Harvard Law Student: Blacks Might Be 'Less Intelligent'

Email on genes sets off firestorm
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2010 5:11 PM CDT
Harvard Law Student's Racist Email Goes Viral
Students walk through the Harvard Law School area on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., in this Nov. 19, 2002 file photo.   (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki, File)

A racially controversial email by a Harvard Law student is causing a flap after being forwarded to black student law groups around 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 has details.

Someone at the Harvard Black Law Student Association got hold of it and sent it out, with the author's full name, and it's gone viral. The author—who sent the lengthy email 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," one tipster tells Above the Law.
(More Harvard Law School stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X