In Australia, a professor faces punishment for politically unacceptable speech:
Academic Andrew Fraser will defy the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission by not apologising to the Sudanese community for his study linking African refugees to high crime rates.
In a landmark ruling that raises fresh questions about the limits to which academics can engage in public debate, HREOC chairman John von Doussa has found Professor Fraser’s comments were unlawful because they amounted to a “sweeping generalisation” that was not backed by research.Professor Fraser was suspended last year from teaching at Sydney’s Macquarie University over his comments about Sudanese refugees in Australia.
(Greg Roberts, “Academic still links Africans to crime”, The Australian, Apr. 4)(via David Bernstein).
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The Knucklehead of the Day award
Today’s winner is John von Doussa, Chairman of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
Of course, there ought not be anything illegal about “sweeping generalizations” – that’s really what academics are about. It just so happens that Prof. Fraser’s particular generalization – which is in fact backed up by the facts – is unflattering. Cases like this make me wonder whose “human rights” are being protected by the proliferation of agencies bearing that name.