Pioneer Fund

[[File:Draper.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Wickliffe Draper in 1918]]
{{race}}
The '''Pioneer Fund''' is an American organisation that exists to fund and promote [[racist]] [[pseudoscience]], in particular studies into [[Hereditarianism|race, intelligence]], and [[eugenics]]. It campaigned in favor of [[segregation]], against equal educational provision for black people, and against immigration.<ref name=miller>"The Pioneer Fund: Bankrolling the Professors of Hate", Adam Miller, ''The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education'', No. 6 (Winter, 1994-1995), pp. 58-61 (4 pages), via [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2962466 JSTOR], DOI: 10.2307/2962466</ref> The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] designates it as a "[[white nationalist]] extremist group".<ref name=splc>[https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/pioneer-fund Pioneer Fund], [[SPLC]]</ref> 

==History==
The Pioneer Fund was founded in 1937, with an endowment from {{wpl|Wickliffe Draper}} {{lived|1891|1972}}, the son of George Draper of [[Massachusetts]]' Draper Corporation, known for its textile looms.<ref name=funding>{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=William H. |title=The funding of scientific racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund |date=2002 |publisher=Univ. of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-02762-8 |location=Urbana, Ill.}}</ref>{{rp|43}} Following [[World War Two]], segregationist {{wpl|Henry Garrett (psychologist)|Henry Garrett}} became closely involved with its administration, helping to distribute funding. Its first president was {{wpl|Harry H. Laughlin||,}} a leading proposer of compulsory sterilization in the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century, who also lobbied against [[Jewish]] immigration in the 1920s and 1930s, using spurious studies to attempt to show that Jewish immigrants had low [[IQ]]s.<ref name=splc/><ref name=miller/>

It has funded fairly mainstream science, such as the {{wpl|Minnesota Twin Family Study}}, but has also funded discredited [[pseudoscience]] and inaccurate research into race and heredity by people who often had no knowledge of [[genetics]].{{cn}}

It gave over $1 million to [[Arthur Jensen]], a researcher who opposed education for [[African American]] children on the grounds that they had an average IQ of 85 and it was pointless trying to educate them to the same level as whites. It also gave over $1 million to [[Roger Pearson]] and associates, such as his Institute for the Study of Man. Pearson's other actions included editing the [[antisemitic]] journal ''The New Patriot'', which published articles with titles such as "Zionists and the Plot Against South Africa", "Early Jews and the Rise of Jewish Money Power", and "Swindlers of the Crematoria". Others that it has supported include [[Hans Eysenck]], Robert A. Gordon, [[Linda Gottfredson]], Seymour Itzkoff, Michael Levin, [[Richard Lynn]] ($50,000 in 1993 alone)<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ulster-university-took-grant-from-fund-backing-whites-1405688.html Ulster University took grant from fund backing whites], The Independent, 9 Jan 1994</ref>, R. Travis Osborne, [[J. Philippe Rushton]], William Shockley, and Daniel R. Vining Jr. It has funded groups including the Institute for Western Values, American Immigration Control Foundation (AICF), the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and Project USA (another anti-immigration group).<ref name=splc/>

Harry Weyher was head from 1958-2002; he was a former tax attorney from [[North Carolina]] who became involved in racist circles following [[Brown v. Board of Education]] (1954).<ref name=splc/> John B. Trevor, treasurer in the 1990s, was previously an official in the Coalition of Patriotic Societies, which despite its name, had close links with [[Nazism]], being named in a 1942 indictment for sedition and later arguing for the release of Nazi [[war criminal]]s and defending [[apartheid]] in [[South Africa]].<ref name=miller/> From 2002 to 2012, its head was [[J. Philippe Rushton]], the [[psychologist]] and racial pseudoscientist; he had received $770,000 in grants from the Pioneer Fund.<ref name=splc/><ref name=miller/>

==Recent activity==
In recent years, its major donor has been {{wpl|Walter Kistler}} {{lived|1918|2015}}, the [[physicist]], astronautical engineer, and businessman.<ref name=splc/>

As racism has become increasingly unacceptable, fewer institutions have been willing to receive funds; while it once funded research at several American universities, from 2011-2016, the only university in the US to receive Pioneer fund money was the University of Arizona.<ref>[https://www.apnews.com/a9791e6174374437b3bbe17af8b76215 APNewsBreak: University accepted $458K from eugenics fund], AP News, Aug 25, 2018</ref> Arizona says its professors have the right to receive any funding they like. At Arizona, the beneficiary was Aurelio Figueredo, a researcher in [[evolutionary psychology]] and a follower of race scientist J. Philippe Rushton, and particularly of Rushton's claim that black people live on a more accelerated lifecycle than whites or Asians, who are better able to defer gratification.<ref>[https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/09/10/arizona-psychologist-faces-scrutiny-grants-organization-founded-support-research Pioneering Eugenics in 2018?], Inside Higher Ed, 10 Sep 2018</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Pseudoscience promoting organizations]]

Categories: Pseudoscience promoting organizations