Black and White Views Back in the Classroom
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Josh Massoud, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Feb. 10, 2006
A university academic who sparked a racial furore by recommending that Australia revert to white-only immigration will resume teaching this month.
Macquarie University associate professor Andrew Fraser has been prevented from lecturing law since July last year.
The Canadian-born professor was suspended from teaching after publicly claiming Australia’s current immigration policy would create low IQ African communities and an Asian ruling class.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal an unapologetic Professor Fraser will return from his enforced exile this semester.
“I’ve come to the realisation that universities are really enormous conformist institutions and it’s really important to try to open some space in the academic world for dissident ideas,” he said yesterday.
Despite the bitter fallout, Professor Fraser has refused to apologise and even urged the Federal Government to hold a referendum on ending “non-white immigration”.
Ironically, the only class he is scheduled to teach—American Constitutional History—is loaded with racial issues.
The professor has promised to tackle the subject in his head-on, controversial style.
“You can’t teach US Constitutional history without dealing with racial issues,” he said.
Professor Fraser maintained that his views are rooted in science but bemoaned the fact no academics from that field would publicly support him.
“In the science campus this stuff is not news,” he said.
“They just know it’s not wise to stick your neck out.”
Despite the wider social firestorm over his remarks, culminating in Australian-African communities threatening to sue, he has enjoyed support from Macquarie law students.
His return, however, will be short-lived. Professor Fraser has announced he will retire at the end of the semester.
“I’ve got no doubt they [academia] regard me as an evil, wicked person who should be driven from society,” he said.
“But every day it’s becoming clearer and clearer that racial differences are real. If there are differences in cognitive ability between racial groups, that has to have implications for the educational and immigration policy of this country.”
Macquarie University would not comment.
(Posted on February 10, 2006)