Duke professor exposed for posting shockingly racist Internet comment: "Virtually every black has a strange new name"

"The comments were noxious, offensive, and have no place in civil discourse"

Published May 18, 2015 1:55PM (EDT)

Jerry Hough       (Duke University/<a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-2047223p1.html'>Kelly vanDellen</a> via <a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/'>Shutterstock</a>)
Jerry Hough (Duke University/Kelly vanDellen via Shutterstock)

When someone claiming to be a Duke University professor wrote a racist comment on a New York Times editorial about Baltimore's systemic racism, social media erupted in a flurry of outrage and speculation. Huffington Post reporter Samantha Lachman has finally confirmed the identity of the poster: Jerry Hough, the university's James B. Duke professor of political science.

"I am a professor at Duke University," the comment reads. "Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration. Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration. The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage. Black-white dating is almost non-existent because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white."

Hough commented on the revelation in an email to the Duke Chronicle:

"The context was the editorial on Baltimore which instead of calling for the resignation of the mayor as happened in Ferguson -- and, in my opinion, both should have resigned -- blamed everything on white racism. I thought it was an outrage when in Baltimore they were following the old game of trying to injure a rowdy prisoner without getting marks on the prisoner by throwing him around the van...

The point I was raising was why the Asians who were oppressed did so well and are integrating so well, and the blacks are not doing as well. The comments have convinced me to write a book which will add the Asians to all the research I did on blacks."

Hough is reportedly on leave.

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Although the university has not officially commented on the matter, vice president for public affairs and government affairs Michael Schoenfeld said in a statement that the comments were "noxious, offensive, and have no place in civil discourse." He also noted that the school's policy does not prohibit faculty members from expressing individual views.

"Duke University has a deeply-held commitment to inclusiveness grounded in respect for all, and we encourage our community to speak out when they feel that those ideals are challenged or undermined, as they were in this case," he continued.

Hough's full comment reads:

This editorial is what is wrong. The Democrats are an alliance of Westchester and Harlem, of Montgomery County and intercity Baltimore. Westchester and Montgomery get a Citigroup asset stimulus policy that triples the market. The blacks get a decline in wages after inflation.

But the blacks get symbolic recognition in an utterly incompetent mayor who handled this so badly from beginning to end that her resignation would be demanded if she were white. The blacks get awful editorials like this that tell them to feel sorry for themselves.

In 1965 the Asians were discriminated against as least as badly as blacks. That was reflected in the word "colored." The racism against what even Eleanor Roosevelt called the yellow races was at least as bad.

So where are the editorials that say racism doomed the Asian-Americans. They didn't feel sorry for themselves, but worked doubly hard.

I am a professor at Duke University. Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration. Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration. The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage. Black-white dating is almost non-existent because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white.

It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King state. King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X.


By Joanna Rothkopf

MORE FROM Joanna Rothkopf


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Baltimore Duke University Freddie Gray Jerry Hough New York Times Racism