Academic fired for fabricating research used to support ‘systemic racism’ claims.

A Florida State ‌University professor whose work was‍ foundational to ​perpetuating the false narrative that there is widespread “systemic ‌racism”⁤ infecting American society has been fired for falsifying data in his academic research on the subject.

In a recently resurfaced report from last month, the New York Post revealed that Eric Stewart, an FSU criminology professor, had been fired by ⁤the university “on account of ‘extreme negligence’ in his research,” as well as “incompetence”⁤ and producing “false‌ results” in his nearly 20 years ⁤of work.

“I do not see how you can teach our students⁢ to be ethical ​researchers⁢ or how the results of future research ​projects conducted by you could be⁣ deemed as trustworthy,” FSU Provost James⁤ Clark ‍wrote in a July 13 letter formally⁢ notifying Stewart of his firing.

According to the Post, Stewart has had six studies published‍ in major academic journals between 2003 and 2019 that ​were “fully retracted,”⁣ including a 2019 ‌study claiming ⁤the historical legacy of ⁣lynchings “made whites perceive blacks as criminals, ⁤and that the problem was worse among conservatives.”

Stewart’s retracted research also included claims that racial disparities in criminal sentencing are ⁤racially‌ motivated. In a 2015‍ study, for instance, ⁤Stewart suggested Americans‌ supported tougher ‍sentencing for Hispanics because ‌they feared an increase⁤ in the U.S. Latino population and Latinos’ potential economic success.

Other retracted studies include a 2018 analysis which “suggested that white Americans view black and Latino people as ​‘criminal threats,’ and‌ suggested that perceived threat could lead to ‌‘state-sponsored social control,’” the ⁣Post​ added.

Clark indicated in his letter that Stewart’s other published ⁢works are “in doubt.”

Rather ‌than‍ own up to his actions, Stewart has since attempted to play the victim card and attacked Justin ⁤Pickett, ⁢a​ former FSU ⁤graduate student who reported Stewart for ‌his unethical ​conduct. Following the launch of the‌ investigation⁣ into his work in 2020, Stewart, ⁣who is black, ⁤claimed that by raising concerns about his​ faulty research, ‍Pickett had “essentially lynched ‌ [him] and [his] academic character.”

In addition⁢ to his‍ $190,000 annual salary at FSU, Stewart’s projects received millions in research grants from major groups​ and government agencies. According to ⁣the ​Post, the ‌National Institute of Mental Health — which falls under the National Institute of Health⁤ —⁣ reportedly gave Stewart $3.2 million to research “how African Americans transition into adulthood.” ‍

Stewart also reportedly received ‍funds⁤ from the National Science Foundation, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, and the⁣ National Institute of Justice, a subsidiary​ of the Department of Justice.

The ⁤discovery of Stewart’s falsified research and​ his subsequent firing is significant to understanding the left’s ongoing war on American police officers. As ⁣ noted ‍ by Wilfred Reilly, an associate professor at Kentucky State University, Stewart is “[p]robably THE ‌academic ⁣ [figure] responsible” for the debunked narrative that so-called “systemic racism” plagues U.S. police departments throughout the country.

According to Google ​Scholar, for​ instance, Stewart’s questionable — and in several cases, categorically⁤ false‍ — works have garnered more than 8,500 citations​ by other researchers. Stewart’s “research” has been used as​ a ‌pretext by other academics, regime-approved media, and Democrat politicians to smear America’s on-the-ground law enforcement officers as inherently “racist” towards non-white Americans. ‍

“The point ⁢ [of this story] ​ is that one of the [main] guys who built up the entire narrative of ‘wokeness’ ⁢just made it up,”‍ Reilly told The Federalist. ‌“Throughout the entire kind of racial ​reckoning, one of the things ‍that I and others … have noticed is ‍that these stories [about police brutality against black Americans] keep collapsing. The narrative ⁢of police genocide of African Americans turned out … ‌to be⁢ complete nonsense.”

Reilly also referenced research ​conducted by the Manhattan Institute’s​ Heather Mac Donald, whose analyses of publicly available data have debunked⁢ leftists’ ⁢narrative that ‌there is ⁣an epidemic of ⁣police killing unarmed black Americans.⁤ In a USA Today article ⁣published ‍a few months after George Floyd’s death, for instance, Mac⁤ Donald noted how even data from The Washington ‍Post’s database of‍ fatal police shootings dispels ⁢such claims and predicted that “[r]educing police​ resources will ultimately⁤ result in poorer service to the law-abiding ​residents ⁣of high-crime areas.”

Mac‌ Donald’s ‍forecast ultimately came true. While ⁢the rise of Black Lives Matter and Democrat-generated attacks on police‌ began under the ‌Obama administration, it was ⁤Floyd’s death that ushered in‍ a new ⁢era of the ‍left’s war on America’s police. Democrat politicos and their legacy media allies ​quickly hijacked Floyd’s death⁣ to normalize street ⁣violence committed by​ their communist ‌foot soldiers.

The left’s perpetuation of ⁣the false “systemic racism in policing” narrative and ⁢their subsequent actions ​not only killed people such as David Dorn, ‍but countless others who‌ suffered because their Democrat-run⁤ cities defunded ⁣ local law enforcement.

Following Floyd’s death and the anti-police back it launched, there was a significant spike ⁢in overall murders, especially affecting black ‌victims. According to ⁣Reilly, such statistics don’t interest groups like Black ⁢Lives Matter ‍because⁣ “a focus on things that might actually correlate with a ‍high loss of black life …⁤ [is] not⁤ what the ‌movement was about.”

BLM “was ⁢about using outlier conflict between blacks​ and whites to get money,”⁢ Reilly said. “The whole idea was ​to take these very isolated, white cop or white vigilantes on black male cases and present them as normal. They did that for a while. It‌ turned⁣ out not to be real and they’ve ‍pulled back from the scene, now‍ as the owners of some nice properties. And ​now we’re left to clean up the⁣ mess.”