In addition to ethical concerns about the nature and funding of his research, Rushton’s work is deeply flawed from a scientific standpoint.  Rushton’s works on “race and intelligence” are based on an incorrect assumption that fuels systemic racism, the notion that racialized groups are concordant with patterns of human ancestry and genetic population structure.  This idea is rejected by analysis of the human genome: racialized groups are not distinct genetic populations.  What Rushton described as “races” are socially created categories, and do not reflect patterns of human inheritance or genetic population structure.  Rushton also inappropriately tried to apply an ecological theory developed to explain differences between species’ reproductive strategies (r/K selection theory) to putative differences in parental care between racialized groups, an approach that has been thoroughly debunked.  Moreover, Rushton’s work is characterized by a complete misunderstanding of population genetic measures, including fundamental misconceptions about the nature of heritability and gene-environment interactions during development.  His work has been criticized, often by other Western University faculty members, on many other grounds.  In some cases, Rushton’s work has failed to replicate or stand up to reanalysis. In other cases, his papers ignored alternative explanations or competing evidence that did not support his racist hypotheses.

Despite its deeply flawed assumptions and methodologies, Rushton’s work and other so-called “race science” (currently under the pseudonym of “race realism”) continues to be misused by white supremacists and promoted by eugenic organizations.  Thus, Rushton’s legacy shows that the impact of flawed science lingers on, even after qualified scholars have condemned its scientific integrity.  Academic freedom and freedom of expression are critical to free scientific inquiry.  However, the notion of academic freedom is disrespected and abused when it is used to promote the dissemination of racist and discriminatory concepts.  Scientists have an obligation to society to speak loudly and actively in opposition of such abuse.