Feature By DIDI HERMAN and LEANNE W. MacMILLAN niversity of Western Ontario psychology professor Phillipe Rushton’s paper to a conference of the American Associa- tion for the Advan- cement of Science in San Francisco last month has won him considerable media attention. Rushton has published five books, over 100 articles, and has been attending aca- demic conferences for a number of years. One guesses he decided it was time for a wider forum. His field of work is not new, nor has it gone unchallenged. If one traces the history of eugenics — the theory that the human race can be altered and improved through “breeding” — it becomes clear it is tied with justifications for colonialism (both new and old) and imperialism. It is tied with restrictions on immigration in capitalist countries at times of economic crisis, forced sterilization, and justifications for why the “War on Poverty” left Black Americans impoverished. _ Rushton bases part of his conclusions on research by his mentor Arthur Jensen. Jensen is an educational psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. He released a paper in 1969 arguing that based on his IQ comparisons, remedial education programs in U.S. should be scrapped. Jensen’s research was based on studies by Sir Cyril Burt, a London Board'of Educa- tion consultant psychologist for 19 years. Princeton psychologist Leon J. Kamin checked through Burt’s work, and deter- mined the results were statistically impossi- ble. Further research discovered not just mathematical mistakes or carelessness, but an elaborate fraud. Burt’s alleged co- authors did not exist, and his back-up stu- dies were not actually carried out. Carrying on in this vein, Rushton groups humanity into three “races”: “Oriental,” “Black” and “white”. To him Inuit and North American Indians are “anomalies”: he therefore disregards them completely — not an unfamiliar phenomenon for aborigi- nal peoples. His evolutionary views have been chal- lenged by most archeological evidence. Contrary to most racist dogma, he posits that Blacks evolved first, followed by whites (USPS Salad ie cea ee acai te meee Academic freedom is not neu- tral ... it is worth noting that a UWO assistant professor, who and then Asians. Previous generations of racists suggested the oldest “race” was the most advanced. For them whites came first. To reach his conclusions, Rushton com- pared head measurements, a methodology even eugenics had abandoned by the turn of the century in favour of IQ testing. To heads, he has added 60 other measures in an attempt to correlate intelligence, sexual res- traint, lawlessness, head, genital and family size (or “litters,” as he prefers to call it). Rushton admits his “ignorance.” For instance, he says he doesn’t understand the use of racist theories and “science” by the Nazis. It is questionable how anyone who has chosen this field of work could be unin- formed of the role played by eugenics in the horrible crimes of the Hitler regime. How" can someone born and educated in the 6 « Pacific Tribune, March 6, 1989 Rushton, eugenics and the ‘science’ of racism ay professing igonorance of their work. apartheid regime of South Africa not know what racists with power can do? Rushton’s work has raised the issue of academic freedom and his “right” to con- duct racist research. Academic freedom is one thing in theory; in practice it becomes a shield which protects university teachers and researchers from public scrutiny. It deflects all attempts to render their work accountable to the society or even the uni- versity community as a whole. Only through a private, exclusive, self-serving process euphemistically known as “peer group review” can their ideas or theories be challenged. The defenders of academic freedom often claim the concept is politically neutral; that all academics receive equal protection. But academic freedom is not neutral. It serves particular interests and not others. In this regard, it is worth noting that a UWO assistant professor, who as head of the London Urban Alliance on Race Rela- tions led an effort to oust Rushton, has lost his teaching contract with the university. Godfrey Moses, who is also a biochemist at London’s University Hospital, has been fired from both positions for his efforts. Similarly, a U.S. study indicates that in cases where colleagues blow the whistle on shoddy or fraudulent research, in 90 per cent of the cases it is the accuser, not the accused, who is disciplined. In the same way abstract notions of “free speech” promote the speech of porno- graphers and silence the women abused in and by pornography, so academic freedom shields those academics who most fla- grantly propagate ruling class racist and sexist ideologies. At the same. time, the opposition is silenced through the ritualistic incantation of the words “academic free- dom.” But aside from all this, Rushton should be fired because of academic incompetence and dishonesty. We cannot refute his work step by step in this article. Persons interested should contact CBC Radio for the trans- cripts of an excellent Quirks and Quarks expose of this type of “science” which was aired on Feb. 18. Suffice it to say his work is based on secondary research which has been pre- J. PHILIPPE RUSHTON ... following in the footsteps of Nazi researchers while viously discredited. He has done no original : or basic research in genetics himself, nor is he trained to do such work. It is bad science in the service of a bad cause. Rushton says he has been the victim of “slurs worthy of McCarthyism.”’ However, McCarthyism is a system which required people to do certain things, such as pledging allegiance to the American Way, testifying and “naming names.” It was definitely in the interests of the powerful, those who were interested in the further development of the military industrial complex; in stop- ping struggles for Black civil and economic rights; in class collaborationist trade unions; and stopping struggles for women and gay and lesbian rights. It was about lies and distortions and untruths. Academic freedom, by definition, is something else. It is about allowing people to research and state views that are unpopu- lar to those in power. It is about academic integrity and honesty and critical challeng- ing work. It is about protecting those who threaten present understandings of how the world is organized. It is in this sense that Rushton, far from being a victim of McCarthyite tactics, is an embodiment of those ideals. Notions of genetic intelligence immutability are partic- ularly suited to this era of New Right polit- ics. These so-called theories encourage a “victim-blaming” ideology and rationalize the neoconservatives’ overall retreat from welfare state policies aimed at remedying inequalities caused by class position. It does a disservice to those who suffered under McCarthyism to be compared to Rushton. Their views were unpopular with those in power. Rushton’s views are unpopular with those without power. Rushton also fuels racist constructions of AIDS by claiming the innate sexual pro- miscuity of Black people is contributing to the spread of the disease. His theory genet- ics will lead to “Orientals overtaking whites” in economic and scientific perfor- mance which fans an already well-stoked fire of anti-Asian racism. Rushton claims economic conservatives are more genetically pure, and he blames the defeat of the U.S. army in Vietnam on the inferiority of its Black soldiers. Perhaps if more “real” (white) men like Dan Quayle _ had gone to Vietnam instead of law school, the Commies would have been beaten? Let’s examine the organization that has funded Rushton. Between 1984 and 1987 he and another psychology professor at West- ern, Tony Vernon, received almost a quar- ter of a million dollars from the Pioneer Fund. This privately funded and operated, tax- exempt organization was founded in 1937 by a US. industrialist, W.P. Draper. Draper was a major protagonist in the 1930s movement to send all Afro- Americans back to Africa. He was also a prime player in the importation of eugenics films and Nazi propaganda into the U.S. The fund’s co-founder, Harry Lockier, received an honorary award from a Ger- man university for his contribution to Nazi eugenics research. Another fund operator, Osborne, was instrumental in developing enforced sterilization laws for the mentally handicapped which were adopted in the U.S. and Alberta — and are still on the books in that province. The fund still operates from Draper’s estate. Its racist goals and links remain ee ee. 5. Lee nme Toe | The organization that has funded Rushton, the Pioneer Fund, ... was founded in 1937 by a US. industrialist, W.P. Draper, a major protago- nist in the 1930s movement to send all Afro-Americans back to Africa. EE ETE BT MERE 0h ETT DoT unchanged. Current board member Tho- _ mas F. Ellis was campaign manger for arch- reactionary Jessie Helms’ bid to the U.S. Senate. It is a sponsor of the World Anti- Communist League and helps finances numerous neo-nazi publications, including Mankind Quarterly, a British racist journal, where in 1987 Rushton published a Paper predicting that ethnic minorities would soon take power in the United States and the Soviet Union. : The fund actively opposes anti-segrega- tionist school busing and supports restrict- ing immigration based on race. To be eligible for a Pioneer Fund grant, the appli- cant must be prepared to. study “the genetic basis and nature and extent of certain indi- vidual and group differences.” If the Pioneer Fund was challenged, then maybe the whole process of private sector funding of post-secondary education would be opened to criticism. Embarrassing inci- dents, like the CIA brainwashing experi- ments at McGill, could be raised to question military research of all sorts, including Star Wars and biological weapons. To criticize Rushton’s work as being poor quality, never mind racist, is to open up the whole process of who controls our academic institutions. In all these ways and more, Rushton’s theories are anything but abstract intellec- tualizing; they are concrete contributions to racist ideology and practice with real, mate- rial effects on people’s lives. Didi Herman and Leanne MacMillan are senior law students at Osgoode Hall in Toronto.