Ackman, Fryer Launch $1M Prize for 'Academic Courage'
The Spin
Right narrative
Self-censorship and groupthink has rotted U.S. academia so thoroughly at this point that honest scholarship now needs a bounty on it. The Carob Trust Prize for Academic Courage, offering up to $1 million to as many as five social scientists a year, finally rewards researchers who follow evidence instead of the prevailing consensus. Judging life's work and backing younger scholars makes it stronger still.
Left narrative
Calling this "academic courage" conveniently leaves out the politics behind it. Ackman has spent years attacking diversity initiatives and led a relentless campaign against Harvard's first Black president, Claudine Gay. Now he's backing a prize with Roland Fryer supposedly built around challenging racial orthodoxies. It's hard to see the prize as "neutral" when it almost certainly favors a particular view on race.
