Racists in the Sunday Times
by Sunny, on 2nd April, 2006
The Sunday Times published a letter today, signed by various academics in support of the Leeds uni professor Dr Frank Ellis. I knew that arguing for his freedom of speech would put me on the side of racists, but it doesn’t matter.
However, it is interesting to note who is defending Ellis this time. As they say, Google is a blogger’s best friend.
First up is Professor Richard Lynn who, according to Wikipedia, had his work cited in the Bell Curve (and Ellis based his ideas on).
One review of Lynn’s work, by the American psychologist Leon Kamin previously said:
I will not mince words. Lynn’s distortions and misrepresentations of the data constitute a truly venomous racism, combined with scandalous disregard for scientific objectivity. But to anybody familiar with Lynn’s work and background this comes as no surprise… [from here]Â
The second name is that of Professor Philippe J. Rushton. This is where it gets more interesting. Richard Lynn serves on the board of directors of the Pioneer Fund and since 2002, Philippe Rushton has been its president.
What is the Pioneer Fund? According to Wikipedia: “
The Pioneer Fund was incorporated in 1937 by two American scientists: Harry Laughlin, who received an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University in 1936 in recognition of his contribution to Nazi eugenics, and Frederick Osborn, who Barry Mehler claims wrote in 1937 that the Nazi sterilization law was “the most exciting experiment that had ever been triedâ€.Â
Unsurprisingly, most of Pioneer Fund’s money goes to scientific research to prove links between race and genetics. A smaller amount also to political or legal organisations that support immigration reform/reduction. No agenda here, clearly.
PF also publishes the journal Mankind Quarterly, currently headed by Rushton. Just to demonstrate its strength of calibre, one of its former editors was Roger Pearson, known for establishing the neo-Nazi Northern League in 1958 according to Wikipedia. Richard Lynn serves on its editorial board.
Rushton also makes an appearance on the white supremacist website VDare.com here, seemingly praising the website for helping him in the past.
Anyway, I think it paints a pretty picture, don’t you?
Stupidity
One may say that despite these connections, our friendly racists may still be right about what they say. Too bad recent evidence does not support them.
Chris Dillow has some links on this post citing studies that refute the claims by Ellis.
I also posted this graph a few days ago on PP, which shows the fallacy of Ellis’ claims. Any explanation why black girls do better than white boys at school? Why do Indian girls do the best when Richard Lynn claims that Indians are less intelligent than Europeans?
Immigration debate
There are of course ulterior motives to all this. If Lynn et al were just scientists dedicated to ‘the truth’, I could be less contemptuous towards them. But they’re not. From Wikipedia:
Lynn has spoken against immigration in Britain at a 2000 American Renaissance magazine sponsored conference, citing problems of unemployment, crime, illegitimacy, and low IQ, considering African and African-Caribbean immigants to perform worse in these measures than Indian and Chinese immigrants. Lynn spoke on his book IQ and the Wealth of Nations at a 2002 American Renaissance conference.
Rushton has also commented on immigration issues in the past.
Lynn has also claimed in the past that men are more intelligent than women, which resulted in a furious attack by the journal Nature.
So, as you can see, clearly credible professors hoping to advance the cause of science. Or not. Meanwhile Sunday Times readers will largely remain unaware of the drivel that is printed in their paper.