety and that of others on campus,' she said. [Lecture ban for 'racist' professor]

Okay, let me see if I have this straight: The university must keep their professor from saying that immigration raises the risk of criminal violence -- to safeguard him from criminal violence from immigrants and their supporters?

R-i-g-h-t


Perhaps not coincidentally, this was happening at the same time that police were arresting several East African immigrants in the attempted July 21 terrorist bombings in London.

In effect, Fraser is being prevented from expressing views on politics—although professors pontificating about politics is a much-loved feature of public life throughout the Anglosphere.

So what about Professor Fraser's statement that Africans tend to have low IQs and high testosterone levels?

Here at VDARE.com, unlike at almost every other outlet (and, apparently, Macquarie University), our first question is not whether it's politically correct to say something. Instead we ask: Is it true?

[More]


My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

No comments: