UPenn Professor Singles Out Brahmins From ‘Shit Hole Country’ During Tirade Against ‘Non-Western’ Immigrants Critical of U.S.

An unmoored University of Pennsylvania law professor went on a racist rant against non-Western immigrants, singling out Asian and South Asians, on a Fox News prime time show. In an even more bizarre and pointed attack, Prof. Amy Wax picked on Brahmin women, who, according to her, despite immigrating from a “shit hole country” and enjoying success here, “dump on America.”

“Take the Brahmin women who come from India and they climb the ladder, they get the best education,” she said, during a discussion on ‘Tucker Carlson Today’ about her views on diversity initiatives in academia. “We give them every opportunity and they turn around and lead the charge on we’re racist, we’re an awful country, we need reform, our medical system needs reform. Well, here’s the problem. They’re taught that they are better than everybody else because they are Brahmin elites. And yet, on some level, their country is a shit hole, excuse my language.”

Carlson, the host of Tucker Carlson Today, the highest rated cable news show, readily and eagerly agreed with her.

Clarifying that not all Indians are this way, she said, if you “look at the roster of, you know, who’s leading the programs, the endless number of programs where they talk about diversity and racism and all the racism that people have to encounter in medicine and how racist medicine is and all this. And you see these brown faces or you see these Asian faces and you think, I mean, literally, you think so you’re coming from your country, which you’re implying, you know, is equal or better than our country.” She continued: “And it creates ingratitude of the most monstrous kind. I feel like asking some of these people, like, why did you leave your country? Why are you here?”

Wax’s primary gripe against Indians appears to be that they resent the greatness of America and the West. “They realize that, you know, we’ve outgunned and outclassed them in practically every way…”

Wax’s primary gripe against Indians appears to be that they resent the greatness of America and the West. “They realize that, you know, we’ve outgunned and outclassed them in practically every way, she says, adding, “And what do they feel? Well, they’re very proud people. They’re a shame culture and they feel anger, they feel envy, they feel shame. I think the role of envy and shame in the way that the Third World regards the First World is underestimated.”

The conversation between the host and guest went like this:

Wax: OK, it’s not providing them with the opportunities that they feel that they deserve and which in many cases they do deserve. They come here and they see that we have this wonderful developed scientific and medical establishment, which they haven’t managed to create. They realize that, you know, we’ve outgunned and outclassed them in practically every way. And what do they feel? Well, they’re very proud people. They’re a shame culture and they feel anger, they feel envy, they feel shame. I think the role of envy and shame in the way that the Third World regards the First World is underestimated.

Carlson: I think you’re exactly right. I think you’re exactly right.

Wax: It’s never talked about.

Carlson: No. And you’ve been really penalized for talking about it.

Wax: And it creates ingratitude of the most monstrous kind. I feel like asking some of these people, like, why did you leave your country? Why are you here?

Before lambasting Indians, she accused Black people and “Third World” immigrants of harboring “resentment and shame and envy” against Western people for their “outsized achievements and contributions.”

The 69-year-old lawyer, neurologist, and academic has a history of inflammatory remarks against certain ethnicities. Earlier this year, she was recorded saying the U.S. may be “better off with fewer Asians.” Speaking to Brown University professor Glenn Loury on the “downside of affirmative action” in 2018, Wax said: “Maybe it’s just that Democrats love open borders, and Asians want more Asians here. Perhaps they are just mesmerized by the feel-good cult of diversity. I don’t know the answer, but as long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.” 

In the same interview, she incorrectly claimed that she’d never seen a Black Pennsylvania Law student graduate at the “top quarter” of their class. Law school dean Ted Ruger responded to Wax’s remarks, saying she spoke “disparagingly and inaccurately” about the performance of black students, as reported by the Associated Press. He said it was imperative for him as dean to state that Wax’s claims are false. “Black students have graduated in the top of the class at Penn Law, and the Law Review does not have a diversity mandate. Rather, its editors are selected based on a competitive process,” he said. “And contrary to any suggestion otherwise, black students at Penn Law are extremely successful, both inside and outside the classroom, in the job market and in their careers.”

In subsequent interviews, Wax repeated the assessment, stating that immigrants are attracted to “countries ruled by white Europeans” and affirming that she did not shrink away from describing those countries and cultures as “superior,” according to Media Matters for America. 

In a 2017 op-ed for The Philadelphia Enquirer, Wax had argued that “all cultures are not equal. Or at least they are not equal in preparing people to be productive in an advanced economy.” Wax singled out certain groups, including “Blacks” and Hispanics for not conforming to what she described as “bourgeois” and “free-market” cultural values. Returning to the American cultural values of the 1950s — thrift, gratitude, temperance, continence, among others — would “significantly reduce society’s pathologies,” wrote Wax in the op-ed, co-written with Larry Alexander of the University of San Diego School of Law. 

Wax graduated from Yale University in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and did her Marshall Scholar in Philosophy, Physiology, and Psychology from Oxford University. She then went to Harvard Medical and Law School before working as a consulting neurologist. She completed her legal education at Columbia University before working in the United States Department of Justice. She taught at the University of Virginia Law School from 1994 to 2000.