Penn law professor offends the Left, but is saved by tenure

The University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School is under fire, again, over comments made by one of its law professors named Amy Wax.

Wax, a tenured faculty member, has a history of making comments and remarks that critics call racist. Recently, Wax made similar comments about Asian immigrants on the show of Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

She blasted Asian Indian Americans as having a tendency to “turn around and lead the charge on ‘we’re racist, we’re an awful country.’ On some level, their country is a sh**hole.” Wax appeared to be making the case that it was hypocritical for Asian immigrants, or first-generation Asian-Americans, to criticize the U.S. after receiving more opportunities than in their ancestral lands.

It was not the first time that Wax’s comments invited controversy.

In January 2022, Wax attended an off-campus event and made comments that critics said were derogatory toward Asians.

The law school’s dean, Theodore Ruger, denounced Wax’s remarks as “thoroughly anti-intellectual and racist comments denigrating Asian immigrants.” But his statement was an about-face from his previous defense of Wax’s right to academic and intellectual freedoms as a tenured professor.

The Left clamored for the law school to can Wax, but she is a tenured law professor. Tenure typically makes it extremely difficult for higher education institutions to fire professors. Among the Right, tenure is derided as a way to be employed for life without consequence nor accountability.

If anything, Wax’s situation reminds many that the tenure system in higher education is outdated and should be revised, if not abolished.

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