…pending an investigation into possible “discrimination” against the late Professor Arday. It was Dr. Cofnas’s July 21 substack post that opened the flood gates of media coverage of allegations against Professor Arday, that ultimately led to (what everyone is assuming was) his suicide. While many of the allegations were clearly warranted, the tone and style of Cofnas’s substack post certainlly indicated a slightly creepy satisfaction that his general racist views about the intellectual inferiority of Blacks were being vindicated. (I have signed two letters in support of Dr. Cofnas’s academic freedom–most recently–because racists are also entitled to academic freedom. The latest investigation may or may not implicate academic freedom under Belgian law, I simply do not know.)

Since I have seen some confusion on the question of Dr. Cofnas’s racism, let me note that the fact that Dr. Cofnas believes he has evidence to support the conclusion that Blacks are intellectually inferior does not (a) distinguish him from most racists, who historically also typically pointed to evidence for their racist beliefs; and (b) does not change the fact that the claim that Blacks are intellectually inferior to non-Blacks is obviously a racist view that denigrates an entire class of human beings based on their racial characteristics.