Activities & Organizations

Controversial author to visit UH

Author and libertarian thinker Charles Murray will visit the University today to discuss his 2012 book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.”

Murray is the latest in a collaborative series of lectures between the Houston Hobby Center for Public Policy and The Honors College Phronesis Program in Politics and Ethics, a series which has included lectures such as “Conservatism and Progressivism in America” and “Economic Crisis: Causes, Consequences and Remedies.” The talk will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Rockwell Pavilion on the second floor of the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library.

Murray, a W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argues in “Coming Apart” that the American upper and middle classes have separated greatly throughout time, as the upper class has segregated itself and the lower class no longer follows traditional values. Murray has written numerous other bestselling and controversial books, but he is best known for his 1994 book “The Bell Curve,” which he co-authored with the late psychologist Richard J. Hernstein.

“Charles Murray has been an important voice in bringing to public attention the growing inequality in America and the emergence of a new underclass in society,” said associate professor of political science Jeffrey Church.

This is not his first visit to Houston this week. Murray visited Rice University on Monday to some controversy, as Rice Black Student Association President Jackie Mutai organized a protest against Murray’s visit, saying his views on race and class are “repellent and very, very ignorant,” according to the Rice Thresher.

Crystal Sowemimo, a political science major at UH, began organizing a similar protest when she heard of his visit.

“He’s said some really awful things about minorities — about how minorities and women are inherently inferior than white males,” Sowemimo said.

“We believe that as young adults, we should be taking charge and making people like him accountable for his actions and accountable for the things he has said.”

Sowemimo has brought in the UH NAACP and UH Mexican American Studies Student Organization to peacefully protest the talk. They hope to change students’ minds on Murray’s views and perhaps even Murray himself.

“We want to show him that his ideas, his philosophies are outdated. He’s outnumbered — he’s at the wrong campus,” Sowemimo said.

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