Penn has been receiving national media coverage lately after Penn Law professor Amy Wax made racist comments against Asian and Black Americans. Her recent remarks are consistent with the comments that she made back in 2018 in a discussion titled The Downside to Social Uplift: "I don't think I've ever seen a Black student graduate in the top quarter of the [Penn Law School] class and rarely, rarely in the top half.” Essentially, her argument was that Black students are accepted into schools like Penn because of policies such as affirmative action, but underperform compared to their peers of other races.
Comments like these are not unique to professor Wax. For example, just last year, a professor at Georgetown Law School was fired for making similar comments about Black students: “I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks … You get some really good ones. But there are also usually some that are just plain at the bottom.” While Wax’s comments exposed her prejudice against Black students, the reality is that implicit racial biases are prevalent throughout academia. As an overdue sanctions process against her is set to begin soon, we must realize that Wax’s comments are indicative of a broader perception of Black students.
Experiences of racial bias have frequently been recounted by Black students at elite schools. For example, a family friend of mine earned the CALI award in one of her law school classes — an award given to the student with the highest grade in the class. For context, this was considered the hardest first-year class at her law school, taught by a distinguished professor known to be a harsh grader. Since the grading system was anonymous, she had gone to introduce herself to the professor at the end of the semester. As soon as she walked through the door, the professor told her, “I’m sorry. I can’t change your grade.” He assumed that she had come to him with a low grade, hoping for some adjustment. Despite the anonymous grading, which made her confident that there would be no bias in the professor’s scoring of exams, she still ended up being confronted by that very same bias even as the highest-achieving student in her class.
Similar anecdotes have made headlines on social media as well. The Black Ivy Stories Instagram page, which featured posts from Black Penn students, described many problematic interactions between Black students and their professors — ranging from being pressured to drop a class because they’re “not a good fit” to being told to switch majors altogether. Sometimes, professors made these recommendations without even knowing the students yet. As a result, Black students were left with all too common feelings: Doubting themselves, their worthiness at Penn, and their academic futures.
When a Black student walks into a class, it’s easy for them to wonder: Has a professor already made a judgment about my intelligence at first glance? Do I need to work harder than my peers to make sure that this initial judgment is proven wrong? If I perform well in the class, will the professor just view me as an exception to the norm?
These unavoidable questions certainly aren’t a reflection of all professors, but rather a reflection of what Black students must face when getting an education — we cast doubt on our academic abilities and performance before we even set foot in the classroom. Indeed, low expectations of Black students don’t start in college. A Johns Hopkins study found that teachers’ expectations of high school students reflected racial bias.
This mindset needs to change. Instead of discouraging a Black student from taking a difficult class, why not encourage it as an opportunity for academic growth? Even with good intentions, a professor not wanting a student to struggle means that they don’t think that student has the ability to succeed, which damages one’s self-worth. More importantly, instead of viewing a Black student as a representation of their entire race, why not see them as an individual?
At the root of every expectation is a belief. With the lower expectations of Black students, the belief is that they are less capable. Amy Wax can be removed from Penn, but that belief will remain.
YOMI ABDI is a Wharton first year studying finance from Chicago. Her email is yomiabdi@wharton.upenn.edu.
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