Controversial Cambridge University fellow sparks another race row after claiming 'black people would only be famous for sports and entertainment' in a meritocracy and says Harvard would 'have no black professors'
By Elizabeth Haigh07:17 09 Feb 2024, updated 07:22 09 Feb 2024
A fellow at the University of Cambridge has sparked controversy again after claiming that the idea of equality between races is a 'thesis based on lies' and there would be no black professors at Harvard if admission was based on merit alone.
Nathan Cofnas, a college research fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy, published the online blog post on Monday in which he discussed how to 'build a better world' by convincing others of his beliefs.
It is not the first time the academic has caused controversy after a 2019 paper in which he described 'race differences in intelligence' came to light following his appointment to the university in 2022.
Mr Cofnas this week claimed that if top education institutions were to judge applicants only on merit, then Harvard's faculty would contain no black professors, and that 'blacks would disappear' from almost all high-profile positions.
recruited from the best of the best students, which means the number of black professors would approach 0 percent.
'Blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.'
Later in his post, Mr Cofnas added: 'Whites are the ones who brought blacks out of Africa and created the conditions where they failed to develop a culture of homework, respect for the law, and strong nuclear families.'
The fellow also dismissed the concept of racial equality: 'The equality thesis is based on lies. Expose the lies and present the truth in a way that smart people can understand, and you can change minds.'
He claimed he feels 'no need to quarantine' himself from 'nonwhites', but added: 'There must be some barriers set up between races in order for each one to express its own unique genius.'
And just days after the sentencing of the killers of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey, Mr Cofnas suggested it is self-hatred which is causing some children to identify as transgender
He wrote: 'White children are brainwashed to despise themselves because of their skin color. Anecdotally, white children are sometimes driven to transgenderism in an attempt to escape the shameful status of oppressor.'
There is no evidence that this is the case, and Mr Cofnas did not present any cases to back up this claim.
It came less than a week after a judge ruled that Brianna was murdered because she was transgender, with both teenage killers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe being motivated 'in part' due to her gender identity.
Mr Cofnas concludes towards the end of his post that society should 'accept that talent is not distributed equally within or across groups', chillingly adding: 'When race realism is accepted, our cultural values will change. A new equilibrium will arise.'
Dr Bronwen Everill, Director of the University's centre of African studies, told Cambridge's student newspaper that the continued employment of Mr Cofnas is 'like having a flat earther on the physics faculty - it's embarrassing'.
She continued: 'It's a shame that, in an era when so many young academics doing groundbreaking scholarship based on real research are struggling to find jobs, others, hired purely to promote an anti-woke agenda, use the University's brand to write click-bait blog posts.'
Members of Cambridge's student body previously launched a petition to have Mr Cofnas removed from his position, calling for funding for his three-year post to be terminated by the Leverhulme Trust.
Professor Angela Breitenbach, Chair of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, said: 'The views expressed in these blogs do not represent the views of the Faculty of Philosophy
'The Faculty strives to be a leader in defending equality and fostering inclusion. There is no place for racism at the University of Cambridge.'
The university declined to comment on whether it is investigating Mr Cofnas' conduct.
When approached for comment, Mr Cofnas said: 'According to the FBI, African Americans commit murder at about six times the rate of white Americans.
'According to the US Department of Education, 15% of black high-school students are proficient in reading compared with 41% of white students and 59% of Asian students.
'78% of black children are born out of wedlock compared with 30% of white and 31% of Asian children.
'Mainstream conservatives often attribute these disparities to ‘culture’, claiming that blacks don’t have a culture of homework, respect for the law, and strong nuclear families to the same degree as whites and Asians. My point is that cultural explanations for racial disparities indirectly implicate whites, since whites are on the hook for creating and maintaining the conditions that caused the bad culture.
'The statistics I referred to are from the US and don’t necessarily apply to the UK. African immigrants to the UK are relatively elite, and they may have outcomes that are similar to or better than those of native whites.
'Harvard University was sued for (and found guilty of) racial discrimination against Asians. We know the distribution of scores it gives applicants for academic performance, extra curriculars, and personality. If admissions were based solely on academic merit, blacks would be 0.7% of Harvard students. This is not disputable. In a meritocracy where professors were drawn from the highest performing Harvard students, it is a statistical inevitability that blacks would make up a very small percentage.'
