Civil rights groups were understandably horrified after Elon Musk endorsed a tweet suggesting Black students have lower IQs.
Earlier this week, multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk endorsed a tweet suggesting Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have lower IQs and shouldn’t become pilots.
“It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE,” he tweeted, intentionally mixing up the letters of the acronym for “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2024
Civil rights groups were understandably horrified at the billionaire’s racist comments.
“The only thing anyone needs to hear from Musk about diversity in the workplace is an apology,” Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, told NBC News, calling his statements “abhorrent and pathetic.”
In his tweets, Musk appeared to imply that HBCU students shouldn’t be allowed to become pilots. However, neither his statement nor the tweet he was responding to stand up to virtually any degree of scrutiny, from made-up average IQ numbers to wrongfully correlating high SAT scores with high IQ.
Musk also claimed that a United Airlines program that allows students at three HBCUs to interview to become a pilot meant that the airline had “prioritized DEI hiring” over “safety,” a demonstratively false statement that only further highlights his twisted worldview.
Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening. https://t.co/FcTyzZD0uW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2024
