Last Sundays Observer reported that Professor Graham Sampson, a professor at Sussex University and also a councillor, stated on his website that "theres nothing wrong with racism" and "there is overwhelming scientific evidence that races differ to some extent in their average intelligence levels..." and "if I am told I am a racist, I dont splutter indignant denials... I just say racialist, actually" and "it was scientifically hard to disagree that negroes were less bright than whites"

Would you want this man assessing your thesis ?
It is shocking to find such attitudes, devoid of any tact or common sense, among the academic fraternity. What is more depressing is the lack of those professors prepared to state the opposite case; their reluctance perhaps enables the Sampsons and Enoch Powells (a Prof of Classics) to peddle their own propaganda.
One noatable exception was Alexander von Humboldt of Berlin. His name is largely forgotten now, living on residually in topographical features and the occasional educational esatblishment (including Humboldt University in East Berlin, named in his honour by the socialist regime). A widely travelled explorer and a pioneer of ecology, Humboldt was emphatic on the notion of racial Equality; more importantly, he did not confine this to mere moral pronouncments but made it a core theory of his life's masterwork, THE COSMOS.
One of the great figures of 19th century rationalism, he was aquainted with many great revolutionaries and thinkers of his day, including Bolivar, Garibaldi, Beethoven and Napoleon (not sure if he met Marx, although they were at the same uni...) and seemed destined to be remembered as a kindred spirit. His relative obscruity is undeserved, and may be partly due to his insistence on racial Equality, particularly if academics en masse share the opinions of Prof Sampson...