U. Penn Law Professor Disciplined For Comments About Black Students
Penn law professor Amy Wax Image by Screenshot/Youtube
The University of Pennsylvania law school took disciplinary action this week against a professor who made remarks asserting black students are rarely successful, according to the Washington Post.
Tenured professor Amy Wax, who is Jewish, faced sharp criticism in recent days after video surfaced of an interview she gave in September 2017 on the YouTube show, “The Downside to Social Uplift.”
“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,” Wax said, discussing affirmative action policies. “I can think of one or two students who scored in the top half of my required first-year course.” She also claimed the law review has a diversity mandate.
Theodore Ruger, dean of the law school, disputed her remarks.
“Black students have graduated in the top of the class at Penn Law,” Ruger said. “And contrary to any suggestion otherwise, black students at Penn Law are extremely successful, both inside and outside the classroom, in the job market.”
Wax will no longer teach required first year courses, but will continue to teach electives in her specialty area, social welfare law and policy.
A black student in the class of 2018 posted a thread on Twitter detailing her experience in Wax’s first semester class.
When I got ready to go to law school everyone told me to go to the best school I got in to. With Philly being my home, and Penn being so highly ranked, it wasn’t hard to choose Penn Law for my JD journey. Almost as soon as I received my 1L schedule I began to receive warnings…
— Hey Auntie (@ToniInMyCitie) March 13, 2018
Contact Avichai Scher at scher@forward.com or on Twitter, @avi_scher
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