Many people have taken issue with statements made about Asian immigration by University of Pennsylvania Professor Amy Wax on her latest appearance on The Glenn Show. You can find those statements in the episode, in this excerpt and transcript from the episode, and in this post, where she responds to a reader’s critique. I understand where many of her critics are coming from, as I strongly disagree with Amy’s positions on Asian immigration myself and said as much in our conversation.
Recently, I received an email from Yiguang Ju, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton and President of the Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering. He attached an open letter from the AAASE to UPenn President Amy Gutmann condemning Amy Wax and her statements on my show. In the body of the email, Professor Ju also appeared to suggest that Amy Wax’s presence on TGS raised questions about my own credibility and scholarship, and I responded to it forcefully. As it turns out, Professor Ju’s apparent indictment of me was the result of an unfortunate typo on his part, and he apologized for the error. I, of course, accept his apology.
Nevertheless, my response to Professor Ju contains some reflections on the purpose and value of this newsletter and The Glenn Show, so I believe it’s still appropriate to publish it. Below you will find the text of Professor Ju’s initial email, an excerpt from the AAASE’s open letter to President Gutmann, my email replying to Professor Ju, and his subsequent apology for the error.
I am, of course, very curious to know what my readers think of this.
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Email from Professor Yiguang Ju
Dear Prof. Loury,
I hope this email finds you well.
On behalf the Board members of the Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering (www.aaase.org), attached I am writing to share with you our open letter to the UPenn president to take actions to investigate Prof. Amy Wax’s conduct and to listen and address the concerns of students, alumni, faculty, and staff regarding anti-Asian bias.
As Asian American Scientists and Engineers, we feel extremely uncomfortable about Amy’s inflammatory comments and strongly disagree with her statements on the Glenn interview. These statements, often superficial and over simplification and generalization, have not only elevated the serious concerns of racial discrimination in this country and caused further division of this country, but also raised questions in your accuracy and credibility in scholarly research. We feel strongly that it is important to share this letter and our concerns with you.
Best,
Yiguang Ju
President of Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering
Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Princeton University
Excerpt from the AAASE’s Open Letter to University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann
Dear President Gutmann:
We, the Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering, are writing to you to express our profound disappointment and strong disagreement with recent public statements made by Professor Amy Wax, one of your own faculty in the Law School. In a widely disseminated podcast interview with Professor Glenn Loury of Brown University posted on December 24, 2021, Professor Wax made statements that disparage Asian nationals and Americans of Asian descent, including that “the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration” and “does the spirit of liberty beat in their [Asian] breast?”
My Response to Professor Ju
Dear Prof. Yiguang Ju:
I have received your email and have reviewed the attached open letter to UPenn's President Gutmann. I fully understand and sympathize with your expression of alarm at the remarks made by Prof. Amy Wax at my podcast—remarks about Asian immigration to the United States with which I strongly disagree. I voiced that disagreement, repeatedly, during that conversation with Prof. Wax.
To reiterate: I support your contention that her caustically expressed disdain for, and her overly broad caricatures about, Asian immigrants were outrageous, were bound to offend, and were unsupported by the evidence. That is what I said, in so many words—politely and with an even tone of voice—in my responses to her during that interview. For instance: I insisted that Asian immigration was a boon to American society. I rejected her stereotyping of “Asians” as painting with too broad a brush. I observed that the things to which she was objecting (the adoption of progressive attitudes toward diversity initiatives, for example) were not appropriately attributed to someone's Asian ethnicity. I even compared her contempt for and fear of Asian immigrants to the reactions many Americans expressed toward Jewish immigration at an earlier time in our country's history. Specifically I said to this Jewish woman that her remarks, were they to have been made about Jews, would immediately and correctly be judged as antisemitic. (Her outrageous response to this last observation of mine, as I recall, was: “Well, the Jews have a lot to answer for!”)
Therefore, I was very disturbed to read this sentence in your letter: “These statements, often superficial and over simplification and generalization, have not only elevated the serious concerns of racial discrimination in this country and caused further division of this country, but also raised questions in your accuracy and credibility in scholarly research.” The offense given by Prof. Wax's remarks at my podcast notwithstanding, I must take strenuous exception to this statement in your letter. As president of the Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering, you are declaring that the “accuracy and credibility” of MY scholarship are called into question because of opinions expressed by Prof. Wax.
With respect, that is a slanderous insinuation to which I object. In the interest of protecting my own reputation, I cannot allow it to go unanswered. The credibility of my scholarship, such as it is, could not possibly be impugned as a consequence of opinions rendered by someone else—opinions with which I have openly and repeatedly taken issue. It should not need to be said, but I will say it nonetheless: In no way am I responsible for the words spoken by Prof. Wax.
