‘Racist’ Professor Cautioned, But Launches New Attack

SYDNEY’S Macquarie University has warned a senior academic he faces disciplinary action if he continues making public statements that refugees have labelled racist and inflammatory.

But a defiant Andrew Fraser, associate professor in public law, launched a fresh attack on Africans in Australia, claiming they had low IQs and “significantly more testosterone”, making them a crime risk.

The Australian reported yesterday that the university was investigating allegations Professor Fraser had ties with the neo-Nazi Patriotic Youth League. The PYL website records him as a member, and a spokesman said he acted as the group’s legal adviser.

Yesterday, the university’s acting vice-chancellor John Loxton said he had spoken to Professor Fraser. “I have made it very clear to him that we have policies about this and ways of calling our staff to account for what they do,” Professor Loxton said. He said university policy restricted academics to speaking publicly about their area of expertise.

“If he continues to give those views when he says he is associate professor, we will have to consider if that is in his area of expertise.”

But Professor Fraser insisted he had the university’s support. “They say I can’t speak on behalf of the university and I don’t,” he said.

He invoked the abolition of slavery in the US as proof of the link between high crime rates and people of African origin. “When blacks were segregated in the south, the problem of crime wasn’t that great. When they moved north to Chicago and Detroit and so on, all those social controls went away and things spiralled out of control.”

Professor Fraser said refugees from sub-Saharan Africa posed a crime risk. “Their IQ is 70 to 75 so there are differences between the cognitive ability of blacks and whites. Blacks also have significantly more testosterone floating around their system than whites.”

Professor Fraser said he had registered his contact details with the PYL, which is associated with prominent neo-Nazi Jim Saleam, but did not act as their legal adviser. “If a bunch of young people are engaged in some activity which I approve of, I am not going to tell them to keep away from me,” he said.

Queensland Sudanese community leader Angelo Geng described Professor Fraser’s comments about crime as hurtful and unfair. “It is not right to be stereotyping all people from Africa as criminals when you have good and bad in any society,” Mr Geng said.

“It is a big concern that he uses his position as university professor to say racist things.”

Anti-racism campaigner Mathew Henderson-Hau said Professor Fraser was using his university position to promote “white supremacist” views.

“He’s entitled to his opinion but the public should be aware of his neo-Nazi connection before they weigh up his arguments,” he said.