When
Claudine Gay first hit the public stage, it
was with great fanfare. Those who had never
heard of her only knew that she had become the
first African American president at one of the
country’s most prestigious universities. Now,
she’ll be remembered as the embattled Black
woman with the shortest tenure in Harvard’s
history. If only she had been aggressively
clear that she would crack down on any comment
or activity that so much as hinted towards
pro-Palestine support.
I’ll
admit I haven’t gone into the weeds about the
plagiarism charges. That’s because this has
little to do with plagiarism. This has all to
do with making an example out of anyone who
dared to ascend to the power throne deemed for
white men only and take a stand for democracy.
If this were truly about plagiarism,
billionaire Bill Ackerman, who helped to lead
the witch hunt against Gay for her alleged
plagiarism, would have first outed his wife,
Neri Oxman. Oxman is now accused of stealing
quotes from Wikipedia - of all places - for
her MIT dissertation.
Right
now, the extremists and the Zionists are
making campuses their battleground for
teachable lessons. The conservatives in this
country are going after people with a
vengeance who uphold equity and who don’t
unequivocally support Israel’s occupation of
Palestinian land. Anyone in positions of power
and influence are in the cross-hairs of the
anti-DEI or the Zionists. For Claudine Gay,
she was a victim of a double whammy.
Colleges
and universities, already on the ropes from
the U.S. Supreme Courts’ strike against
affirmative action, seem to be cowering to the
pressures from the Right. The chilling effect
has been painful to watch.
After
being grilled by Rep. Elise Stefanik at the
congressional hearing, University of
Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned.
Stefanik vowed to bring down the presidents of
Harvard and MIT. That’s two down and one to
go.
The GOP held hostage the state
funding to the University of Wisconsin system
unless it would turn its back on fairness and
inclusion. The UW regents caved, giving the
GOP another victory in the anti-DEI campaign.
UW President Jay Rothman was
ordered to “re-imagine” diversity, equity and
inclusion. Translation: dismantle anything
that looks like affirmative action. In
exchange for the betrayal, the new engineering
building moves forward along with some other
devilish goodies.
I
don’t know Claudine Gay’s personal story, but
I know she has endured the slings and arrows
of racism and patriarchy on her journey to
attain the so-called American dream. Being the
brilliant woman she is, it didn’t take long
for her to think about, then pen her thoughts
as to what really happened and why.
The
title of Gay’s essay, published in the New
York Times,
the day after her resignation said it all:
What Just Happened at Harvard is Bigger Than
Me. She - and everyone else - knows this is
not about her, it’s about a “broader way to
unravel public faith in pillars of American
society.” Gay realized, too late, that she was
the “victim of a well-laid trap” as she
attempted to defend herself under the gaze of
relentless white, public scrutiny. She
shouldn’t have to stand alone.
This
is the time for academic institutions to stand
up for something, or in the words of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., fall for anything.
Most have lofty missions like Harvard, to
“educate future leaders” and to inspire “every
member of our community to strive toward a
more just, fair, and promising world.”
Concepts
like equity, fairness and justness are like
kryptonite to the MAGA-ites and their buddies.
That means freedom-loving people have to beat
them down with heaps of democracy that will
weaken their reactionary stranglehold on
democracy in this country.
