Bryan Pesta

From RationalWiki
(Redirected from Bryan J. Pesta)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Cock obsessed Bryan Pesta with a cock-tail.
The colorful pseudoscience
Race & Racialism
Icon race.svg
Hating thy neighbour
Divide and conquer
Dog-whistlers
He is a white, British Cocker Spaniel. I also have a black, American Cocker Spaniel. The white cock is larger than the black cock. Odd...!
—Bryan Pesta[1]

Bryan J. Pesta is a hereditarianism pseudoscientist, self-described "racial realist" and former editor-in-chief of Psych who has written controversial racialist papers for the white supremacist journal Mankind Quarterly.[2][3][4] He was a Professor of Graduate Business Programs at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio until he was fired in March 2022 after he was accused of unethical conduct for violating data-use by uploading restricted data to an "unapproved online forensic DNA-phenotyping service".[2] Pesta has controversially published racist pseudoscience with white nationalists John Fuerst and Emil Kirkegaard.[2] After his sacking, Pesta admitted to receiving money from the eugenics Pioneer Fund whilst working at Cleveland.[5] He is an atheist.[6]

Pesta has supported racist stereotypes and pseudoscience black men have the biggest penis size. This is despite the fact peer-reviewed studies have disproven this.[7] A 2015 systematic review of 15,521 men found "no indications of differences in racial variability", and it is not possible to draw any conclusions about penis size and race from the available literature.[8] Former students from his classes at Cleveland State University have stated he often told offensive penis jokes.[2]

In December 2022, Pesta became a writer for the right-wing magazine Quillette.[9]

Racialist pseudoscience[edit]

Pesta's academic background is primarily in business management and psychology, with a master's degree in labor relations and human resources from Cleveland State University and Ph.D. in psychology with a concentration in cognitive aging from the University of Akron.[10][2]

Pesta has done a decent amount of legitimate research, much of it published in reputable journals, on psychological topics like memory and the link between religion and intelligence.[11][12] However, he is also active in promoting discredited theories about race and intelligence, despite having no publicly known credentials in relevant fields such as biology or genetics.

For instance, he pals around with Emil Kirkegaard and other racialist pseudoscientists, serving on the editorial board of one of Kirkegaard's OpenPsych pseudojournals, (co-)authoring three articles in these journals and reviewing four others,[13] further coauthoring a recent article with Kirkegaard in the overtly racist Mankind Quarterly.[14] He used to edit Wikipedia's article about race and intelligenceWikipedia back in 2010.[15] In 2019, he returned to create Michael A. Woodley of Menie's Wikipedia article (which was deleted in 2022).[16]

Pesta controversially co-authors pseudoscientific race and intelligence papers with white nationalists John Fuerst and Emil Kirkegaard.[17][18][19]

International Society for Intelligence Research[edit]

Pesta was a speaker at the International Society for Intelligence Research in 2010.[20]

Psych journal[edit]

Because OpenPsych was heavily criticized by the media in 2018 for its association with eugenics and white supremacy, most racialists stopped publishing in it. In 2019, Pesta who served on their editorial board, became "Special Issue Editor" of Psych's Beyond Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability.[21] The project was set up to validate J. Philippe Rushton and Arthur Jensen's pseudoscientific hereditarianism research.[21]

In July 2019 over a controversy with Richard Lynn, the Psych journal no longer publishes racist pseudoscience.[22] Pesta no longer sits on the Editorial Board.[23]

Bryan J Pesta's lab[edit]

Between 2019 and 2022, Pesta claimed on ResearchGate to operate a laboratory at Cleveland State University.[24] There were only two "research fellows" of the lab, John Fuerst and Emil Kirkegaard. On 18 October 2022, Kirkegaard claimed the laboratory never existed: "Everybody who uses ResearchGate knows that it will occasionally suggest that recent work was done by some lab, if you click yes to that, it will auto-generate one of these fictive labs."[25] However, this is contradicted by the fact Pesta specifically listed his lab as Cleveland State University under "institution" when he could have left it blank.[26] According to ResearchGate: "A lab is a group of scientists, led by a senior researcher, who conduct experiments and research together on a specific topic. You can now quickly set up your lab on ResearchGate to showcase the work your lab is doing."[27] If Pesta did not want to mislead people into thinking he ran a laboratory at Cleveland State University, he should have not typed in that place as the lab's institution.

2022 activity[edit]

Pesta continues to publish racialist pseudoscience with John Fuerst, Emil Kirkegaard, and Jan te Nijenhuis.[17]

In March, 2022 Pesta was fired from Cleveland State University:

Despite nearly a dozen publications over more than a decade arguing for the intellectual inferiority of Black people, Pesta earned merit pay for research and eventually promotion and tenure at Cleveland State. Finally, this year, after researchers at other institutions filed complaints, the university fired him.[2]

As of November 2022, Pesta claims to be unemployable in the United States and is begging for donations from the far-right community:

Not surprisingly, I have suffered rather severe financial and emotional consequences because of CSU’s illegal firing of me. I am also hated there, and I am completely unemployable in academics anywhere in the USA.

