Putting the Racist Crusade against Harvard’s Dr. Claudine Gay in Context

This has been a terrible week in the history of Harvard University and the nation. After enduring a racist crusade by rightwing activists, donors, and “academics,” Dr. Claudine Gay, the first Black woman to lead Harvard in its 387-year history, resigned in the face of charges that she did not do enough to combat antisemitism on campus and that she committed plagiarism in some of her academic writings. As I will show in the passages below, both of these charges are absolute nonsense. If the world were just, Dr. Gay would never have been subjected to the repugnant racialized attacks that we have witnessed play out over the past month and she would still have her corner office in Massachusetts Hall. Like so many women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ executives that I encounter in my consulting work with 2040 Strategy Group, Dr. Gay was blamed for not fixing problems that were deeply-rooted in the organization she was leading long before her first day on the job. Moreover, as she struggled to manage the crisis that engulfed her, the broader institution did not provide her with the right resources or give her the leeway to act boldly in defense of herself. In short, Dr. Gay was left all alone to fight off the most vicious attacks against her credentials and personhood. <a href="https://medium.com/@atillery2/putting-the-racist-crusade-against-harvards-dr-claudine-gay-in-context-26535c307f96">Website</a>