Anti-Semitic Prof Facing Colleagues’ Sanction

Psychology Professor Kevin MacDonald (below, right) is facing condemnation from his colleagues for his anti-Semitic research, according to the California State University, Long Beach (CSU-LB), student newspaper, The Daily 49er. This academic

year, MacDonald was removed from certain undergraduate courses that had long been taught by him. University sources told Hatewatch in July that large numbers of complaints about MacDonald’s anti-Semitism and racism, which followed the April 2007 publication of the Intelligence Report’s exposé, “Promoting Hate,” spurred the change.

In December, MacDonald held a closed forum to defend his work before the psychology department’s faculty. He was pressed there to explain his research methodology, his ethics and his controversial theories alleging that Jews are genetically compelled to undermine Western societies (for more on MacDonald’s anti-Semitic research, see here and here). He was also asked to explain his many connections to white supremacists. Since the turn of the millennium, MacDonald has held leadership positions in several white supremacist groups, and in 2004 he was honored with a $10,000 prize for his work on the Jews by The Occidental Quarterly, a white supremacist publication where he currently serves on the editorial advisory board.

According to The Daily 49er, CSU-LB’s psychology department’s advisory committee will meet next week to discuss issuing a statement that would formally disassociate the department from MacDonald’s work. The committee has reportedly determined that the three statements already posted on the department website are inadequate for that purpose. Two of the statements reiterate the department’s commitment to diversity and denounce any use of psychological research as propaganda for racist groups. The third includes the expectation that faculty members whose work is controversial will “state that their views may not represent those of the department.”