Black leaders including progressive activist and independent presidential candidate Cornel West, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and MSNBC host Al Sharpton are standing by disgraced outgoing Harvard President Claudine Gay, claiming that “racism” is what forced her to resign, despite the fact that Gay announced her resignation following antisemitism scandals at Harvard, disastrous congressional testimony, and scores of plagiarism allegations being unearthed.
“This isn’t about plagiarism or antisemitism. This is about racism and intimidation. This makes no one safer,” Rep. Bowman declared in a Tuesday X/Twitter post. “The only winners are fascists who bullied a brilliant & historic Black woman into resignation.”
This isn’t about plagiarism or antisemitism. This is about racism and intimidation. This makes no one safer.
The only winners are fascists who bullied a brilliant & historic Black woman into resignation.
2024 will be a battle for truth, democracy and our shared humanity.
— Rep. Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) January 2, 2024
“2024 will be a battle for truth, democracy and our shared humanity,” the congressman added.
Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) speaks at a press conference with Reps. Bowman, Pocan, Garcia, and TikTok creators at the U.S. Capitol in support of free expression on March 22, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for TikTok)
Claudine Gay holding book she (probably) didn’t plagiarize (The Boston Globe)
X/Twitter’s Community Notes, however, corrected Bowman’s post, adding context by stating: “The Harvard president resigned after a probe into her antisemitic policy stances and extensive plagiarism.”
Meanwhile, Sharpton also reacted to the matter, proclaiming that Gay’s resignation was an “attack” on “every black woman” in the United States.
“President Gay’s resignation is about more than a person or a single incident. This is an attack on every black woman in this country who’s put a crack in the glass ceiling,” Sharpton told CNN in a statement on Tuesday.
Additionally, prominent progressive activist and independent presidential candidate Cornel West also blamed “racism” for Gay’s resignation in a post widely deemed “antisemitic,” in which he raged against the “undeniable” racism perpetrated against “both Palestinians and Black people.”
“How sad but predictable that the same figures and forces enabling the ethnic cleansing and genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza – Ackman, Blum, Summers and others — push out the first Black woman president of Harvard!” West wrote in an X/Twitter post. “This racism against both Palestinians and Black people is undeniable and despicable!” he added. “I have experienced similar attacks from the same forces in academia with too many of my colleagues remaining silent!”
How sad but predictable that the same figures and forces enabling the ethnic cleansing and genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza – Ackman, Blum, Summers and others – push out the first Black woman president of Harvard! This racism against both Palestinians and Black people is…
— Cornel West (@CornelWest) January 3, 2024
“When big money dictates university policy and raw power dictates foreign policy, the moral bankruptcy of American education and democracy looms large! But we shall remain strong in our fight for Truth Justice Love!” West concluded in his post.
As Breitbart News reported, Gay resigned from her role as Harvard president on Tuesday, after being accused of failing to properly respond to antisemitism scandals on campus, which infamously included more than 30 student groups signing a pro-terror letter in response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.
That display was then followed up with a disastrous December 5 testimony before congress regarding antisemitism, where Gay, along with the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT, declined to say whether advocating for the genocide of Jews is permissible on campus. University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill ended up resigning days later.
After that, scores of plagiarism allegations were unearthed in official academic complaints. They arrived over time, in batches, eventually bringing the total number of allegations against Gay to near 50.
Notably, her six month tenure as president marks the shortest presidency in Harvard’s history. Gay, however, will stay on the Ivy League university’s faculty as a professor with a salary of at least $900,000.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.