76 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
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Prof Pilloried for race theory
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By Jeffrey Ulbright in Toronto
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Professor Philippe Rushton has been confined to lecturing into a video
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camera at Western Ontario University, where his theories on race and
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intelligence have made him a discomforting presence. Since the academic year
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began, students taking Dr Rushton's undergraduate course - Theories of
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Personality - have been obliged to pick up his 90-minute taped lectures, view
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each one alone and in seclusion, and telephone the psychology professor with
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any questions. Dr Rushton gained notoriety throughout North America by
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announcing that his research showed whites were more intelligent than blacks,
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Orientals were more intelligent than whites and the reasons were genetic and
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evolutionary. University officials say the special treatment of Dr Rushton's
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lectures is necessary to avoid disturbances, even violence, by some elements
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on the campus at London, Ontario. Dr Rushton responded in an interview: "In
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my view, it's an infringement of my academic freedom because I cannot discuss
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my views with the students and the students are not allowed to challenge me.
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The whole normal student-teacher relationship is gone." His performance
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evaluation also has been dropped from a consistent "very good" or "excellent"
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to "unsatisfactory." That could have been the first step in an administration
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attempt to sack him, but the university senate grievance committee has
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overturned the psychology department evaluation. "That means I get a pay
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increase," Dr Rushton said, "and most importantly, it removes any possibility
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of the university initiating dismissal proceedings against me on those
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grounds." Administration officials deny the university is trying to muzzle or
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harass Dr Rushton or interfere with his academic freedom. "No one involved
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thinks videotaping lectures is the best solution to the problem, but it's the
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only one we could come up with that we think is viable," said Dr Tom Collins,
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vice-president for academics. "A lot of people are critical of that
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situation." Dr Rushton, aged 46, has been at Western Ontario for 13 years
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and, until January 1989, laboured in relative obscurity. He was known in
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academia as co-author of the best-selling textbook Introduction to Psychology
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and won a Guggenheim research fellowship in 1988, but burst into public view
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only with a 20-minute speech to the American Association for the Advancement
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of Science. Many scientists stormed out of the hall in San Fransisco when Dr
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Rushton set out his thoughts on genetic and evolutionary differences between
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the races. "My conclusions are totally unpopular," he admitted. "I conclude
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that, on 50 or 60 different measures, Orientals and blacks are at opposite
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ends of a continuum with whites, or caucasoids, falling consistently
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somewhere in the middle. These measures include intelligence, sexual
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behaviour, brain size, law abidingness, social organization skills,
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personality and speed of physical maturation." Dr Rushton also teaches a
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graduate course called Human Life History, covering the evolutionary basis of
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personality. Only two students are enrolled and he teaches it "more or less
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normally", he said. "We meet once a week in a location that is kept secret
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from everybody but me and the two students." For the twelve undergraduates in
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his theories of Personality course, he goes to a different classroom each
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week to tape a lecture. "Normally there would be up to 60 students in this
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class," he said. The students are allowed to telephone him during one hour a
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week to ask him questions or make appointments. An appeal of the ruling that
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he must teach by videotape is still before the university senate. "This is
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consuming an enormous amount of my time," Dr Rushton complained. Dr Collins,
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the university vice-president, said when asked whether the university was
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embarrassed by the professor: "In the university in general, some people are
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embarrassed by his work. The official stance is he has academic freedom and
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will be judged by his peers." Dr Rushton says racial difference is a
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fascinating question on which he has worked since 1981 and published since
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1984, "even getting ratings of excellent from the university for my race
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work. It was when it began to be public that the axe began to come down on my
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head." Race was a taboo, he said, but that "only goes back to the Second
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World War as a result of Hitler's so-called racial policy." In the aftermath
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of the war, there had been a virtual self-imposed taboo on the scientific
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study of race differences from a genetic perspective. No known environmental
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cause explained the differences between races, said Dr Rushton. "Things like
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white racism and poverty just don't do it." "If I had said either that the
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differences do not exist and it's all due to white racism, then I would not
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have run into trouble. But once you suggest genetics or evolution in the
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context of race, you're in for trouble, and I knew I would be." Dr Rushton
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says he does not like being unpopular and that he wants to make a
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contribution to science and be rewarded with approval for doing so. "I do
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not like to have my views totally unpopular as they are," he said, "but I do
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believe I'm right. I feel that this is something that is going to be
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recognized."
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Typed in by Mark Norman, for The Pinnacle Club BBS Library.
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