'US better off with fewer Asians': Ivy League professor lambasted for xenophobia

A professor from the law faculty of an Ivy League university in the United States has come under flak for her "racist and xenophobic" comments against Asians, including a call for less immigration into the US from Asian countries.

The dean of the University of Pennsylva's law school lambasted professor Amy Wax who in an interview last month had criticised Asian immigration to the United States and warned of the "danger of the dominance of an Asian elite" in the country.

Brahmjot Kaur, writing in NBC News said that Wax, appearing on the podcast Bloggingheads.tv by journalist Glenn Loury commented: "If you go into medical schools, you'll see that Indians, South Asians are now rising stars. In medicine, they're sort of the new Jews, I guess, but these diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are poisoning the scientific establishment and the medical establishment now."

"As long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration," Wax had said.

The professor had also criticized diversity and inclusion initiatives and said immigrants should be "abjectly grateful" rather than critical of the United States.

Dean of the University of Pennsylva Law School, Theodore Rugers, criticized the "thoroughly anti-intellectual and racist" comments, reported NBC News.

"Like all racist generalizations, Wax's comments inflict harm by perpetuating stereotypes and placing differential burdens on Asian students, faculty, and staff," the dean wrote.

"As we have previously emphasized, Wax's views are diametrically opposed to the policies and ethos of this institution. They serve as a persistent and tangible reminder that racism, sexism, and xenophobia are not theoretical abstractions but are real and insidious beliefs in this country and in our building," Rugers said in a statement by the University of Pennsylva Carey Law School.

This is not the first time that Wax, a specialist in social welfare law and labour and family economics law, has made such racist remarks.

Previously she had has said that America "will be better off with more whites and fewer non-whites" and that Black law school students "rarely" graduate in the top half or quarter of their classes, despite possessing no academic evidence to support this, reported Michael Tanenbaum, writing in Philly VOICE.

Wax's latest targets are Asian immigrants in the United States, a group she claims does not embrace a "don't tread on me attitude" and shies from non-conformism. The comments Wax made started to circulate widely after the editor of Current Affairs magazine, Nathan Robinson, tweeted about them on Sunday.

The professor, shielded by her tenure, has spent the last several years debasing her titular prestige by aspiring to be an edge lord, decrying the danger of an 'Asian elite'. But, she was skewered this time for claiming the US is "better off with fewer Asians", reported Philly VOICE.

As the remarks from her recent conversation with Loury spread, many have called for her to face stricter discipline or removal from Penn Law, said Tanenbaum.

Mary Trump, the author and niece of former President Donald Trump, lamented that Wax maintains such an influence.

Ari Cohn, a Chicago attorney who specializes in First Amendment and defamation matters, pointed out the hypocrisy of Wax's conclusions about Asians.

( With inputs from ANI )