UK: Protesters Vandalize Oxford's Cecil Rhodes statue
The Facts
- A campaign group called Led By Donkeys placed a Ku Klux Klan hood and a sign reading "Racists Welcome Here" on the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford's Oriel College on Thursday, in protest at a talk the college is hosting by U.S. academic Nathan Cofnas.
- More than 30,000 people have signed a petition opposing Cofnas' appearance, backed by members of Parliament, including Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn. The group Stand Up To Racism plans a protest in Oriel Square at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, an hour before the event.
- Forty-nine senior Oriel fellows, faculty and staff signed a statement in a personal capacity describing Cofnas' claims about race and intelligence as "racist, abhorrent and without scientific foundation." Cofnas replied that none of them were in his field of study and that they offered no evidence.
Sources Split
LEFT
CENTER
RIGHT
+1
ESTAB
CRIT
CENTER
PRO
ESTAB
The Spin
Right narrative
A university that can't uphold the most basic free speech standards is worth nothing, and Oriel has proven unafraid, unlike other U.K. schools that only give lip service before caving to the mob. Of the 49 faculty signatories denouncing this work, none is a psychologist, behavioral geneticist or anthropologist, so they appealed to victimhood instead of making strong arguments. Cofnas uses hard data, including top universities' own admissions studies, so he should be debated, not threatened.
Left narrative
Heritability within a population says nothing about why group averages differ, and no one has produced a number for how much of the gap is genetic. Turning one disputed thesis into a verdict on Black professors as a group is a leap the evidence cannot carry, and no college owes a stage to work that shaky, let alone bigoted. Oriel would be within its rights to cancel this event or make it virtual to avoid violence, but either way, protesters will be there to exercise their free speech if he attends.