I would sincerely appreciate any financial assistance you might provide here.[28]

Various racists and white nationalists such as Emil Kirkegaard, Charles Murray, and Steve Sailer at The Unz Review have supported Pesta.[28]

Despite claiming to be in a bad financial situtation and begging for donations, public records show before being fired from Cleveland State University, Pesta's annual salary was $172,775 which is 278 percent higher than the average salary at the same university.[29] Pesta has set up online crowdfunds and has recieved more than $10,000 in donations.[30]

2023 activity[edit]

On March 16, 2023 Pesta filed a lawsuit against Cleveland University and six other defendants. Pesta's attorney, Frederick C. Kelly, previously was hired by white nationalist Peter BrimelowWikipedia.[31] Pesta is seeking "money damages and injunctive relief against all defendants."[32] Pesta claims his sacking was a violation of his First Amendment rights to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of association.[33] Pesta also seeks a bizarre declaratory judgment:

Declaring that the hereditarian hypothesis into the long-standing racial gap in IQ is worthy of study, but is presently under assault for reasons wholly removed from valid scientific criteria; and

b) Declaring that to those, like Pesta, who advance a hereditarian hypothesis in the study of race, genetics, and intelligence are entitled to academic freedom; and

c) Declaring that CSU in particular must extend full academic freedom to any, such as Pesta, who advance a hereditarian hypothesis in the study of race, genetics, and intelligence

His lawsuit has been supported by various far-right websites including Steve Sailer's blog column at The Unz Review.[34]

Emil Kirkegaard, Pesta's main attack-dog, has harassed various individuals on social media mentioned by Pesta in his complaint for a civil case by calling them "terrorists".[35]

See also[edit]

  • Anatoly Karlin — similar racialist pseudosience promoter who believes black men have larger penis sizes
  • Edward M. Miller — another black cock obsessed white supremacist

References[edit]

  1. Bryan Pesta on Twitter
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Standifer, Cid (October 13, 2022). "Racial Pseudoscience on the Faculty". Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2022. 
  3. Mankind Quarterly Volume 56, Number 3, 2016
  4. Mankind Quarterly Volume 58, Number 4, 2018
  5. Draper’s Millions: The Philanthropic Wellspring of Modern Race Science
  6. Atheists' MySpace page restored after hacking incident
  7. "Oversized Penile Length In The Black People; Myth Or Reality". (2007). JC, Orakwe., GU, Ebuh. Tropical Journal of Medical Research. 11(1): 16-18.
  8. Veale, David; Miles, Sarah; Bramley, Sally; Muir, Gordon; Hodsoll, John (2015). "Am I normal? A systematic review and construction of nomograms for flaccid and erect penis length and circumference in up to 15 521 men". BJU International 115 (6): 978–986. doiWikipedia:10.1111/bju.13010. PMID 25487360. 
  9. Bryan J. Pesta
  10. "Bryan J Pesta". Cleveland State University. Archived from the original on November 23, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2022. 
  11. His Google Scholar profile
  12. The bright, the dim, and the in-between
  13. OpenPsych profile
  14. An S Factor Analysis on the Provinces of Vietnam: Relationships with Cognitive Ability, Ethnicity, and Latitude
  15. Wikipedia Talk: Race and Intelligence
  16. Bpesta22: User contributions. Wikipedia.
  17. 17.0 17.1 Bryan J Pesta. ResearchGate.
  18. Bibliometric Keyword Analysis across Seventeen Years (2000–2016) of Intelligence Articles
  19. Does intelligence explain national score variance on graduate admissions exams?
  20. The International Society for Intelligence Research 11th Conference. isironline.org.
  21. 21.0 21.1 Beyond Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability. Bryan J. Pesta.
  22. Prof who lost emeritus status for views on race and intelligence has paper flagged
  23. Editorial Board
  24. Bryan J Pesta's Lab Archived from the original on May 3, 2019.
  25. https://twitter.com/KirkegaardEmil/status/1582212274101817345
  26. https://archive.is/GXYXa#selection-709.0-711.26.
  27. https://explore.researchgate.net/display/support/Labs
  28. 28.0 28.1 Dr. Pesta Appeals for Your Help
  29. https://govsalaries.com/bryan-pesta-84518083
  30. https://www.givesendgo.com/G9END
  31. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016f-8dbd-dcf7-a96f-cdbd7ffa0000
  32. https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ohio/ohndce/1:2023cv00546/295763
  33. Pesta v. Cleveland State University et al
  34. Tenured Professor Bryan J. Pesta Sues for Being Fired for His Breakthrough Study of the Causes of the Racial Gap in Average IQ
  35. https://twitter.com/KirkegaardEmil/status/1636677442826797057