Scientists Agree: Justice Scalia Is A Racist Idiot

After igniting controversy with his comments about African-American scientists, a group of physicists and astrophysicists strike back.

onDecember 14, 2015 at 9:58 AM

To paraphrase Ron Burgundy, Justice Scalia’s brain is a third the size… it’s science. After expressing sympathy toward the argument — raised in an amicus brief in Fisher — that African-American scientists just can’t cut it at the premier academic institutions in the country, a group of physicists and astrophysicists took to the internet to respectfully, yet systematically explain what an idiot Justice Scalia is.

Unlike [amici] Heriot and Kirsanow, we are scientists and science educators who are keenly aware that merely adding students to a pipeline is not enough to correct for the imbalance of power. The experience of a minority student in STEM is often much different from that of a white student in STEM. Minority students attending primarily white institutions commonly face racism, biases, and a lack of mentoring. Meanwhile, white students unfairly benefit psychologically from being overrepresented. We argue that it is the social experience of minority students that is more likely to make them drop out, rather than a lack of ability.

And they aren’t too convinced that Chief Justice Roberts understands science or racism either. Didn’t they read Shelby County? Chief Justice Roberts knows that racism is over and has the non-sensical tables to prove it!

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Before Justice’s Scalia’s remarks on black scientists, Justice Roberts asked, “what unique perspective does a minority student bring to physics class?” and “What [are] the benefits of diversity… in that situation?” Before addressing these questions directly, we note that it is important to call attention to questions that weren’t asked by the justices, such as, “What unique perspectives do white students bring to a physics class?” and “What are the benefits of homogeneity in that situation?” We reject the premise that the presence of minority students and the existence of diversity need to be justified, but meanwhile segregation in physics is tacitly accepted as normal or good. Instead, we embrace the assumption that minority physics students are brilliant and ask, “Why does physics education routinely fail brilliant minority students?”

The full letter, reproduced on the next page, encapsulates the frustration of a community that feels used as a cheap rhetorical device by ideologues only interested in neutering the law’s ability to suggest that some white people aren’t naturally superior.

At last check, the document boasts 37 pages of signatures from physicists working at prestigious institutions ranging from M.I.T. to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

But don’t cry for Justice Scalia. He’s been known to respond to the consensus of 98 percent of scientists by explaining “whatever, I told you before I’m not a scientist” so this shouldn’t bug him one bit.