Why is racism so popular in academia?

[MisanthropicSocialist]

Does anyone else find in extremely disturbing that there's piles of racists in academic circles? Christ Brand, Kevin Macdonald, Richard Lynn, Hans Eyesenck, Arthur Jensen, William Shockley, etc. Why is this? Are their views legitimate scientifically? Or is this bullshit comparable to creationism? I probably sound really dumb right now, but this has me confused as fuck.

[Queercommie Girl]

Behold the great intellectual product of capitalism and imperialism: Scientific Racism.

Racism has existed as long as class society has, but scientific racism is a relatively modern phenonmenon, and is even more vicious than traditional cultural racism.

[toadghost]

I've met some instructors who are both scientific racists AND part of an ethnic minority. How they balance this internally boggles my mind.

[Queercommie Girl]

It's pretty common actually. In China we call them "bananas" (i.e. yellow on the outside, white on the inside), like that Hong Kong Chinese guy who said "it's sad to see the end of the British Empire" during a BBC interview in 1997 when Hong Kong was handed back to China, or the Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo who thinks China should be colonised by the West for 300 years, or employees in Chinese airports who smile when a white person passes them by but keep a cold expression when a Chinese person walks pass them. Sometimes "bananas" are more explicitly racist towards Chinese people than white people are. I don't think any actual white person would dare say something like "China should be under Western colonisation for 300 years" these days.

[NewSocialist]

Does anyone else find in extremely disturbing that there's piles of racists in academic circles? Christ Brand, Kevin Macdonald, Richard Lynn, Hans Eyesenck, Arthur Jensen, William Shockley, etc. Why is this? Are their views legitimate scientifically? Or is this bullshit comparable to creationism? I probably sound really dumb right now, but this has me confused as fuck.

See my post here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/answering-scientific-racists-t155361/index.html). This is also an enlightening article: "The Bell Curve Flattened (http://www.slate.com/id/2416/)."

[jake williams]

I was talking to some folks about this the other day, but it's really not surprising. One of the main tasks of intellectuals in any society is to justify the established order. Bourgeois intellectuals don't have the same methods available as feudal intellectuals did, religion in particular. Science is the only way they can justify social inequality, and so that's what they try to use. If they can't justify social inequality scientifically, and they're not advocating radical social change (which generally well-paid intellectuals in a capitalist society aren't going to, whether they identify as "leftists" or not), then they have to out and admit that they support mass unjust inequality and exploitation. Few people are prepared to do that.

[tachosomoza]

I remember when Shockley was going to give a lecture at either Princeton or Harvard, and the minority students and a pretty sizeable proportion of white students occupied the building in which he was to speak. For a WEEK.

[ZeroNowhere]

The same reason that anything's popular in academia; academics can intellectually masturbate to it.

[La Comédie Noire]

Cause there's this idea that "political correctness" has gone wild and it's time we think scientifically and admit some stereotypes are true.

Basically what zeronowhere said.

[Queercommie Girl]

The same reason that anything's popular in academia; academics can intellectually masturbate to it.

I certainly wouldn't write-off the intelligentsia in its entirety, there are plenty of left-wing and progressive academics too.

Under class society you can find reactionary elements in every section of society, including among industrial workers.

[eyedrop]

The easy answer is that it isn't. The few academic nutbags gets a disproportionate share of the media attention.

Just like how the academic global warming opposers get a disproportionate media attention.

[ZeroNowhere]

I certainly wouldn't write-off the intelligentsia in its entirety, there are plenty of left-wing and progressive academics too.
See previous.

[Invader Zim]

Racism isn't popular in academia. In fact it is highly unpopular. Racist academics make up a very tiny minority. In fact I would suggest that minority is porportionally lower than in the rest of society.

[Ned Kelly]

Why is racism so popular amongst the western working class is a much more relevant question for Marxists, you'd think.

[Queercommie Girl]

Why is racism so popular amongst the western working class is a much more relevant question for Marxists, you'd think.

Well, I don't think explicit systematic racism is really so popular among the Western working class either, except those who are basically neo-Nazis. It's more like prejudices and stereotypes.

[ZeroNowhere]

Why is racism so popular amongst the western working class is a much more relevant question for Marxists, you'd think.Not really, they'll sort themselves out eventually. It may be of interest to some, but it's not particularly relevant per se.

[Queercommie Girl]

Not really, they'll sort themselves out eventually. It may be of interest to some, but it's not particularly relevant per se.


Obviously this is easier to say if you are not on the receiving end of racism. (Pretty much common sense)

It's of interest to "some", this "some" being non-white and ethnic minority workers.

[ZeroNowhere]

Obviously this is easier to say if you are not on the receiving end of racism. (Pretty much common sense)

It's of interest to "some", this "some" being non-white and ethnic minority workers.
Sure, and I never said that it was not of interest to some, nor am I particularly white or untouched by racism. I was speaking of relevance in the practical, activistic sense.

[human strike]

Why is racism so popular amongst the western working class is a much more relevant question for Marxists, you'd think.

A lack of class consciousness

[jake williams]

Racism isn't popular in academia. In fact it is highly unpopular. Racist academics make up a very tiny minority. In fact I would suggest that minority is porportionally lower than in the rest of society.
Casual liberal racism is exceptionally popular in academia (especially towards "white trash"). Academia is overwhelmingly white, and liberal academics know it, and they have to somehow pretend it's justified that they have the position in society they do. Vulgar, openly white supremacist racism is of course unpopular, but more because it's gauche and unsophisticated than out of any commitment whatsoever to justice.

[Queercommie Girl]

There is a form of relatively subtle racism in academia disguised as linguistic determinism - the idea that certain language families (most notably Indo-European) have features that make them intrinsically more complex and advanced than others. I'd say this is quite a bad form of intellectual racism.

And of course Orientalism (Edward Said-style) is still present in much of the Western academic world. (I've encountered this personally at university) Admittedly it's much better now than it used to be, partly thanks to progressive scholars like Joseph Needham (the great historian of ancient Chinese science).

[Invader Zim]

Casual liberal racism is exceptionally popular in academia (especially towards "white trash"). Academia is overwhelmingly white, and liberal academics know it, and they have to somehow pretend it's justified that they have the position in society they do. Vulgar, openly white supremacist racism is of course unpopular, but more because it's gauche and unsophisticated than out of any commitment whatsoever to justice.

In what respect is it overwhelmingly white? Care to produce some figures? And what casual liberal racism are you refering to? Cite examples and evidence that these examples are a part of a ubiquitous trend.

And what is the " position in society" you feal they have which they have to justify? A lecturer does a job, for a salary, like everybody else. In fact, given their level of education academics actually get paid comparatively little - especially what you consider those with identical qualifications can get in industry.