WASHINGTON — Scientist Nicholas Wade arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday to testify before a Republican panel on the origins of the coronavirus, but instead faced questions about “A Problematic Heritage,” his arguable 2014 book on race and genetics, which he noted Democrats had endorsed through the infamous racist and anti-Semitic David Duke. as well as other white supremacists.
“I have nothing in common with the white supremacists’ perspectives,” Wade said at one point in the hearing.
“However, they love you,” retorted Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md. , arguing that Wade’s presence is an affront to any valid investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, the subject of Wednesday’s proceedings.
Former NAACP leader Mfume said he was “horrified that this hearing is now covered by the race factor. “
Visibly shaken, Mfume went on to tell Wade that he was “absolutely angry that you get to take this platform and upload something vital to it. “
The tense exchange cast doubt on whether inviting Wade to testify at the House Special Subcommittee’s first hearing on the coronavirus pandemic is an effective resolution through the Republican majority, which seeks to legitimize the concept that the coronavirus is the product of a twist of fate in the laboratory. Porcelain.
Wade is a proponent of this hypothesis, yet his writings beyond genetics and race seemed to thwart his attempts at verbal exchange about the pandemic.
The committee’s most sensible Democrat, Rep. Raul Ruiz of California, used his openness to discredit Wade. “Their participation undermines the credibility of this audience,” he said.
Very briefly, Capitol Hill was immersed in a controversy that is barely a decade old, whose subjects, naturally, continue to arouse deep passions today.
Originally from England and a Cambridge graduate, Wade worked for the prestigious journals Science and Nature in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he moved to the United States. He joined The New York Times in 1982 and remained at the paper for 30 years.
Wade wrote a number of books about his career, but none proved as explosive as his 2014 foray into the link between race and genetics, a link that, until then, many had come to ignore.
In seeking to repair the disputed correlation, Wade ventured into some of the most unseemly regions of what was once known as clinical experience. (His followers would say he was dragged into this complicated territory by detractors who didn’t read his book, but some critics seemed to know his arguments. )
Racial science was a privileged profession of the Nazis, who sought to collect evidence, such as skull shape, to claim that Jews and other people of non-European descent were inherently inferior. U. S. eugenicists have used similar arguments in an attempt to limit immigration or expand civil rights for blacks.
While racial divisions may seem huge from a cultural and social perspective, genetic variation between populations is, in fact, smaller.
Wade opposed this prevailing view. Aiming to “demystify the genetic basis of race,” he attempted to describe different racial teams, which he said emanated from Africa, Europe and East Asia. He then tried to explain how those 3 teams have developed distinct genomes and how those differences shape their respective cultures.
These explanations led to highly suspicious claims, such as the fact that Jews were “fit for capitalism,” an ancient anti-Semitic trope. Meanwhile, people of African descent had a “propensity for violence,” according to Wade’s analysis.
Public reactions to the e-book have been harsh. In its review, the Times called “A Problematic Heritage” a “deeply flawed, misleading, and harmful e-book” that would license racists, while the Southern Poverty Law Center accused Wade of trafficking in “marginal racist books. “theories disguised as dominant biology. ” The American curator found the e-book unconvincing.
In a letter to the New York Times Book Review, 139 scientists (many of whom Wade had cited) accused him of “hijacking” studies to present discredited arguments. They claimed that “there is nothing in the box of population genetics for Wade’s guesses. “”
He made headlines with the arrival of the coronavirus, being one of the first science writers to challenge the plausibility of the prevailing view that the pathogen originated in an animal before entering the human population, most likely at a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Wade presented the case for the so-called lab leak theory in a lengthy Medium article in May 2021. The article remains a vital milestone for other skeptics of the official Chinese narrative. However, many scientists believe the virus originated in animals before spreading to humans.
Wade vigorously defended his record, and his e-book, on Wednesday. “It’s a decidedly non-racist e-book. It contains no clinical errors, as far as I know. He has no racist statements in front of him.
But his Democratic critics have remained skeptical, while some proponents of lab leak speculation have expressed frustration on social media that doubt about the origin of the coronavirus is being overshadowed.
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