Columbia professor marches for Gaza while funded – Latest News
American taxpayers are subsidizing a Columbia University professor who marched in pro-Hamas demonstrations on campus.
Neuropsychologist Jennifer J. Manly participated in a human blockade to stop directors from dismantling the unauthorized encampments final April.
In pictures taken of the occasion, Manly is seen sporting an orange vest and standing with fellow Columbia professors as they marched for Gaza, in entrance of banners studying “Demilitarize education” and “Palestine is Everywhere”; others referred to as for financial boycott of and divestment from Israel.
Neuropsychologist Jennifer J. Manly, a Columbia University professor, participated in a human blockade to stop directors from dismantling the unauthorized encampments final April.
According to the National Institutes of Health and different publicly accessible databases, Manly has been named in reference to over $100 million in grants over the previous 20 years.
Much of her analysis is predicated on the so-called “social determinants of health thesis,” which posits that racism, sexism and homophobia could cause mind illness in “Black and Latinx communities” — a thesis that critics have described as pseudo-science.
Manly’s look at a pro-Hamas rally, coupled along with her activist educational analysis, raises severe questions concerning the medical institution, which has directed giant sums of taxpayer {dollars} to ideologues disguised as professors and to activism disguised as science.
And it offers additional grist to officers within the Trump administration, who’ve argued that funding cuts are essential to disrupt the pipeline of left-wing radicals.
In pictures taken of the occasion, Manly (far back) is seen sporting an orange vest and standing with fellow Columbia professors as they marched for Gaza, in entrance of banners studying “Demilitarize education.” Melissa Bender/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Manly’s work routinely advances the concept that racism causes bodily sickness, akin to Alzheimer’s illness. She claimed in an interview final 12 months that “we shouldn’t blame people for their lifestyle choices in terms of their brain health.”
Rather, “systems of oppression” and “discriminatory beliefs” trigger black people to endure dementia at disproportionate charges.
“Any biological differences are driven by … racism,” Manly has stated, later defining racism as “the pathway through which race is ‘biologized.’ ”
Her educational work displays these views. One paper Manley co-authored blamed “historical patterns of segregation” for larger charges of dementia amongst blacks. Another paper blamed “structural sexism” for declining reminiscence, with the impact discovered to be stronger amongst black ladies.
Manly’s work is lavishly funded by taxpayers. Most lately, the National Institutes of Health gave her and her workforce almost $700,000 to supply work linking racism to mind illness.
As half of this grant, in January 2025, Manley and colleagues printed an article implying that blacks residing in states with “high lynching proportions” up to now skilled larger ranges of C-reactive protein (CRP), a issue related to better risk of dementia.
The authors claimed that “racism is associated with inflammation and dementia risk” as a result of it “cumulatively taxes the body resulting in worsening biological and cognitive health.”
Another paper concluded that “racist U.S. policies” had an “influence on cognitive health over time and dementia risk later in life.”
Psychiatrist Kurt Miceli, a critic of wokeness in science and medical director of Do No Harm, says Manly’s analysis demonstrates why DEI ought to be struck from the medical subject.
Miceli regards her linking of historic lynchings with black dementia charges as “political” versus scientific. He goes on to clarify that the marker Manly makes use of to trace her speculation of racism-invoked stress — CRP — can quickly change and is more influenced by health elements akin to weight problems, insulin resistance, diabetes and high blood stress.
Manly’s activist-driven analysis wasted taxpayer money, he argues. “There’s so much else that could be done [instead of] sort of focusing on an argument that … leads to calls for possibly reparations.”
Despite her politicized analysis and historical past of defending pro-Hamas activism, Manly continues to help lead a multimillion-dollar authorities project funded by quite a few businesses that tracks mind getting older.
Manly’s look on the rally, coupled along with her activist educational analysis, raises severe questions concerning the medical institution, in line with critics. James Keivom
She additionally at the moment maintains more than $20 million in energetic grants to help her analysis on the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute at Columbia.
The Trump administration has proven its willpower to slash the National Institutes of Health’s bloated price range. It can be sensible to scrutinize the work of professors like Jennifer Manly, who appear to be pursuing ideological analysis slightly than medical science, and terminate funding for tasks that don’t meet conventional scholarly requirements.
The solely technique to restore trust in America’s analysis establishments is to concentrate on actual analysis — not pro-Hamas radicalism or doubtful racialist scholarship.
Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow on the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the creator of “America’s Cultural Revolution.” Hannah Grossman is an investigative reporter on the Manhattan Institute.
