Ousted Harvard President Claudine Gay says she faced death threats and was called the N-word during a weeks-long attack on her character designed to end her presidency.
In an op-ed published Wednesday evening by The New York Times, Gay described her decision to resign this week, after plagiarism allegations and criticisms she didn’t do enough to combat antisemitism on campus, as “wrenching but necessary” and expressed a desire to “deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency.”
“My inbox has been flooded with invective, including death threats. I’ve been called the N-word more times than I care to count,” Gay said.
The former Harvard president punched back at her critics, arguing that they have “often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults, not reasoned argument.”
I indeed saw plenty of that in various comment sections and social media.
Does anyone seriously want to make the asinine claim that this sort of response is because of claimed plagiarism?
It’s not, and anyone that says it is deeply unserious.
The right wing just straight up admits to it now and gets WSJ space to instruct more people on how to hijack legitimate concerns to form a mob to chase anyone left of Strom Thurmond out of public institutions.
Another manufactured outrage claims another victim.
She was extremely deliberate about not giving Stefanik the sound bite she so desperately craves to fundraise off of, but here we are. When you demand a binary response to a complex issue, any answer will step on toes.
I haven’t seen any statement of hers offering comfort or support to those using actual, undeniable racist/antisemetic language - “the river to the sea” has become a dog whistle for genocide to some, a goal of unification to others, or a statement about the right to return. Hence Gay’s repeated response that it depends on the context.
Stefanik did not summon these academic heads for a genuine understanding of red lines or issues on campuses, she was grandstanding for C-SPAN and nightly news. A congressional/committee investigation is the correct response to actually get answers, not a show trial to pretend “see, I’m helping - look at me”. And unfortunately it has worked
Wow, the first black president in Harvards history is chased out of office. Coincidence?
Not sorry. You need book smart and street smart to manage a university. You willingly walked into a PR trap and blunted the answer on content and timing. No matter how much prestige you have, it won’t save you.
We live in a world of human behaviors, not one of institutional rigor.
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