It’s Baaack! Idea That Blacks Could Be Genetically Less Intelligent Emerges From Harvard

A racially controversial e-mail by a Harvard Law student has blacks at the prestigious school and others up in arms after being forwarded to black student law groups around the nation. The damning line from the unidentified third-year student: “I absolutely do not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent.” The Above the Law blog details.

Someone at the Harvard Black Law Student Association got ahold of it and sent it out, with the author’s full name, and it’s gone viral. The author — who sent the lengthy e-mail to clarify comments made at a dinner but only made things worse — is in line for a federal clerkship, and now a movement is afoot to block it. “This is going to get ugly,” a tipster told Above the Law.

This assertion is nothing new, given that several before the now-embattled law student have claimed to lean on genetics to prove blacks’ intellectual inferiority. Most believe, however, that it is an environmental predisposition that can lead to stunted intellectual growth based on race, as opposed to genes. Besides, an intellectual example and class act was birthed right out of Harvard’s womb — and he’s running the country. And yes, we’ll go with the one-drop rule here. –gerald radford