1619 Project founder accuses Harvard president’s loudest critics of “pretending” to care about anti-Semitism

The founder of the controversial 1619 Project has claimed that the most vocal critics calling for the ouster of embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay are “pretending” to be concerned about anti-Semitism, calling it a cover to further promote “racial division.” .

Nikole Hannah-Jones argued that some of Gay’s harshest critics are using his comments about the genocide at a congressional hearing last week as an “opening” to unseat the black leader as part of their campaign against Diversity efforts. , Equity and Inclusion on campus.

“They’re using the pretense of pretending that this is concern about anti-Semitism, which is, of course, something we should all be concerned about,” he told CNN’s Abby Phillip on Wednesday night.

“It’s really just furthering their propaganda campaign against racial equality.”

Hannah-Jones said it was unfair to suggest that Gay had survived calls for her to resign solely because of her race, despite claims that she was hired solely because of the university’s DEI initiative.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of the controversial 1619 Project, has claimed that the most vocal critics calling for the ouster of Harvard President Claudine Gay are “pretending” to be concerned about anti-Semitism. Getty Images for The Recording Academy

“It’s racist. I mean, no one has presented the slightest bit of evidence to show that the only qualification President Gay had was being a black woman. That’s insulting. It defies logic,” he said.

The scholar went on to highlight Harvard’s historic racial quotas, noting that for 370 years, the Ivy League institution only named white men as its presidents.

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“When you think about the fact that Harvard, the oldest university in this nation, had a roughly 370-year-old explicit racial quota of hiring only white men to be president, it’s ridiculous to think that the first black woman to follow that unbroken line white quotas is the one who is not qualified,” Hannah-Jones said.

“I mean, this is the beauty of how racism works.

“If you’re black and you don’t succeed, if you don’t succeed at the highest level, it’s because you’re lazy and you’re not smart enough. If you achieve something, you are successful and you reach the top of your profession, it is because you did not deserve it.”

Hannah-Jones concluded by saying that calls for Gay to be fired are a distraction, as criticized by journalist Chris Rufo, who found several cases in which the Harvard president appeared to have lifted numerous parts of his 1997 doctoral thesis in violation. of Harvard’s academic integrity policies, as “a non-serious person.”

Hannah-Jones argued that some of Gay’s harshest critics are using his comments about the genocide at a congressional hearing last week as an “opening” to unseat the black leader as part of their campaign against Diversity efforts, Equity and Inclusion on campus. David McGlynn

“This is a person who has been trying to attack what he calls DEI, but really any effort to address racial inequality,” he said.

“He’s explicitly said he does ‘propaganda work,’ and the fact that we’re all talking about it means he’s succeeding.”

He also highlighted Gay’s qualifications and attributed criticism against him to a broader campaign against initiatives addressing racial inequality.

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“She is clearly qualified,” Hannah-Jones said, without offering any details.

“And I’m really stumped trying to figure out what race has to do with the criticism that she hasn’t properly handled the protests on her campus.

“They simply see this as an opportunity to deepen the racial divide and further their campaign of trying to attack any efforts around diversity and anti-racism.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of the controversial 1619 Project, insisted on CNN Wednesday night that “it’s racist” to call for Harvard President Claudine Gay to lose her job. cnn

“I hope we see courage in the face of these political campaigns,” he added.

Gay first came under fire last week when she, former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth testified that it depends on context whether calls for genocide violated the codes. of conduct of their schools.

Gay was later accused of altering the works of other scholars in her 1997 doctoral thesis and writing four articles published between 1993 and 2017 that did not have proper attribution, the Washington Free Beacon found.

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The outlet said academics it had consulted agreed that Gay had “violated a fundamental principle of academic integrity” and said they had found 10 cases in which Gay had lifted sentences or paragraphs and only changed one or two words.

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Harvard’s president has denied these claims, but in a statement Tuesday, the Harvard Corporation, the Ivy League’s top governing body, said officials became aware of the plagiarism allegations in late October and launched an independent review.

“On December 9, fellows reviewed the results, which revealed some cases of inappropriate citation,” the Corporation said.

“While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay proactively requests four corrections to two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.”

Still, the Harvard Corporation expressed support for Gay maintaining his position on campus.

“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and address the very serious social issues we face,” the group said.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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