Glayde Whitney

{{short description|American geneticist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Glayde Whitney | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | imagesize = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = 1939 | birth_place = [[Montana]], United States | death_date = January 8, {{death year and age|2002|1939}} | death_place = [[Tallahassee, Florida]], United States | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | residence = | fields = [[Behavioural genetics|Behavior genetics]] | workplaces = [[Florida State University]] | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = [[University of Minnesota]] | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Glayde D. Whitney''' (1939 – January 8, 2002) was an American [[behavioral geneticist]] and [[psychologist]]. He was [[professor]] at [[Florida State University]]. Beyond his work into the genetics of [[sensory system]] function in [[mouse|mice]], in his later life he supported [[David Duke]] as well as research into [[race and intelligence]] and [[eugenics]].

==Biography== Whitney was born in [[Montana]] and grew up in [[Minnesota]].<ref name=foreword/> He earned his bachelor's degree from the [[University of Minnesota]], as well as his doctorate from there in 1966. He then enlisted in the [[United States Air Force]] and served until 1969. He subsequently worked as a [[postdoctoral fellow]] at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics ([[University of Colorado at Boulder]]), under [[Gerald McClearn]] and [[John C. DeFries]].<ref name=achems/>

In 1970, Whitney was hired by [[Florida State University]] to represent behavioral genetics in the [[psychobiology]] program, where he stayed until his death at the age of 62 on January 8, 2002, after contracting a severe cold that aggravated emphysema.<ref name=achems>{{cite web |url=http://www.achems.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3298 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822224933/http://www.achems.org/i4a/pages/Index.cfm?pageID=3298 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-08-22 |title=Glayde Whitney |work=Homepage |publisher=Association for Chemoreception Sciences |access-date=2011-08-22 }}</ref> He considered himself to be a "[[Hubert Humphrey]] liberal."<ref name=foreword>Whitney, Glayde. [http://www.prometheism.net/articles/foreword.html Foreword]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, in: {{cite book |author=Duke, David Ernest |author-link=David Duke |title=My Awakening: a Path to Racial Understanding |publisher=Free Speech Press |location=Covington, LA |year=2000 |isbn=1-892796-00-7 }}</ref>

== Academic work == Whitney was the author of over 60 papers on the genetics of [[taste]] sensitivity in inbred mice. Support for some of this work came from a Claude Pepper Award for Research Excellence from the [[National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders]] and in 1994 he received the Manheimer Lectureship Award from the [[Monell Chemical Senses Center]], which recognizes career achievements of individuals in the chemosensory sciences.<ref name=achems/> He was the president of the [[Behavior Genetics Association]] from 1994 to 1995.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bga.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1995_BGA-Richmond-1995.pdf |title=25th Annual Meeting |date=1995 |website=Behavior Genetics Association|page=2}}</ref>

By 1999, Whitney had shifted from studying mice to researching [[race and intelligence]] in humans. As part of this research, Whitney was supported by the [[Pioneer Fund]], which has ties to [[scientific racism]].<ref name="salon"/>

== Political views == Whitney was a frequent contributor to magazines such as ''[[Mankind Quarterly]]'', ''The g Factor Newsletter'', and ''The William McDougall Newsletter'' (named after eugenicist psychologist [[William McDougall (psychologist)|William McDougall]]). While outgoing president of the Behavior Genetics Association in 1995, some members of this group demanded his resignation after his presidential address suggested the need to investigate the possibility of genetic factors behind the high incidence of black crime in America.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=Yong-Kyu |editor1-last=Kim |last1=Loehlin |first1=John |author-link1=John C. Loehlin | title=Handbook of Behavior Genetics |chapter=History of behavior genetics |publisher=Springer |location=Berlin |isbn=978-0-387-76726-0 |pages=3–11 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3P_SLtfIN0C&q=crusio+%22glayde+whitney%22&pg=PA11 |date=2009-04-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.269.5220.35-a| last = Holden| first = C.| title = Specter at the Feast | journal = [[Science (journal)|Science]]| volume = 269| issue = 5220| pages = 35| year = 1995| pmid =17787698}}</ref><ref name=Butler>{{cite journal |author=Butler D. |title=Geneticist quits in protest at 'genes and violence' claim |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=378 |issue=6554 |pages=224 |date=November 1995 |pmid=7477332 |doi=10.1038/378224b0 |bibcode=1995Natur.378R.224B |s2cid=4307645 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=shun>{{cite journal |last=Holden |first=C. |date=November 1995 |title=Behavior geneticists shun colleague |journal=Science |volume=270 |issue=5239 |page=1125 | doi=10.1126/science.270.5239.1123|s2cid=240768468 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF02327582 | doi=10.1007/BF02327582 | title=The 25th Annual Meeting of the Behavior Genetics Association, Richmond, Virginia | year=1995 | last1=Heath | first1=Andrew C. | journal=Behavior Genetics | volume=25 | issue=6 | pages=589–590 | s2cid=145019295 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Panofsky |first1=Aaron | title=Misbehaving Science. Controversy and the Development of Behavior Genetics |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-05831-3 |date=2014}}</ref>

