New York Times writer Mara Gay said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she believed Harvard University ex-president Claudine Gay resigned over the right’s racist attacks on “academic freedom,” not the several instances of plagiarism discovered.
Gay said, “The thing that really disturbed me was the unrelenting campaign from the right and from some conservative activists to slander, discredit, and ultimately, I guess, somebody used the phrase, ‘we’ve claimed a scalp’ on social media, to, essentially, unseat Gay and other presidents, as well, when they don’t like not just the handling of the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7th, the way that that was handled on campus. But really anything else, that they don’t like about not just the president, but what they would call wokism on campus. This is really an attack on academic freedom. It’s an attack on people who are pluralists and bring that you should people from all over the world together of diverse backgrounds and that you have more scholarly rigor and more value can be brought by having people from different backgrounds..”
She continued, “This is an attack on diversity. This is an attack on multiculturalism and on many of the values that a lot of us hold dear. In fact, anybody, really, who is around my age in their 30s, who went to any public, major public university or private university in this country, these are values that are very important. I think that’s why these presidents are under attack. That’s why Claudine Gay was under attack. The fact that she’s a black woman and the first person who is a black American to lead Harvard only added to their thirst to dethrone her.”
Gay added, “I don’t have to say that they’re racist, but you can hear and see the racism in the attacks when people like Vivek Ramaswamy say, ‘Okay, this is a problem about diversity and hiring.’ This is racism as well. There are a lot of different layers here, but I don’t want to miss the attacks on academic freedom. And I think it’s much easier to target women or women of color, but ultimately, it’s not going to stop there. I really hope that we can stand up for academic freedom, you know, no matter who the target is of these campaigns.”
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