The Frank Ellis Affair

The most hotly debated free speech issue in Britain at the moment is the Frank Ellis affair. Ellis is a senior academic at an English university who recently declared publicly his conclusion that on average blacks have lower IQs than whites. His university has suspended him from teaching as a result -- which violates academic freedom as well as free speech generally.

I appreciate that many readers here may not even wish to think about this issue but for those who do I have just put up here two letters that appeared in today's (7th.) "Times Higher Education Supplement" -- which is Britain's prime means of communicating university news and discussion. It is certainly not "Right wing" in any sense.



Anti-White Bigotry Automatically Believed

Say you are the only white in a large group of employees. You would be pretty silly to start saying derogatory things about blacks, wouldn't you? But what if your non-blackness is disliked by some of the blacks there so they want to get rid of you? Easy. One of the blacks accuses you of hate speech even though you have in fact uttered nothing of the kind. And because the accuser is black and the accused is white, the white is automatically demoted. No proof needed. And what say the blacks concerned really did use hate speech all the time but were never disciplined for it?

Sound fanciful? It certainly sounds obnoxious. And the 8th circuit appeals court has just decided that what I have described is exactly what hapened to Willa Russell. She ended up with $105,000 compensation but there was no word of any adverse consequences suffered by any of the black racists. So expect more of the same.




"Coyotes" Incorrect in Texas

I gather that coyotes are pretty pesky doggies. But smart too. So why not name a sporting team after them? You cannot name a sporting team after Indians or lots of other things these days so what is wrong with naming your team after a wild dog?

Lots apparently. The name was used for a new professional baseball team in Edinburg, Texas -- probably because the team liked the image of being tough and smart -- but the name is apparently said to be insulting to Mexican Americans. I am not sure why. Maybe Mexicans often get called that in Texas or maybe it is only Mexican people-smugglers who are called that.

What I can't figure is why it is insulting anybody to call your team by a particular name. Surely the name is adopted precisely because you think that name sounds good and praiseworthy. Surely it is praise rather than an insult! But I guess that some people are so twisted up that they will take almost anything as an insult.