Controversial Ivy League professor punished for 'racist' comments slams investigation

An Ivy League professor punished for her controversial takes on black students and Asian immigration described the investigation into her comments as 'brazen, absurd' and 'an absolute shambles.'

Amy Wax, a tenured law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, learned her fate this week after more than two years of ongoing investigations.

She will be suspended for a year on half pay from the fall of 2025, must declare that she does not reflect the faculty during speaking events and will face 'public reprimand by University leadership.'

'It was really a kangaroo court,' she said of her pending suspension back in March in an interview with Brown University academic Glenn Loury, while she was awaiting the verdict of an appeal.

She described her comments as 'standard conservative takes on very important social issues on group differences and group performance.

'Social issues at the heart of woke ideology which is taking over the university and which are totally appropriate for comment and critique.'

'It is brazen and absurd. What this report seems to be saying is there is one and only one set of very narrowly defined statements or opinions that one can make about these sacred protected groups. Blacks, of course, being the main sacred protected group.' 

Wax's commentary over several years formed the bulk of the case against her, culminating in an appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show in 2022.

'Black students tend to clump in the bottom half of the class, and actually it's worse than that,' she claimed. This comment was disputed by the university and Wax was criticized for breaching student confidentiality clauses.

'In my civil procedure class they would clump in the bottom 10-15 percent of the class. Occasionally people would break out of that and even make it into the top.'

In the complaint against her, seen by DailyMail.com, Wax was accused of making 17 remarks which served as 'examples of inequitably targeted disrespect' toward minorities.

These included suggesting 'low-income students may cause reverse contagion -infecting more capable and sophisticated students with their delinquency and rule-breaking.'

According to the report, Wax considered being branded a 'racist' the same as an honorific and a 'positive thing.'

The report quoted Wax as saying: 'I have been called a racist. I lost count of how many times I've been called a racist, and my view at this point is, you know, being a racist is an honorific. 

'To be called a racist means you notice reality and to me that's a positive thing not a negative thing that's an occasion for praise and admiration.' 

According to the report, she also said: 'I think the crime problem in this country, I'm sorry it is true, is overwhelmingly, certainly within cities, it is a black problem. It is a minority problem, okay?

'I often chuckle at the ads on TV which show a black man married to a white woman in an upper-class picket-fence house... They never show blacks the way they really are: a bunch of single moms with a bunch of guys who float in and out. Kids by different men.'

Wax's stance on Asian immigration was also addressed in the report. She was quoted saying: '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.'

Separately, nine incidents were provided to the school - under oath - by alumni and former students which were considered damaging.

Among the most severe of the complaints was telling a class that Mexican men were more likely to assault women, and emphasizing in another case that the witness was a black man, only to go on and call a black male student in class by the name of the  witness.

Wax was reportedly asked by a black law student to share her opinion on whether 'black people are inherently inferior to white people.'

The report said that Wax told the student 'you can have two plants that grow under the same conditions, and one will just grow higher than the other.'

Wax was also accused of remarking 'finally, an American... it's a good thing, trust me,' after a series of students with foreign-sounding names introduced themselves.

On another occasion, she allegedly told a student that black peers do not perform as well as white students because they are 'less prepared because of affirmative action.' 

School Provost John Jackson, Jr. issued a statement this week which said 'academic freedom is and should be very broad.'

'Teachers, however, must conduct themselves in a manner that conveys a willingness to assess all students fairly. The Board has determined that your conduct failed to meet these expectations, leaving many students understandably concerned that you cannot and would not be an impartial judge of their academic performance.'

The faculty Hearing Board concluded that you engaged in “flagrant unprofessional conduct” that breached your responsibilities as a teacher to offer an equal opportunity to all students to learn from you. 

'That conduct included a history of making sweeping and derogatory generalizations about groups by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status.'

Jackson Jr. said Wax also 'breached the requirement that student grades be kept private by publicly speaking about the grades of law students by race... and, on numerous occasions in and out of the classroom and in public, making discriminatory and disparaging statements targeting specific racial, ethnic, and other groups with which many students identify.'

According to a new report in the Washington Free Beacon, the University of Pennsylvania was reportedly willing to strike a deal with Wax which would have limited the sanctions.

The report stated she would have been required to sign a non-disparagement clause and would have prevented her from suing the school over the drawn out case.

'This case is about free expression,' Wax told the publication. 'Penn wanted absolute silence. The big question is: Why do they want to hide what they're doing?' 

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Vice President Alex Morey said the outcome should be disturbing even for those who don't agree with Wax.

'If that’s all it takes to sidestep tenure, the rights of even the most protected private college faculty are tenuous at best,' he said. 

Often the only thing standing between the angry college administrator — or the disgruntled donor, or the social media mob, or the local legislator coming for that professor’s job — is the time-honored principle of academic freedom.