As you’ve probably heard by now, Professor Geoffrey Miller tweeted this a few days ago: “Dear obese PhD applicants: If you don’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth.”
He quickly retracted this statement, but the damage was already done.
Prof. Miller is a University of New Mexico professor who is a visiting professor at NYU.
As an NYU alum two times over (B.A. history, with honors, summa cum laude 1999, JD 2002), I was really unhappy with NYU’s response. So I decided to write to the President of NYU, John Sexton, who actually taught a tiny group of freshman back in 1995 that included yours truly. Here’s what I wrote:
I hope you are well. I’m also hoping that you remember me. I was in your freshman honors seminar on the First Amendment’s religion clauses back in the Fall of 1995. I graduated from NYU with honors, summa cum laude, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa I also attended NYU Law, graduating in 2002.
I’m writing to you as an NYU CAS and NYU Law alum, a lawyer, a health coach who works with fat people, and a fat person myself.
Based upon Geoffrey Miller’s tweet, I’m very concerned about NYU’s decision to keep him on staff. His tweet, stating that fat people have “no willpower” and therefore should not even apply to be PhD candidates indicates that he supports and likely engages in appearance-based discrimination.
Discrimination based on weight is a serious problem. Studies indicate that 1 in 3 children experience weight bias from a teacher. Larger people are less likely to be accepted into college. Like any other kind of discrimination, discrimination against fat people is insidious and prevents larger people from achieving in academia and elsewhere. As a result, many states and municipalities have added “height and weight” and/or “appearance” as a protected class. It is now illegal to discriminate on the basis of height/weight and/or appearance in the state of Michigan and in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Washington, DC, Madison, WI, Urbana, IL and Binghamton, NY. Civil rights groups like NAAFA are working to get more laws like these on the books.
Dr. Miller’s continued employment could create liability for NYU on a number of bases. The ADA as amended protects people who are disabled by weight or are perceived to be disabled by weight. Perceiving fat students to be disabled, as Dr. Miller essentially suggests, would bring fat students under the umbrella of the ADA. Obesity is also more common in protected groups (e.g. women, certain minority groups, people over 55) so that discrimination on the basis of weight has a disproportionate impact on these groups. This type of discrimination may also violate consumer protection laws, because students purchasing the same education will get unequal benefits based solely on their appearance.
Fatness is so maligned in our culture that bigotry toward fat people often goes unnoticed at best and supported at worst. It may sound cliche, but if you substitute “obese PhD candidates” with “female PhD candidates” or “gay PhD candidates” the bigotry would be much clearer. Similarly, publicly stating that a group of people are not fit to receive PhD’s based on their size should not be tolerated.
John, I have a great deal of respect for you, and your seminar was probably my favorite class of my academic career. I know you to be an eminently reasonable person who understands the dangerous nature of stigmatization and bigotry. That is why I am asking you to reconsider NYU’s decision to keep Dr. Miller on staff. It pains me to think that the school that I know and love would stand behind a professor who would find me ineligible to pursue a PhD just based on my appearance.
I would be happy to discuss this with you further at your convenience. I can also put you in touch with an attorney who represents fat people in discrimination suits.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Golda
Special shoutout to Sondra Solovay, Esq., weight discrimination specialist and co-editor of The Fat Studies Reader (printed, ironically, by NYU Press), for her help with this letter.
I found UNM’s response to Prof. Miller’s tweet to be more heartening. I’m glad that they’re at least investigating his claim that this is all part of an experiment.
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
@nyuniversity stop supporting #bigotry. Fire Dr. Miller. #discrimination #nyu http://t.co/LoxFGWBJt9 via @bodylovewellness
@nyuniversity stop supporting #bigotry. Fire Dr. Miller. #discrimination #nyu http://t.co/GGzF4W3Qbk
@nyuniversity stop supporting #bigotry. Fire Dr. Miller. #discrimination #nyu http://t.co/8aMXPrgMav
Deftly put.
I’m glad you wrote this letter, and wow, what a list of accomplishments! As for his claim that this was an experiment, yeah, right, and I’m the Queen of Mars.
Excellent letter – clear, direct, logical.
Great letter! As for Miller’s “research,” aren’t there committees/supervisors who keep an eye on all research? If only for ethical reasons?
Great letter! As for Miller’s “research,” aren’t their committees/supervisors who keep an eye on all research? If only for ethical reasons?
Great letter!
AWESOME! FABULOUS! Thank you so much for standing up for all of us who suffer with this sort of bigotry and discrimination on a daily basis. Your strength and intelligence are truly inspirational.
With gratitude,
Lea