It’s terrible that by mere accident of birth, some people are afforded benefits and opportunities that are denied to others.
That’s why I think Connie St Louis, the black female journalism professor whose malicious slander led to the virtual destruction of a Nobel Laureate’s career, needs to urgently check her privilege. Because unlike most people in the country, it seems she can get away with murder, thanks to her gender and, yes, her skin colour.
St Louis is responsible for the sacking of Sir Tim Hunt, a Nobel prize-winning biochemist who became the target of an online lynch mob after his comments about women in science were taken out of context.
St Louis claimed, and continues to claim, that Hunt had argued for single-sex laboratories after claiming that women in science were a distraction who “fall in love” with male scientists and “cry” when criticised.
St Louis, eager to combat damaging stereotypes, immediately went off crying to the media.
But a report from an anonymous EU official who attended Hunt’s talk told the Times last week that his comments were clearly made to poke fun at himself and that, after making them, Hunt went on to talk at length about the importance of women in science.
As Richard Dawkins, one of Hunt’s most prominent defenders, says, St Louis’ story made Hunt look like a chauvinist monster. But the full story shows him to be the precise opposite. What has happened to him is therefore nothing short of an international scandal.
[…]
