Another Economist Gets the Larry Summers Treatment

This time it’s our old friend Walter Block who, during a Q&A session after a lecture at Loyola College in Baltimore, suggested that part of the black-white and male-female wage gaps might be explained by differences in productivity. The reaction from the usual campus quarters was swift and sure, culminating in a public statement from the College President condemning Block’s remarks (which, of course, he hadn’t heard). What’s interesting in this case is not the vapid response from the campus thought police, but its duplicity. A strongly worded “apology,” claiming to speak for the economics department and the campus club that sponsored the letter, appeared in the student newspaper. Actually, according to my sources, the letter was written by a single economics faculty member (helped by the campus diversity czar), with no authority to speak for colleagues. The department chair, in particular, found Block’s statements reasonable and the apology ridiculous.

Remember, children, “diversity” at American college campuses means “whatever campus diversity officials believe to be true.”

Speaking of campus antics, Stanley Fish has a new book.