THE ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA DENOUNCES THE COMMENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW PROFESSOR AMY WAX AS RACIST

Please read our statement for distribution.

August 7, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Pang, [email protected]

The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania (APABA-PA) joins the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Law School (“Penn Law”) Asian Pacific American Law Student Association (“APALSA”), and Penn Law South Asian Law Student Association (“SALSA”) in denouncing Amy Wax’s comments as racist and calling for her immediate resignation. APABA-PA supports the demands of APALSA, SALSA, and other law student organizations made in this statement for concrete steps toward a diversity action plan, including the hiring of more persons of color as tenured professors. APABA-PA further calls for an investigation by Penn Law as to whether there is cause to terminate Professor Wax.

Amy Wax, a professor at Penn Law, recently made comments at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. in July 2019 that U.S. immigration policy should favor immigrants from Western countries because the U.S. would “be better off with more whites and fewer non-whites.” Penn Law’s Dean Ted Ruger has issued a public rebuke of Professor Wax’s comments saying, “at best the reported remarks espouse a bigoted theory of white cultural and ethnic supremacy” and, “at worst, they are racist.” Professor Wax has been previously removed from teaching required courses at Penn Law for casting aspersions on the abilities of African American law students in her classes.

The history of restricting immigration by certain ethnic groups to the U.S. can be traced back to Senator John F. Miller introducing a twenty year ban on Chinese immigration in 1881 and urging his Senate colleagues to “preserve American Anglo Saxon civilization without contamination or adulteration … [from] the gangrene of oriental civilization.” In 2017, Congress passed H. Res. 683 formally expressing its regret for the Chinese Exclusion Act and other legislation that discriminated against people of Chinese origin in the United States. The racist and xenophobic diatribes supporting Chinese exclusion enabled the brutal massacre of Chinese workers in Snake River, Idaho and Rock Springs, Wyoming. These same anti-immigrant views and white supremacist ideals have fueled recent violence against immigrant groups and must be condemned. Professor Wax’s statements turn back the clock on immigration reform discussions one hundred forty years to the discredited Chinese Exclusion Act, the Asiatic-Barred Zone, and the National Origins Act and bring legitimacy to racist, anti-immigrant, white supremacist views which are used to justify violence against immigrants and people of color. The continued tenure of Professor Wax at Penn Law gives her an outsized platform for views that have been relegated to the dustbins of history and have no place at a distinguished institution such as Penn Law.

APABA-PA, an affiliate of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, represents the interests of the Asian Pacific American law students, lawyers, and judges and the Asian Pacific American community across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by supporting the advancement of Asian Pacific American attorneys and promoting justice, equity, and legal access, especially for all Asian Pacific American communities.