Amy Wax, a tenured professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School, invited criticism for her remark ‘Brahmin women are taught that they are better than everybody else and yet on some level, their country is a sh**hole’
Amy Wax, a law professor at University of Pennsylvania, is an alumni of both Harvard Law School as well as Columbia Law School. She is also a MD cum laude with distinction in neuroscience from Harvard Medical School. Image courtesy: https://www.law.upenn.edu/
“They (Brahmin women from India) are taught that they are better than everybody else because they are Brahmin elites and yet, on some level, their country is a sh**hole.”
An American law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who is also a neurologist and academic, Amy Wax has raised the hackles of people in India when she made these comments while being interviewed on Tucker Carlson Today, a show on Fox News‘ streaming service, Fox Nation.
In her diatribe, she also targeted “Blacks” and other “non-western” groups, saying that they harboured “a tremendous amount of resentment for Western peoples’ outsized achievements and contributions”.
The professor, whose work include articles on same-sex marriage, disparate impact theory and group demographics, rational choice and family structure, is a highly educated woman, boasting of being an alumni of both Harvard Law School as well as Columbia Law School. She is also a MD cum laude with distinction in neuroscience from Harvard Medical School.
The latest comments by the 69-year-old professor adds to her resume of hateful and racist remarks. She has acquired a reputation of speaking unfavourably about minority ethnicity in the US.
For instance, earlier in January, she faced calls for her tenure to be revoked when she made discriminatory remarks about the Asian-American community.
In an interview on a podcast, she described the immigration of “Asian elites” into the US as problematic. She was quoted as saying, “… But as long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”
Penn law school Dean Ted Ruger had denounced Wax’s comments as “anti-intellectual and racist”.
In 2018, she said that Black students seldom graduated high in their class. The comments were made by her during an interview, in which she said: “Here’s a very inconvenient fact, Glenn: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the class, and rarely, rarely, in the top half.”
It sparked outrage among student groups and faculty members, many of whom called her statements racist.
She has made her public statements on race and culture into something of a brand for herself. She also told the Daily Pennsylvanian that “everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans” because their cultural norms were superior. “I don’t shrink from the word ‘superior’.”
Neil Makhija, a Penn Law lecturer and the executive director of Indian American Impact, said he was concerned about Wax’s escalation of inflammatory comments on a platform as big as Fox News, according to a report by Axios.
University of Pennsylvania has once again distanced themselves from her comments.
In a response to The Independent, the university said: “The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School has previously made clear that Professor Wax’s views do not reflect our values or practices. “In January 2022, Dean [Theodore] Ruger announced that he would move forward with a University Faculty Senate process to address Professor Wax’s escalating conduct, and that process is underway. At this time, as required by the University Handbook, and to preserve the integrity of the process, we will not make any public statements until the proceedings have been completed.”
With inputs from agencies
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