A Colorado state teacher was recently suspended for peddling Leftist propaganda to his students during geography class. One of his students recorded him and sent the tape to a radio station as well as to other organizations so the teacher was “caught with his pants down”. Predictably, the teacher was invited on to weekend TV talk shows and given ample opportunity to play the victim of conservative intolerance. Anyone who has heard his protestations will recognize the typical glib politico-babble of a dedicated hard-Left activist. He and his defenders claim that his free speech rights are being denied him and that modern classroom geography cannot be taught without attacks on the US, capitalism and President Bush and his war.
Meanwhile, at Leeds University in the UK, Dr Ellis, a lecturer in Russian studies is under fire for giving an interview to a student newspaper in which he stated his belief that Blacks have a lower IQ than other races. He based his view on a number of academic studies carried out by some pre-eminent psychologists. These studies have been challenged over the years by other academics and there is no definitive research yet that settles the issue. It is not hard to see that in today’s multi-racial and highly politicized academic world, this subject is destined to be more a vicious battleground of ideology than a detached intellectual debate.
No one should be surprised that Media people in the UK are demanding the dismissal of the Leeds lecturer. At the time of writing, Leeds University, to its credit, has refused on the grounds that there is no evidence that the lecturer has introduced his views into the classroom or in his assessments of Black students’ work. A Media scribbler approvingly claims that Leeds students are mounting a campaign for Dr. Ellis’s dismissal. I would think his chances of survival in his job are nil by the time that the Media is finished orchestrating agitation on the issue. They and the nation’s Leftists are out to get him!
The two cases, both in the academic world, enable us to see the Media and its Leftist activists dealing with academic freedom (and its proper limitations) and free speech. An important difference in the two cases is, of course, that in the Colorado case, the teacher was politicking in work time (and in the process indoctrinating children with his own views when he is being paid by taxpayers to be politically neutral) and in the Leeds case the lecturer was giving his views in his capacity as an individual outside of the classroom.
Do not expect this distinction to be made by scribblers and Leftists. We will be bludgeoned with the argument that Black students have had their feelings hurt and consequently will be deterred from enrolling in his classes.
Something else worth commenting on is that teachers peddle their Leftist views in classrooms every day in the UK and USA without restraint, but are rarely recorded by students and exposed to the public. The boy who did this can expect some low marks in future and may experience some hurt feelings of his own for the rest of his days in the education process.
The Leeds lecturer has, it seems, revealed his views before and must have known that he was inviting persecution from many quarters, but his opinion on racial IQ’s reopens a topic of great significance. It is quite possible that there is a racial pecking order of IQ’s, but the Media and its Leftist allies will fight tooth and nail to smother any debate or honest research on this interesting topic. Conclusive evidence of innate differences between races (other than in sport) would do more than hurt the feelings of those who scored lowest, for it would expose serious weaknesses in the whole multi-cultural multi-racial experiment.
On this website we support free speech rights for all in private life other than incitement to violence against people and property. As long as Dr. Ellis only expresses his views on race outside of his classroom, he has done nothing wrong. The Colorado teacher, on the other hand should be denied future teaching employment. The Media can be expected to take an opposite view.