A Notre Dame professor's writing was cited in the Buffalo shooter's racist writings

SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame officials say they are appalled that an article authored by a Mendoza College of Business associate professor was cited in a white supremacist justification written by the suspected gunman believed to have killed 10 Black shoppers in an apparent racism-driven rampage last weekend in a Buffalo, NY, grocery store.

But Notre Dame officials stopped short of condemning the contents of the article from nearly nine years ago, and did not address the faculty members' employment status with the university.

The writings of the associate professor, John Gaski, came to light this week after social media posts drew attention to a 2013 story published by Investor's Business Daily, a website specializing in business news and stock market analysis.

The article appears among dozens of other citations linked to by the suspected Buffalo shooter's 180-page screed and offers Gaski's opinions on — among many other things — the trial of George Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer acquitted of murder charges in the 2012 death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

When reached for comment Friday morning, Gaski told The Tribune, "I can't do that yet. This is not the right time to be responding to questions or doing an interview out of deference to the university."

A Notre Dame spokesman declined a request for an interview Friday, writing in an email, "We have nothing to add beyond the statement released yesterday."

Hours later, the university's Office of Media Relations issued another public statement on Friday from the associate professor.

"It is sobering that a portion of an article I wrote in August 2013 was cited in the document composed by the Buffalo shooting suspect," the statement reads. "It was, of course, never my intent to in any way incite violence — in fact, just the opposite. I also am appalled and deeply distressed that the information I provided is associated in any way with this young man's horrific actions."

What did John Gaski write?

In the Investor's Business Daily publication, Gaski writes of a "racial victimhood industry" that "demonstrably cares little about the facts" and uses unspecified statistics to make claims about the rates of violent crimes, like rape and murder, among Black and white Americans.

At the end of the Investor's Business Daily post, Gaski is described as an associate professor at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, where "his primary research field is the study of social power and conflict." The post further described Gaski as "a long-time, but former, registered Democrat."

Officials last week identified their suspect, 18-year-old Payton Gendron of Conklin, NY, and the FBI is now investigating the shooting as both a hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism.

The suspected Buffalo shooter — whose writings echo racist white nationalist rhetoric seeking to "save the White race" and "correct the white birth rates" — cites Gaski's article as proof that "Black men are over a hundred times more likely to rape a White woman than vice versa."

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Gaski's 2013 article provides no specific year or date of study for data used and only generally names "Department of Justice, Criminal Victimization in the United States, 'Victim Offenders'" as the source of his statistical analysis.

One Criminal Victimization data report produced the the Department of Justice in May 2011 states that its data on rape and sexual assault includes verbal threats and is only an estimate based on 10 or fewer sample cases.

How is Notre Dame responding?

Notre Dame addressed Gaski's writing in a statement Thursday afternoon, saying, "We are appalled that a 2013 article by John Gaski, an associate professor at Notre Dame, was cited by the perpetrator of the heinous murders of innocent people in Buffalo. Whatever Professor Gaski's intentions, we deeply regret that his words were used to support a doctrine of racial hated. We urge all, at Notre Dame or elsewhere, to speak and act in ways that never give harbor to hatred and violence."

The statement did not address Gaski's current status with the university or whether any disciplinary actions have been taken against him.

The associate professor's name, as of Friday morning, still appeared on the Mendoza College of Business website, where he is described as an associate professor of marketing.

The website further states that Gaski regularly teaches courses in the principles of marketing and marketing research. The associate professor is a Notre Dame graduate and has been a faculty member since 1980, according to the university.

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Dozens of publications, not including the Investor's Business Daily piece, appear on Gaski's Notre Dame faculty page. Some publications listed include, "The liberals' new 'McCarthyism'" published in 2014 by the conservative-leaning Washington Times, and "Our Anti-American President," said to be published the same year in the Global Education Journal. A search of the journal's website did not show the 2014 piece.

A more recent writing published in 2017 by the Kokomo Tribune links Gaski to Notre Dame in an apparent op-ed labeling former president Barack Obama as an "anti-American American president."

More recently still, an October 2020 piece published in the Martinsville Reporter-Times and in the Seymour Tribune titled "Racism and the Historic Big Lie" accused Democrats of conspiring to keep Black Americans poor so they will keep voting Democratic. The Seymour piece identified Gaski as a Mendoza College professor at Notre Dame.

The Tribune has published multiple viewpoint columns submitted by Gaski on economic growth and city development. Opinion pieces submitted to The Tribune are received independently of the paper's news department and express views separate from those of this publication.

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Notre Dame's statement Thursday quickly triggered reaction on social media voicing disappointment in "weak" language used to address the situation.

"Why aren't you appalled by the racist article itself .@NotreDame?" one Twitter user wrote.

"This statement is a whole lot of nothing," another wrote. "A racist terrorist cited the work of one of your associate professors before one of the worst attacks in the recent history, and THIS is the best you could come up with?"

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame responds to Mendoza professor being cited by Buffalo killer