Racist Law Professor, Free Speech Issue?

In the recent weeks, University of Pennsylvania Law school tenured professor, Amy Wax, has come under criticism for remarks she made last year in a video lecture titled, “The Downside of Social Uplift” and in an op-ed she wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In the video, Wax goes on to say, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the [Penn Law School] class and rarely, rarely in the top half… I can think of one or two students who’ve graduated in the top half of my required first-year course.” At the surface, it seems inappropriate; but with accuracy, such a claim could easily be proven by releasing the grades or ranking of students. One part of this very problematic situation is, that grades and rankings are confidential at UPenn Law and for a professor to make such a statement about an issue she has no authority to prove or disprove, is inappropriate at the very least.

In addition to these comments, Wax co-authored an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer in which she stated, “All cultures are not equal,” and called for the reinstatement of bourgeois cultural ideals in today’s society. Her Philadelphia Inquirer piece in addition to her claims of the inadequacy and underachievement of black students in her course, suggest a potential racial bias against black students that she has then used to support her claims of broad racial insufficiency.

The answer is not “show the grades!” The university’s policy maintains the privacy of the students by keeping their grades and rankings confidential – and Wax should have done the same. Black students not doing well in her course is a claim that should be investigated by the university given the other racially disparaging statements made, and the university’s revocation of her mandatory first-year course is the very least they should do in response to her comments. Free speech is a right, but citizens are beholden to the policies of the private companies and institutions they represent.