By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
Is it anything new in America for African Americans in prominent positions to be targeted by European Americans? It is not, and it is just as true for women as it is for men. Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Shirley Chism, Angela Davis and even Oprah Winfrey immediately come to mind.
Always being second-guessed, motives questioned, judged on their worthiness, or for expressing an opinion – the truth is that a large swath of our country never has and still doesn’t accept black advancement or black equality; let alone embrace it.
This was the case just over a month ago when the posse was rounded up to take down Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first African American President, having served in that role just six months.
“The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Gay received her bachelor’s degree in 1992 from Stanford, where she majored in economics and was awarded the Anna Laura Myers Prize for best undergraduate thesis. In 1998, she received her Ph.D. in government from Harvard, where she won the Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science.
A quantitative social scientist with expertise in political behavior, Gay served as an assistant professor and then tenured associate professor at Stanford before being recruited to Harvard in 2006 as a professor of government. She was also appointed a professor of African and African American Studies in 2007. She was named the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government in 2015, when she also became dean of social science at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences,” per https://news.harvard.edu.
Yet when she weighed in on a divisive issue, the Israel-Hamas war and the subsequent outpouring of protests on college campuses, during a December 5, 2023, Hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee – under questioning by Trump devotee Elise Stefanik, Republican Representative of New York’s 21st District, and a Harvard alum herself, Gay walked right into the trap. She rightly separates political rhetoric and threatening language, all a part of free speech, from actual conduct.
From the transcript of the Hearing, as reported by www.rollcall.com:
“Elise Stefanik: Dr. Gay, at Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no?
Claudine Gay: It can be. Depending on the context.
ES: What’s the context?
CG: Targeted as an individual, targeted at an individual, severe, pervasive.
ES: It’s targeted at Jewish students, Jewish individuals. Do you understand your testimony is dehumanizing them? Do you understand that dehumanization is part of anti-Semitism? I will ask you one more time. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no?
CG: Anti-Semitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct
ES: And is it anti-Semitic rhetoric.
CG: Anti-Semitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct, that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation. That is actionable conduct, and we do take action.
ES: So, the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard code of conduct, correct?
CG: Again, it depends on the context.
ES: It does not depend on the context. The answer is yes. And this is why you should resign. These are unacceptable answers across the board.”
Per the www.Politico.com writer reporting on January 3, 2024, “Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist – best known for launching the crusade against “critical race theory” – was in a celebratory mood after Claudine Gay announced her resignation as president of Harvard University. On December 10, 2023 (five days after the Hearing) Rufo and the conservative journalist Christopher Brunet publicized accusations that Gay – the first black woman to serve as Harvard’s president and a political scientist held in high regard by her peers – had plagiarized other scholars’ work. Together with pressure from donors about Gay’s response to the war in Gaza, those accusations ultimately led to Gay losing her job. None of that happened by accident. As Rufo acknowledged Gay’s resignation was the result of a coordinated and highly organized conservative campaign.”
Dr. Gay’s work with DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), a front-burner target for MAGA Republicans, has been lumped together with her testimony at the Hearing, and out of nowhere her scholarly honesty – claims of plagiarism in her dissertations.
It is a lot to take in, but we can’t just slough it off and move on – technically it’s not a hanging like we all know too well in American history – but how far away is it? The noose has been replaced by rabid conservatives, nearly all calling themselves Christians, using any means possible – venom-spewing politicians, social media click-bait, and misinformation fed to media outlets eager for breaking news – to thwart equity while steering the MAGA ship forward.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion refers to organizational frameworks that seek to promote “the fair treatment and full participation of all people,” particularly groups “who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination. These frameworks don’t exist by accident.
This is America and while progress has been made at a snail’s pace over the decades, these programs are necessary. Those who attack them know that we don’t live in a post-racial society, they know that unfair treatment and discrimination exist, they just want to make others think that it doesn’t. They are so steeped in their privilege, and so fearful of the browning of America, they lash out and malign anything that doesn’t directly keep them in total power.
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