Perhaps what you mean is that, by giving Prof. Wax a platform from which to pronounce her objectionable opinions, I have violated some norm of scholarly integrity. If so, I would again respectfully disagree. My podcast, The Glenn Show, is a forum where the free exchange of ideas and arguments is cherished. I strongly believe that such forums are needed at this moment in our country's history, given the deleterious impact on the integrity of our academic institutions which the movement to cancel or deplatform controversial speakers has had.
It is in that spirit that I have undertaken the initiative of launching my podcast and newsletter. I do not necessarily endorse the things my guests say. Certainly, in the case at hand, I do not endorse Prof. Wax's opinions about Asian immigration. But I insist that the only fit response to opinions with which I may disagree is to make arguments and offer evidence in support of my opposing point of view, and to solicit the reactions of other informed parties on whatever are the issues in dispute. That is precisely what I have done in this case. In my view, taking such a stand can only enhance, not detract from, the integrity of my scholarly endeavors.
Cordially,
Glenn Loury
Response from Professor Ju
Dear Glenn,
Thank you for the thoughtful response. I think you made appropriate comments in your podcast discussion with Amy Wax and rebuked her stereotype comments on the spots several times. Thank you for doing that. I also want to take this opportunity to say that I respect your value and conservative thing personally.
I have to make an apology to you that I didn’t mean to question your scholarship in my email. It was a typo of “her” and should be written as “her accuracy and credibility in scholarly research." I am sorry that my mistyping which has made you uncomfortable. Please accept my apologies.
I hope we all as US citizens, left, right, or middle, need to heal our society with values, and together make America stronger and better in competing with any other adversities.
Best wishes
Yiguang
Dear Glenn LOURY,
Next Text :
SPIRITUAL REMEDIES FOR THE SICK
(*This is written about 85 years ago)
[This treatise was written as a salve, a solace, and a prescription for the sick, and as a visit to the sick and a wish for their speedy recovery.]
It describes briefly Twenty-Five Remedies which may offer true consolation and a beneficial cure for the sick and those struck by disaster, who form one tenth of mankind.
FIRST REMEDY
Unhappy sick person! Do not be anxious, have patience! Your illness is not a malady for you; it is a sort of cure. For life departs like capital. If it yields no fruits, it is wasted. And if it passes in ease and heedlessness, it passes most swiftly. Illness makes that capital of yours yield huge profits. Moreover, it does not allow your life to pass quickly, it restrains it and lengthens it, so that it will depart after yielding its fruits. An indication that your life is lengthened through illness is the following much repeated proverb: “The times of calamity are long, the times of happiness, most short.”
SECOND REMEDY
O ill person who lacks patience! Be patient, indeed, offer thanks! Your illness may transform each of the minutes of your life into the equivalent of an hour’s worship.
For worship is of two kinds. One is positive like the well-known worship of supplication and the prayers. The other are negative forms of worship like illness and calamities. By means of these, those afflicted realize their impotence and weakness; they beseech their All-Compassionate Creator and take refuge in Him; they manifest worship which is sincere and without hyprocrisy.
Yes, there is a sound narration stating that a life passed in illness is counted as worship for the believer-on condition he does not complain about God. It is even established by sound narrations and by those who uncover the realities of creation that one minute’s illness of some who are completely patient and thankful becomes the equivalent of an hour’s worship and a minute’s illness of certain perfected men the equivalent of a day’s worship.
Thus, you should not complain about an illness which as though transforms one minute of your life into a thousand minutes and gains for you long life; you should rather offer thanks.
THIRD REMEDY
Impatient sick person! The fact that those who come to this world continuously depart, and the young grow old, and man perpetually revolves amid death and separation testifies that he did not come to this world to enjoy himself and receive pleasure.
Moreover, while man is the most perfect, the most elevated, of living beings and the best endowed in regard to members and faculties, through thinking of past pleasures and future pains, he passes only a grievous, troublesome life, lower than the animals.
This means that man did not come to this world in order to live in fine manner and pass his life in ease and pleasure. Rather, possessing vast capital, he came here to work and do trade for an eternal, everlasting life. The capital given to man is his lifetime. Had there been no illness, good health and well-being would have caused heedlessness, for they show the world to be pleasant and make the Hereafter forgotten. They do not want death and the grave to be thought of; they cause the capital of life to be wasted on trifles. Whereas illness suddenly opens the eyes, it says to the body: “You are not immortal. You have not been left to your own devices. You have a duty. Give up your pride, think of the One Who created you. Know that you will enter the grave, so prepare yourself for it!”
Thus, from this point of view, illness is an admonishing guide and advisor that never deceives. It should not be complained about in this respect, indeed, should be thanked for. And if it is not too severe, patience should be sought to endure it.
