Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation, in the wake of a right-wing crusade that smeared her with trumped-up plagiarism accusations and portrayed her as indifferent to antisemitism, should dispel the notion that institutions of elite education in the United States are “safe spaces” for liberal ideology, much less for Black women. It’s yet more evidence that white rage is coming for college campuses across the United States.
When Harvard brought Gay on as president in 2023 to become the first person of color to lead the country’s oldest institution of higher learning, they weren’t just promoting a stellar academic. They were also taking a symbolic but important step toward reckoning with Harvard’s history of anti-Black exploitation and discrimination, largely of and against Black women. In recent years, the university has facilitated discussions about its early reliance on slave labor for more than a century and its history of discrimination against Black women applicants.
That context — and the Supreme Court’s overturning of race-conscious admissions at Harvard last year — is helpful in understanding the coordinated, personal and racist attacks on Gay that she cited in her resignation letter. And it helps to explain the fury aimed at her by a largely white conservative movement that has tried to quash campus diversity initiatives and discussions about the United States’ racist history.
Christopher Rufo, the right-wing activist who helped craft the conservative movement’s attack on Critical Race Theory and inclusive education plans, openly discussed using a similar disinformation strategy on Gay ahead of her resignation.
“We launched the Claudine Gay plagiarism story from the right,” Rufo wrote on social media in December. “The next step is to smuggle it into the media apparatus of the left, legitimizing the narrative to centre-left actors who have the power to topple her. Then squeeze.”
The Associated Press reports that such plagiarism claims — no matter their validity — are a new tool right-wingers are looking to use to target their perceived enemies in higher education. An internal Harvard investigation found instances of "improper citation" in some of Gay’s work, leading her to issue a number of corrections. But the accusations were initially made in bad faith, and Gay has been defended even by some of those whose work she’s said to have plagiarized.
On Wednesday, Rufo vowed to use the tactics he used against Gay at other universities and gave campuses an ultimatum. “Abolish DEI,” he wrote, referencing diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, “Or we will keep coming after you, relentlessly.”
Other far-right figures opposed to campus diversity efforts have spiked the football, as well, including New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who wrote a 4,000-word screed denouncing DEI after Gay’s resignation. Ackman had previously claimed Gay would not have earned her position if not for DEI’s "fat finger on the scale."
Attacks on Gay fit a broader right-wing attacks on inclusivity in higher education. Over the last year, we’ve seen conservatives in multiple states, including Texas and Florida, enact or propose bans on diversity programs. The Wisconsin GOP forced the state to slash DEI programs in order to receive critical funding for the University of Wisconsin system, and the GOP-led state Assembly passed a bill that bans financial aid based on race and other forms of diversity. The right’s racist crusade against campus inclusivity is showing no sign of slowing down.
Tuesday’s “scalping” — as Rufo has called it — of Gay has only emboldened them.