Stephanie Grace: Anatomy of a Racist

Stephanie Grace, the Harvard Law School student pictured above, sent a racist e-mail to her fellow classmates.

Stephanie Grace graduated Princeton University in 2007 with a major in Sociology. Stephanie Grace was a pupil of Professor Thomas Espenshade, examining the racial composition of freshman roommates and writing an 81-page senior thesis entitled, "Dorm Room Diversity: Examining the Effects of Racially Heterogeneous College Roommate Pairings." She is currently a Harvard Law School student and an editor of the esteemed Harvard Law Review. In a few months, Stephanie Grace will be a law clerk to one of the most powerful judges in the United States, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Below is an excerpt of the e-mail Stephanie Grace sent to her friends at Harvard Law School:

"I absolutely do not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent. I could also obviously be convinced that by controlling for the right variables, we would see that they are, in fact, as intelligent as white people under the same circumstances. The fact is, some things are genetic. African Americans tend to have darker skin. Irish people are more likely to have red hair. (Now on to the more controversial:) Women tend to perform less well in math due at least in part to prenatal levels of testosterone, which also account for variations in mathematics performance within genders. This suggests to me that some part of intelligence is genetic, just like identical twins raised apart tend to have very similar IQs and just like I think my babies will be geniuses and beautiful individuals whether I raise them or give them to an orphanage in Nigeria. I don't think it is that controversial of an opinion to say I think it is at least possible that African Americans are less intelligent on a genetic level, and I didn't mean to shy away from that opinion at dinner."

She also wrote: "Everyone wants someone to take 100 white infants and 100 African American ones and raise them in Disney utopia and prove once and for all that we are all equal on every dimension, or at least the really important ones like intelligence. I am merely not 100% convinced that this is the case."

See the following link for copy of the full e-mail, http://abovethelaw.com/2010/04/hls-3ls-racist-email-goes-national/

I am shocked and appalled that a student at Harvard Law School wrote the above passages. As a responsible citizen, I am especially disturbed by the reference to black babies in Nigerian orphanages. I personally think that Nigerians do not need genes like those of Stephanie Grace to be geniuses or beautiful. Not all people have to think or look like this:



Of course, Stephanie Grace is not alone in her racism. White supremacists are rallying around her. The white nationalist group "New Century Foundation / American Renaissance" asked members to send messages of support to Stephanie Grace. Here is their website: http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2010/04/harvard_law_sch.php

The above website indicates that the e-mail address of Stephanie Grace is sgrace@jd10.law.harvard.edu. I think we should send her messages that explain to her that her views are racist and hurtful. I do not want her to think, from all of the messages of support coming in from white nationalists, that her views are acceptable.

What is most scary is that Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, a conservative judge who is one of the most influential legal voices in this country, hired her as his clerk. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is one step below the U.S. Supreme Court. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decides major cases regarding affirmative action, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, civil rights and all kinds of race and minority issues. Stephanie Grace will influence those decisions next year! Do you want her to be in such a high position of power?

As responsible citizens we must organize a letter campaign to have her removed from the Ninth Circuit. Please contact the office of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski at:

Attn: Public Information Office
Office of the Circuit Executive
P.O. Box 193939
San Francisco, CA 94119-3939

Phone: (415) 355-8800

E-mail: comments@ce9.uscourts.gov

We have to explain our concerns to his office so that Judge Kozinski can take action and make sure that a racist does not have influence over the American court system.