I've been covering former Harvard president Claudine Gay's resignation for the past couple of days, and it's been enlightening. She's an academic fraud who has no business being at Harvard. As Christopher Rufo said, we're now seeing journalists against journalism. Several so-called journalists didn't think the story should be covered and were upset that the New York Times fell for Rufo's trap and caved and did a story on her plagiarism charges. No one cares, and therefore, no one should report on it.
Then there are the usual suspects who have made it all about race: Jemele Hill, Ibram X. Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Marc Lamont Hill, Mara Gay, Wajahat Ali … the list goes on.
Why are they so defensive of Gay? Because people accuse her of being a diversity hire, the product of DEI. Gay was a champion of DEI — as I reported, she saw a hallway full of portraits and created a task force to "reduce the visual presence" of white men on campus. After the courts struck down affirmative action so that Harvard could no longer discriminate against white and Asian students in admission, she was determined to keep doing business as usual.
I mentioned "journalist" John Harwood in the headline, but I think he's just quoting from a piece in New York Magazine by Jonathan Chait. Nevertheless, he thought these were the most relevant sentences:
"This is the kind of trap Rufo specializes in exploiting.
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) January 3, 2024
"He attacks targets with high ethical standards, which he himself doesn’t care about at all, forcing them to choose between maintaining their standards and resisting his nakedly political agenda." https://t.co/mpo2WUmqkW
So Rufo is using the Left's playbook and succeeding. He brought critical race theory to the forefront and made it sound like a bad thing. Then he did the same thing with academic queer theory. And now he's going after DEI.
Recommended
Rufo gets results and they hate him for it because he's a conservative.
Ah yes, the well-known "high ethical standard" of serial plagiarism.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 3, 2024
Man it's a real shame you're unemployed.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 3, 2024
I kind of remember it is Alinsky who taught the radicals to “pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
— Xi Van Fleet (@XVanFleet) January 3, 2024
I guess the radicals didn’t expect the same rule can be applied to them.
Exactly.
Trap?
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 3, 2024
Ahhhhhh… the “ethics” trap.
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) January 3, 2024
Sneaky.
Makes a lot of sense why you have so many “ex” places you used to work for in your profile bio.
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) January 3, 2024
You ridiculous laughingstock.
— Ultra Grateful Calvin 🇺🇸🐶🏒 🎶 (@shoveitjack) January 3, 2024
Remember when you emailed Hillary Clinton’s campaign asking what questions you should ask the GOP candidates in the primary debate you were about to host?
— Kev (@I98Kev) January 3, 2024
You’re just mad that he has double the balls while you have none.
— GayLumberjack (@gay_lumberjack) January 3, 2024
I had a vision of Ron DeSantis being elected president and making Rufo education secretary. But the first thing they'd do is abolish the Department of Education.
***