Glayde Whitney
Encyclopedia
Glayde D. Whitney was a behavioral geneticist
and psychology
professor at Florida State University
. Beyond his work into the genetics of sensory system
function in mice
, in his later life he supported race and intelligence
research and eugenics
.
and grew up in Minnesota
. He earned his bachelor's degree from University of Minnesota
, as well as his doctorate from there in 1966. He then enlisted in the United States Air Force
and served until 1969. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics with the University of Colorado
, under Gerald McClearn and John DeFries
.
In 1970, Whitney was hired by the Florida State University
to represent behavioral genetics in the psychobiology
program, where he stayed until his death at the age of 62 on January 8, 2002, after contracting a severe cold that aggravated emphysema. He considered himself to be a "Hubert Humphrey
liberal."
sensitivity in inbred mice. Support for some of this work came from a prestigious Claude Pepper Award for Research Excellence from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
and in 1994 he received the Manheimer Lectureship Award from the Monell Chemical Senses Center
, which recognizes career achievements of individuals in the chemosensory sciences. At the height of his genetics career he was the president of the Behavior Genetics Association
.
, The g Factor Newsletter and The William McDougall Newsletter. While outgoing president of the Behavior Genetics Association in 1995, some members of this group demanded his resignation after his presidential address suggested the need to investigate the possibility of genetic factors behind the high incidence of black crime in America.
Whitney generated further controversy in August 1998 when he wrote the foreword for My Awakening, an autobiography by David Duke
, a politician and former Grand Wizard
of the Ku Klux Klan
. In the book, Duke uses genetic science
to push for the resegregation of schools – arguing it is better to group children "in line with their natural abilities." In the foreword, Whitney supported the value of the book, despite the reputation of Duke, as a collection of scientific evidence, describing it as "a painstakingly documented, academically excellent work of sociobiological-political history ... provid[ing] on the order of a thousand references and footnotes."
Whitney spoke against a putative disparity in expert and public opinion regarding race behavioral genetics, and claimed private discussions at scientific meetings had become disjointed from public pronouncements. He argued that opponents of such research are positioned against the scientific tradition of open inquiry, maintained even when one detests another's subject. Whitney praised the scientific achievement of Jews, but accused "organized Jewry" of playing a prominent role in suppressing race behavioral genetics in response to racism
directed toward them, resulting in a "dishonest and hypocritical version of egalitarianism
." Whitney was a member of the Institute for Historical Review
, a Holocaust denial
organization, and he made the case for its views.
In reading Duke's work, Whitney noted, "I discovered that Duke's 'racism' was not born of hatred, but of science and history." Whitney made a hereditarian
argument for the racial IQ disparity found in intelligence research, and regarded affirmative action
as a result of a larger disparity between public rhetoric and scientific realities.
In the controversy following, Whitney received death threats. He felt that the controversy distracted from what was meant to be a scientific discussion and stated that "races are different for many genetic systems that influence everything from behavior and psychology to physiology, medicine and sports [...] Screaming nasty words does not change the reality." Whitney's views regarding race and intelligence prompted the Florida Senate
to pass Resolution 2742 in 1999, "condemning the racism and bigotry espoused by Florida State University Professor Glayde Whitney."
Behavioural genetics
Quantitative human behavioural genetics is a specialisation in the biological field of behaviour genetics that studies the role of genetics in human behaviour employing quantitative-genetic methods. The field is an overlap of quantitative genetics and psychology...
and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
professor at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
. Beyond his work into the genetics of sensory system
Sensory system
A sensory system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory system consists of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and parts of the brain involved in sensory perception. Commonly recognized sensory systems are those for vision, hearing, somatic...
function in mice
Mouse
A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
, in his later life he supported race and intelligence
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...
research and eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
.
Biography
Whitney was born in MontanaMontana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
and grew up in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. He earned his bachelor's degree from University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, as well as his doctorate from there in 1966. He then enlisted in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
and served until 1969. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics with the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
, under Gerald McClearn and John DeFries
John C. DeFries
John C. DeFries is one of the world's leading behavior geneticists. His achievements include being President of the Behavior Genetics Association and cofounder of the journal Behavior Genetics, as well as its co-editor...
.
