Recently, Philadelphia Councilman David Oh wrote a letter urging the University of Pennsylvania to review Professor Amy Wax's "role with the university." More recently, PennLaw Dean Ted Ruger announced that he will begin a formal sanction process against Wax. Erich Makarov, a 3L at UPenn who was in Wax's class, wrote a letter in response to Oh, that also addresses the issues in Ruger's announcement. Erich asked me to post his letter, which I do here:
Dear Councilman Oh,
I would like to preface my letter to you by saying that I am a second-generation American of Eurasian heritage. My parents are immigrants who escaped a brutal, totalitarian regime and came to this country penniless. I am also currently a law student at the University of Pennsylvania.
I write to you with the humble request that you inquire further into what is really going on at Penn Law and with Professor Wax specifically. You have doubtlessly witnessed the media firestorm that followed Professor Wax's comments in her interview with Glenn Loury. As a Republican in a place like Philadelphia, you surely realize that media reactions and blue checkmarks on Twitter are not always the best indicator of what is true. Such is the case here. Here is what is definitely true. Professor Wax is provocative. She holds heterodox views. She is not afraid to voice unpopular ideas so long as she honestly believes them to be true. Many of these views are certainly offensive to some people.
But as her former student, I can state without a doubt that Professor Wax's ultimate goal is the preservation of the principles of ordered liberty and private property upon which this nation was founded. She believes these principles are in mortal danger and under constant assault. She has never advocated for any kind of ethnostate; racial policymaking is the exact opposite of what she supports. Her goal is to make American meritocracy impregnable and prevent the kind of race-based, equity-seeking system that progressives push on the American people. If you watch her entire interview with Professor Loury, you will hear her make several crucial points that are being omitted in the media space.
Professor Wax's greatest concern is that Asian-Americans overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic Party. As a Republican in Philadelphia, it is hard to imagine that you would not share this concern. The Democratic Party has done more to set back the rights, opportunities, and safety of Asian Americans (both recently and historically), than any political force in American history. But even beyond that, the agenda of the Democratic party is rattling the classical liberal foundations upon which our nation stands. With progressive prosecutors, militantly anti-religious politicians, and an army of young followers that despise genuine free expression, this party makes us unsafe in our own communities, attacks our faith relentlessly, and seeks to punish us for any speech that is deemed politically incorrect.
When Professor Wax sees that Asian-Americans overwhelmingly give their endorsement to this agenda by voting for its creators, she draws a narrow (but natural) conclusion that there is something incompatible about the values of immigrants from Asian countries with the constitutional liberalism she so cherishes. I come to a different conclusion on this issue. I believe that it is the rotting of America's institutions that has led many people astray. Curricula that train young minds to despise America, popular culture that denigrates all traditional values and extols conformity, and politicians who appeal to base tribal instincts to turn groups against the common good are to blame. All can fall victim to these immense pressures—race isn't the cause.
