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From: karl h schwerin <>
Subject: [WHITNEY-L] Not So Great Whitney
Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 16:17:46 -0600 (MDT)


Recently there have been numerous posts to the list documenting
distinguished and accomplished Whitneys. I have no doubt that 99.5 per
cent of Whitneys are individuals of whom we can be proud, but once in
awhile there does seem to be a blot on the Whitney name. Nonetheless,
history doesn't always happen the way we'd like it to. So,in the
interests of historic completeness, I'm posting the following item about
an extremely racist Whitney. The item appeared in the Summer 2002 issue
of "The Southern Poverty Law Center's INTELLIGENCE REPORT" (p. 5).

And yes, I did mention this "scientist" in my presentation at the WRG
Reunion, but only because another member had given me his name. I must
admit that all I knew about him was that he was "a psychologist, educator
and geneticist," and didn't inquire further about his research or
publications.


"Academic Racism
"Death of a 'Truth-Telling Gentlemen'

"The radical right lost one of its favorite race scientists when
62-year-old Glayde Whitney died in Florida on Jan. 9.
"Whitney was a regular contributor to __American Renaissance__, a
racist magazine emphasizing IQ studies and eugenics, and an active member
the (sic) Council of Conservative Citizens, the reincarnation of the White
Citizens Councils formed in the 1950s to resist desegregation of Southern
schools. He also taught psychology at Florida State University for more
than 31 years, researching the genetic mechanisms underlying behavior.
His main finding was that science supposedly 'proves' that blacks are
generally less intelligent than whites.
"Whitney gained national notoriety when he wrote a fawning
introduction to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke's 1999 book, --__My
Awakening__. Whitney concluded that Duke had relied on 'good science' in
contending that blacks should be separated from whites. He called Duke a
'seeker of truth' not unlike some of history's greatest thinkers,
including 'Socrates and Isaac Newton.'
"'One of his honest truths,' Whitney wrote of Duke, is that
'racial egalitarianism is the scientific equivalent of the flat-earth
theory.'
"In lieu of flowers, Whitney's family asked that donations be sent
to the Charles Martel Society, the self-described 'intellectual home of
Western nationalism.' The recently created society puts out a slick,
academic-looking journal called __The Occidental Quarterly__, edited by
William H. Regnery II, the reclusive Chicago millionaire who is heir to
the Regnery publishing fortune. The second issue, published soon after
Whitney's death, ends with a lengthy book review by Whitney in which he-no
irony intended-picks apart a thesis that 'smacks of ideology more than
science.'
"Whitney's children, Timothy and Scott, asked that 'ole Doc' be
remembered as 'the double-gun toting, intellectual, un-conforming,
truth-telling gentleman that he is, was, and always will be.'"



Karl SchwerinSnailMail: Dept. of Anthropology
Univ. of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131
e-mail:

Cultural anthropology...is valuable because it is constantly rediscovering
the normal. Edward Sapir (1949:151)

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