In 1970, Whitney was hired by the Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
to represent behavioral genetics in the psychobiology
Behavioral neuroscience
Behavioral neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology is the application of the principles of biology , to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in human and non-human animals...
program, where he stayed until his death at the age of 62 on January 8, 2002, after contracting a severe cold that aggravated emphysema. He considered himself to be a "Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
liberal."
Work in behavioral genetics
Whitney was the author of over 60 papers on the genetics of tasteTaste
Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc....
sensitivity in inbred mice. Support for some of this work came from a prestigious Claude Pepper Award for Research Excellence from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders , a member of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is mandated to conduct and support biomedical and behavioral research and research training in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice,...
and in 1994 he received the Manheimer Lectureship Award from the Monell Chemical Senses Center
Monell Chemical Senses Center
The Monell Chemical Senses Center is a non-profit independent scientific institute located at the University City Science Center research campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
, which recognizes career achievements of individuals in the chemosensory sciences. At the height of his genetics career he was the president of the Behavior Genetics Association
Behavior Genetics Association
The Behavior Genetics Association is a learned society that was established in 1970 and promotes research into the connection between heredity and behavior.- Aims :...
.
Political controversies
The later years of his career were embroiled in controversy. Whitney was a frequent contributor to magazines such as Mankind QuarterlyMankind Quarterly
The Mankind Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to physical and cultural anthropology and is currently published by the Council for Social and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. It contains articles on human evolution, intelligence, ethnography, linguistics, mythology,...
, The g Factor Newsletter and The William McDougall Newsletter. While outgoing president of the Behavior Genetics Association in 1995, some members of this group demanded his resignation after his presidential address suggested the need to investigate the possibility of genetic factors behind the high incidence of black crime in America.
Whitney generated further controversy in August 1998 when he wrote the foreword for My Awakening, an autobiography by David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, a politician and former Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard was the title given to the leader of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan which existed from 1866 to 1871.In 1915, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was created, initially as a fraternal organization. The highest-ranking leader of the latter organization was the Imperial Wizard. National...
of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
. In the book, Duke uses genetic science
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
to push for the resegregation of schools – arguing it is better to group children "in line with their natural abilities." In the foreword, Whitney supported the value of the book, despite the reputation of Duke, as a collection of scientific evidence, describing it as "a painstakingly documented, academically excellent work of sociobiological-political history ... provid[ing] on the order of a thousand references and footnotes."
Whitney spoke against a putative disparity in expert and public opinion regarding race behavioral genetics, and claimed private discussions at scientific meetings had become disjointed from public pronouncements. He argued that opponents of such research are positioned against the scientific tradition of open inquiry, maintained even when one detests another's subject. Whitney praised the scientific achievement of Jews, but accused "organized Jewry" of playing a prominent role in suppressing race behavioral genetics in response to racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
directed toward them, resulting in a "dishonest and hypocritical version of egalitarianism
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
." Whitney was a member of the Institute for Historical Review
Institute for Historical Review
The Institute for Historical Review , founded in 1978, is an American organization that describes itself as a "public-interest educational, research and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of history." Critics have accused it of being an antisemitic "pseudo-scholarly...
, a Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
organization, and he made the case for its views.
In reading Duke's work, Whitney noted, "I discovered that Duke's 'racism' was not born of hatred, but of science and history." Whitney made a hereditarian
Hereditarianism
Hereditarianism is the doctrine or school of thought that heredity plays a significant role in determining human nature and character traits, such as intelligence and personality. Hereditarians believe in the power of genetics to explain human character traits and solve human social and political...
argument for the racial IQ disparity found in intelligence research, and regarded affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
as a result of a larger disparity between public rhetoric and scientific realities.
"As the hard scientific data came in, it became more certain that genetic differences (heredity) played a large role in the discrepancy. But in public it became politically incorrectPolitical correctnessPolitical correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
to even acknowledge that there was a difference."
In the controversy following, Whitney received death threats. He felt that the controversy distracted from what was meant to be a scientific discussion and stated that "races are different for many genetic systems that influence everything from behavior and psychology to physiology, medicine and sports [...] Screaming nasty words does not change the reality." Whitney's views regarding race and intelligence prompted the Florida Senate
Florida Senate
The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Senate is composed of 40 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 470,032....
to pass Resolution 2742 in 1999, "condemning the racism and bigotry espoused by Florida State University Professor Glayde Whitney."
External links
- Glayde Whitney at Florida State University
- Biographical links about Glayde Whitney collected by ISAR