Whitney wrote the foreword for ''[[My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding|My Awakening]]'' (1998), an autobiography by [[David Duke]], a [[white nationalism|white nationalist]] politician and former National Director of the [[Ku Klux Klan|Knights of the Ku Klux Klan]]. In the book, Duke uses [[scientific racism]] to push for the [[School segregation in the United States|re-segregation]] of schools. Whitney did not specifically endorse Duke's re-segregation plan, but described Duke as "a Moses-like prophet".<ref name=salon/> Whitney compared Duke to [[Socrates]], [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]], and [[Isaac Newton|Newton]] and said the [[NAACP]] and other "front organisations" had been created to further Jewish interests.<ref name="Tucker151">{{cite book|last=Tucker|first=William H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L0cSfmwRrpQC&pg=PA151|title=The Cattell Controversy: Race, Science, and Ideology|publisher=University of Illinois|year=2009|page=151|isbn=9780252092671}}</ref>

Whitney said in a 1999 interview that the controversy distracted from what was meant to be a scientific discussion, saying "races are different for many genetic systems that influence everything from behavior and psychology to physiology, medicine and sports [...] Screaming nasty words does not change the reality."<ref name=salon>{{cite web |url=https://www.salon.com/1999/06/25/genetics/ |title=Reading genes in black and white |author=Chris Colin |work=Salon Books |date=1999-04-26 |access-date=2011-08-22}}</ref> Following the publication of the book, faculty and students of FSU condemned Whitney's comments, with some calling for his resignation. The school rejected Whitney's position, but defended his right to teach as a matter of [[academic freedom]]. Whitney's views regarding race and intelligence prompted the [[Florida Senate]] to pass Resolution 2742 in 1999, "condemning the racism and bigotry espoused by Florida State University Professor Glayde Whitney."<ref name=salon />

Whitney acknowledged the scientific achievements of Jews, but accused "organized Jewry" of playing a prominent role in suppressing race behavioral genetics in response to [[racism]] directed toward them, resulting in a "dishonest and hypocritical version of [[egalitarianism]]."

Whitney was a member of the [[Institute for Historical Review]], an organization promoting [[Holocaust revisionism]], making a case that Jews invented the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] for their own benefit.<ref name="Tucker151" />

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading == *{{Cite book |title=Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case against Brown v. Board of Education |last=Jackson |first= John P. |publisher=[[New York University|NYU Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8147-4271-6}} **{{lay source |template=cite web |title=Book Review: Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/25.2/br_19.html |website=History Cooperative}} * {{Cite book |title=The funding of scientific racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund |last=Tucker |first=William H. |author-link=William H. Tucker (psychologist) |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-252-07463-9}}

== External links == * [https://psy.fsu.edu/php/about/history/gallery/whitney.html Glayde Whitney] at Florida State University * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110517010534/http://www.ferris.edu/isar/bios/whitney/ Biographical links about Glayde Whitney collected by ISAR] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070822224933/http://www.achems.org/i4a/pages/Index.cfm?pageID=3298 Obituary], [[Association for Chemoreception Sciences]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Glayde}} [[Category:1939 births]] [[Category:2002 deaths]] [[Category:American geneticists]] [[Category:American Holocaust deniers]] [[Category:American segregationist activists]] [[Category:20th-century American psychologists]] [[Category:Behavior geneticists]] [[Category:Race and crime in the United States]] [[Category:People involved in race and intelligence controversies]] [[Category:Proponents of scientific racism]] [[Category:University of Minnesota alumni]] [[Category:20th-century American zoologists]]