‘Race-Realist’ Cambridge Fellow Sues College Over Dismissal

An academic at the University of Cambridge is suing his college after being sacked for arguing that under a meritocracy, the number of black professors at Harvard would drop to almost zero.

Nathan Cofnas, a philosophy researcher at Emmanuel College, has brought a legal challenge against the college’s decision to cut ties with him after his views were deemed to be “a rejection of diversity, equality, and inclusion” (DEI) that was incompatible with the college’s “core values and mission”.

He wrote a blog post claiming that race was linked to academic ability and that under a true meritocracy, black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment”. He also called for an end to “the war on nature”, claiming that people needed to “accept that talent is not distributed equally within or across groups”.

Cofnas has characterised his views as “race realism” and advocates for the preservation of “racial distinctions” and a “hereditarian revolution” against the “DEI devil”.

The Free Speech Union, which is sponsoring his case, published a statement by Cofnas in which he claimed that “Emmanuel’s own rules make it clear that they did not have the authority to dismiss me” and said he intended to create a precedent protecting “the right of academics to express politically incorrect views about race”.

He claimed that student campaigns for his removal had made it dangerous for him to walk down the street after they plastered flyers featuring his face around campus and held a protest outside the philosophy department calling for his removal.

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