Amy Wax spoke on a panel called ‘American Greatness and Immigration: The Case for Low and Slow’
Social media users are demanding that the University of Pennsylvania relieve professor Amy Wax of her teaching duties over controversial comments she made on immigration.
Wax, the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, made her remarks at the Edmund Burke Foundation’s National Conservatism conference in Washington D.C. that took place on Sunday through Tuesday.
A full transcript of her remarks – made during a panel called ‘American Greatness and Immigration: The Case for Low and Slow’ – were not available online, but was covered in extensive pieces from Buzzfeed and Vox.
‘Conservatives need a realistic approach to immigration that … preserves the United States as a Western and First World nation,’ she said on the panel.
‘We are better off if we are dominated numerically … by people from the First World, from the West, than by people who are from less advanced countries.’
She referenced a 2018 paper that argued for immigration based on ethnonational background.
At one point she said: ‘Embracing cultural distance, cultural distance nationalism means in effect taking the position that our country will be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites’
‘Europe and the first world to which the United States belongs remain mostly white for now, and the third world, although mixed, contains a lot of nonwhite people,’ Wax also stated.
‘Embracing cultural distance, cultural distance nationalism means in effect taking the position that our country will be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites. Well, that is the result, anyway.
‘So even if our immigration philosophy is grounded firmly in cultural concerns doesn’t rely on race at all, and no matter how many times we repeat the mantra that correlation is not causation, these racial dimensions are enough to spook conservatives. As a result today we have an immigration policy driven by fear.’
Wax was immediately blasted with criticism on twitter from Penn alums along with Law professors from other schools who added that she had a history of incendiary comments about minorities.
The Latinx Law Students Association – along with other organizations at the university -released a petition demanding a number of actions take place in regards to Wax’s ‘racist’ comments.
The Latinx Law Students Association – along with other organizations at the university -released a petition demanding a number of actions take place in regards to Wax’s ‘racist’ comments
They asked that Penn Law denounce her statements, develop an action plan to adequately train personnel on sensitivity training, relieve Wax of her teaching duties, hire more professors of color and for a meeting with Dean Ruger at the beginning of the year.
‘At Penn Law, diversity should not be a conversation that only emerges when Professor Wax uses the cover of her tenure to spew racist, anti-intellectual comments,’ the petition reads. ‘Diversity should be an ongoing dialogue that gains momentum through administration-sponsored events and a fully-developed diversity action plan that our classmates demanded two years ago.’
It later adds: ‘Professor Wax may believe she has the ability to demean the very students she teaches without consequence, but Penn collegiality should mean that the law school upholds its values of diversity and inclusion to make all students feel welcome—regardless of their heritage and immigration status.’
Jonah Gelbach, a law professor at the University of Berkeley, called the professor a ‘racist.’
The sentiment was shared by Katie Eyer, a law professor at Rutgers University, who added: ‘I’m not much one for callout culture, but Amy Wax has been preaching racism under the guise of academic authority for many years. It’s important to call it what it is. Thanks @gelbach for doing so.’
Jonah Gelbach, a law professor at the University of Berkeley, called the professor a ‘racist’
The sentiment was shared by Katie Eyer, a law professor at Rutgers University, who added: ‘I’m not much one for callout culture, but Amy Wax has been preaching racism under the guise of academic authority for many years. It’s important to call it what it is. Thanks @gelbach for doing so’
Vivek Kembaiyan, a student at Penn Law, said that Wax was a ‘drain on students of color at Penn.’
He added: ‘Amy Wax has been a drain on students of color at Penn Law for years, and students have been organizing against her in one form or another for as long.#lawtwitter if you have expertise in Education Law and are willing to take some of the burden off of us students, please DM’
Sara Paige, an alum of the university, stated that she would cut off her contributions to the University if Wax remained on staff.
‘This is certainly not the first time Wax has made abhorrent statements as a Penn professor, but it absolutely needs to be the last. @PennLaw’
In a statement to the Philly Voice, however, the university said that the professor was free to express her opinion.
‘As a member of the faculty Professor Wax is free to express her opinions as provided in Penn’s policies protecting academic freedom and open expression,’ they said in the statement. ‘It is also the case that views of individual faculty members do not represent the views of the institution, but rather their own personal beliefs.’
Vivek Kembaiyan, a student at Penn Law, said that Wax was a ‘drain on students of color at Penn’