FOURTH REMEDY
Plaintive ill person! It is your right, not to complain, but to offer thanks and be patient. For your body and members and faculties are not your property. You did not make them, and you did not buy them from other workshops. That means they are the property of another. Their owner has disposal over his property as he wishes.
An extremely wealthy and skilful craftsman, for example, employs a poor man as a model in order to show off his fine art and valuable wealth. In return for a wage, for a brief hour he clothes the poor man in a bejewelled and most skilfully wrought garment. He works it on him and gives it various states. In order to display the extraordinary varieties of his art, he cuts the garment, alters it, and lengthens and shortens it. Does the poor man working for a wage have the right to say to that person: “You are causing me trouble, you are causing me distress with the form you have given it, making me bow down and stand up;” has he the right to tell him that he is spoiling his fine appearance by cutting and shortening the garment which makes him beautiful? Can he tell him he is being unkind and unfair?
O sick person! Just like in this comparison, in order to display the garment of your body with which He has clothed you, bejewelled as it is with luminous faculties like the eye, the ear, the reason, and the heart, and the embroideries of His Most Beautiful Names, the All-Glorious Maker makes you revolve amid numerous states and changes you in many situations. Like you learn of His Name of Provider through hunger, come to know also His Name of Healer through your illness. Since suffering and calamities show the decrees of some of His Names, within those flashes of wisdom and rays of mercy are many instances of good to be found.
If the veil of illness, which you fear and loathe, was to be lifted, behind it you would find many agreeable and beautiful meanings.
FIFTH REMEDY
O you who is afflicted with illness! Through experience I have formed the opinion at this time that sickness is a Divine bounty for some people, a gift of the Most Merciful One.
Although I am not worthy of it, for the past eight or nine years, a number of young people have come to me in connection with illness, seeking my prayers. I have noticed that each of those ill youths had begun to think of the Hereafter to a greater degree than other young people. He lacked the drunkenness of youth. He was saving himself to a degree from animal desires and heedlessness. So I would consider them and then warn them that their illnesses were a Divine bounty within the limits of their endurance.
I would say: “I am not opposed to this illness of yours, my brother. I don’t feel compassion and pity for you because of your illness, so that I should pray for you. Try to be patient until illness awakens you completely, and after it has performed its duty, God willing, the Compassionate Creator will restore you to health.”
I would also say to them: “Through the calamity of good health, some of your fellows become neglectful, give up the prayers, do not think of the grave, and forget God Almighty. Through the superficial pleasure of a brief hour’s worldly life, they shake and damage an unending, eternal life, and even destroy it. Due to illness, you see the grave, which you will in any event enter, and the dwellings of the Hereafter beyond it, and you act in accordance with them.
That means for you, illness is good health, while for some of your peers good health is a sickness…”
SIXTH REMEDY
O sick person who complains about his suffering! I say to you: think of your past life and remember the pleasurable and happy days and the distressing and troublesome times. For sure, you will either say “Oh!” or “Ah!” That is, your heart and tongue will either say “All praise and thanks be to God!”, or “Alas and alack!”
Note carefully, what makes you exclaim “Praise and thanks be to God!” is thinking of the pains and calamities that have befallen you; it induces a sort of pleasure so that your heart offers thanks. For the passing of pain is a pleasure. With the passing of pains and calamities, a legacy of pleasure is left in the spirit, which on being aroused by thinking, pours forth from the spirit with thanks.
What makes you exclaim “Alas and alack!” are the pleasurable and happy times you have experienced in the former times, which, with their passing leave a legacy of constant pain in your spirit. Whenever you think of them, the pain is again stimulated, causing regret and sorrow to pour forth.
Since one day’s illicit pleasure sometimes causes a year’s suffering in the spirit, and with the pain of a fleeting day’s illness are many days’ pleasure and recompense in addition to the pleasure at being relieved at its passing and saved from it, think of the result of this temporary illness with which you are now afflicted, and of the merits of its inner face. Say: “All is from God! This too will pass!”, and offer thanks instead of complaining.
SIXTH REMEDY
{(*): This Flash occurred to me in a natural manner, and two remedies have been included in the Sixth Remedy. We have left it thus in order not to spoil the naturalness; indeed, we did not
I find this response puzzling. The Ivy League colleges are systematically discriminating against Asian-Americans in admissions. The schools are systematically eradicating testing in order to hide their campaign of racial discrimination. Amy Wax comes on a podcast and shoots from the hip arguing for restrictions on Asian immigration. The first is apparently fine for the defenders of Asian-Americans, the second requires denunciation.
If they have invented wokeness in 1830, I swear South Carolina would still have slavery, and NAACP would be de-platforming comedians using the N-word while receiving funding the Plantation owners.