University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Amy Wax said in an interview that Black people and Asians are “resentful of western success.” The National Black Law Students Association, National Asian Pacific American Law Student Association and North American South Asian Law Association have called on Wax to be suspended from campus, reported NBC News.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Wax said the US would be “better off with fewer Asians.” She also said there was a “tremendous amount of resentment and shame” from “Blacks” and Asians because of western success. Additionally, she called India a “s—hole” and suggested South Asian American women be “grateful” to be in the US.
Leaders from the student law associations responded to her comments.
More from NBC News:
“It’s a bit scary thinking about the impact that she’s had teaching at Penn for so long,” Dillon Yang, president of the National Asian Pacific American Law Student Association and a second-year law student at Notre Dame University, told NBC Asian America. “Professors are supposed to teach the law in a neutral way, in ways that law students can form their own thoughts about the law. But clearly she doesn’t hide what she truly feels about the different minority groups in America. It’s hard for me to believe that it wouldn’t shine through in a classroom setting.”
Richard Garzola, chair of NBLSA and a second-year law student at Georgetown University, said Wax isn’t the first professor accused of racism to teach at a law school. But her comments are cutting and feel intentionally harmful, he said.
“She was using verbiage from the late 1800s or early 1900s, speaking about students as ‘the Blacks,’” he said. “I wonder, when is that cloud of tenure going to stop protecting folks at legal institutions?”
In their letter, the student law associations called for an investigation into Wax and her grading of Black and brown students, her suspension from campus as well as her removal from all her teaching duties, reported NBC. So far, the university has removed her from one of the two courses she teaches.
Wax responded to the situation in an interview with Gad Saad saying what was being done was “truly alarming” and that she was “a casualty in the culture wars.” A University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School spokesperson told NBC the school has made it clear Wax’s views do not align with their values.