Harvard 3L and Larry Summers

(By Andrew MacKie-Mason)

What do a Harvard 3L and former Harvard President Larry Summers have in common? They've both been demonized for making valid statements that certain groups took as offensive.

The Harvard 3L incident happened this week. Apparently, months ago, she sent an email to a few friends. Now, after having a falling out, one of those "friends" forwarded the email and it went viral. PrawfsBlawg has the story here, as does Above the Law here. The student has been pilloried as "racist." So what did she actually say? Here's the full email, per Above the Law:

… I just hate leaving things where I feel I misstated my position.

I absolutely do not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent. I could also obviously be convinced that by controlling for the right variables, we would see that they are, in fact, as intelligent as white people under the same circumstances. The fact is, some things are genetic. African Americans tend to have darker skin. Irish people are more likely to have red hair. (Now on to the more controversial:) Women tend to perform less well in math due at least in part to prenatal levels of testosterone, which also account for variations in mathematics performance within genders. This suggests to me that some part of intelligence is genetic, just like identical twins raised apart tend to have very similar IQs and just like I think my babies will be geniuses and beautiful individuals whether I raise them or give them to an orphanage in Nigeria. I don’t think it is that controversial of an opinion to say I think it is at least possible that African Americans are less intelligent on a genetic level, and I didn’t mean to shy away from that opinion at dinner.

I also don’t think that there are no cultural differences or that cultural differences are not likely the most important sources of disparate test scores (statistically, the measurable ones like income do account for some raw differences). I would just like some scientific data to disprove the genetic position, and it is often hard given difficult to quantify cultural aspects. One example (courtesy of Randall Kennedy) is that some people, based on crime statistics, might think African Americans are genetically more likely to be violent, since income and other statistics cannot close the racial gap. In the slavery era, however, the stereotype was of a docile, childlike, African American, and they were, in fact, responsible for very little violence (which was why the handful of rebellions seriously shook white people up). Obviously group wide rates of violence could not fluctuate so dramatically in ten generations if the cause was genetic, and so although there are no quantifiable data currently available to “explain” away the racial discrepancy in violent crimes, it must be some nongenetic cultural shift. Of course, there are pro-genetic counterarguments, but if we assume we can control for all variables in the given time periods, the form of the argument is compelling.

In conclusion, I think it is bad science to disagree with a conclusion in your heart, and then try (unsuccessfully, so far at least) to find data that will confirm what you want to be true. Everyone wants someone to take 100 white infants and 100 African American ones and raise them in Disney utopia and prove once and for all that we are all equal on every dimension, or at least the really important ones like intelligence. I am merely not 100% convinced that this is the case.

Please don’t pull a Larry Summers on me,
CRIMSON DNA

(Above the Law doesn't list people's names when it comes to things like this, so used CRIMSON DNA as a pseudonym. I'll respect that and use it here, too.)

Many people are claiming that this 3L's email demonstrates deep seated racism. Some went so far as to attempt to pressure the judge who she's clerking for next year. They want the judge to cancel her clerkship.

The Dean of Harvard Law School even went so far as to criticize CRIMSON DNA for her statements:

Dear members of the Harvard Law School community:

I am writing this morning to address an email message in which one of our students suggested that black people are genetically inferior to white people.

This sad and unfortunate incident prompts both reflection and reassertion of important community principles and ideals. We seek to encourage freedom of expression, but freedom of speech should be accompanied by responsibility. This is a community dedicated to intellectual pursuit and social justice. The circulation of one student’s comment does not reflect the views of the school or the overwhelming majority of the members of this community.

As news of the email emerged yesterday, I met with leaders of our Black Law Students Association to discuss how to address the hurt that this has brought to this community. For BLSA, repercussions of the email have been compounded by false reports that BLSA made the email public and pressed the student’s future employer to rescind a job offer. A troubling event and its reverberations can offer an opportunity to increase awareness, and to foster dialogue and understanding. The BLSA leadership brought this view to our meeting yesterday, and I share their wish to turn this moment into one that helps us make progress in a community dedicated to fairness and justice.

Here at Harvard Law School, we are committed to preventing degradation of any individual or group, including race-based insensitivity or hostility. The particular comment in question unfortunately resonates with old and hurtful misconceptions. As an educational institution, we are especially dedicated to exposing to the light of inquiry false views about individuals or groups.

I am heartened to see the apology written by the student who authored the email, and to see her acknowledgement of the offense and hurt that the comment engendered.

I would like to thank the faculty, administrators, and students who have already undertaken serious efforts to increase our chances for mutual understanding, confrontation of falsehoods, and deliberative engagement with difficult issues, and making this an ever better community.

Sincerely,
Martha Minow

Of course, this is all ridiculous. The student's comments do not "suggest that black people are genetically inferior to white people." All she did is point out a disparity in scores between races and wonder whether some of that disparity could be caused by genetics. She said that she could be persuaded either way by empirical evidence.

And is there anyone out there who wouldn't be convinced one way or the other by empirical evidence? If there is, I submit, those people are the racists.

It should never be considered out of bounds to look for empirical evidence to explain social phenomena. The student didn't claim that there is a genetic predisposition, and she didn't suggest that we should treat black people differently from white people. All she did is exactly what she's supposed to do as a scholar, and she was rebuked for it by her own dean. Shameful.

Of course, the last line of the student's email is particularly apt. "Please don’t pull a Larry Summers on me." Because that's exactly what happened.

For those who aren't familiar with Larry Summers, he is a former President of Harvard University who resigned during the aftermath of a gender-scandal. The scandal?

At a conference meant to address gender disparities in tenured faculty positions in the math and sciences, President Summers suggested that men may have a broader distribution of IQ scores than women do. I.e., even if the average man and the average woman are equally intelligent, there are more extremely intelligent men as well as more extremely stupid men. As I understand the research, this claim is actually relatively well supported.

President Summers was widely criticized and accused of sexism, in much the same way that CRIMSON DNA was accused of racism. And both issued apologies, seemingly under pressure to do so.

The lesson, it seems to be, is that Harvard creates people who are willing to keep open minds (even when it goes against social norms) but that there are many people, in academia, the legal profession, and the wider world, who are more interested in suppressing conversations about race and gender rather than actually trying to figure out the vexing questions that surround those topics.

President Summers, CRIMSON DNA: I salute you. Continue to ask questions, even if it's uncomfortable.