Bet On It

Share this post

Roland Was Railroaded

betonit.substack.com

Roland Was Railroaded

Bryan Caplan
Apr 8, 2022
21
11
Share

Rob Montz of Good Kid Productions recently released this J’Accuse vindication of Roland Fryer. Ideological bias and contra-contrarianism, though hard to prove, are indeed the most plausible explanations for the extreme harshness of the treatment he received.

What is crystal clear is that Harvard absurdly overreacted to what was at most a misunderstanding. Equally clear is that Roland would have been safe if he hadn’t treated his co-workers like friends. As if universities weren’t doing enough to promote paranoid isolation already.

My modest proposal to carve out a discrimination law exception for jokes might have saved Roland, but probably not. The case against him rested on gaffes, not jokes. The price of these gaffes was national humiliation, the shuttering of his lab, and over a million dollars in lost salary.

Enjoy the video, which gives a fine survey of Roland’s research before recounting his Kafkaesque ordeal.

21
11
Share
11 Comments
eric
Apr 8, 2022

Thomas Sowell for this generation from the video, except this guy gets destroyed. Thanks for standing up and talking about these types of things Mr. Caplan. Interesting and challenging topics being hysterical or naive.

Expand full comment
Reply
Likith Govindaiah
Apr 8, 2022

Separate question Bryan - what do you think are Roland’s prospects moving forward? What are his best bets for continuing to produce valuable research?

Expand full comment
Reply
9 more comments…
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Bryan Caplan
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing