Writes John McWhorter, in "Why Claudine Gay Should Go" (NYT).
"That Dr. Gay is Black gives this an especially bad look. If she stays in her job, the optics will be that a middling publication record and chronically lackadaisical attention to crediting sources is somehow OK for a university president if she is Black.... Are we to let pass a tacit idea that for Black scholars and administrators, the symbolism of our Blackness, our 'diverseness,' is what matters most about us? I am unclear where the Black pride (or antiracism) is in this...."
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86 comments:
Sounds more sketchy than a municipal junior college.
I were black and/or female I would be particularly offended that Dr. Gay was the best Harvard could hire even if DEI was the primary hiring criteria.
I think it's great that there is an open plagiarist at the top of Harvard, just like our august POTUS is a plagiarist. It's a perfect symbol of what we have become as a nation.
McWhorter has an ability to cut through the crap.
To pull out the old Al Campanis qoute--which got him fired from the Los Angeles Dodger organization---Claudine Gay may "lack the essentials" to be President of Harvard University.
Of course Al Campanis was a long time senior scout for the Dodger baseball organization and he knew talent where he saw it.
But Al wasn't talking Harvard Presidents in those days--in those less enlightened times he was suggesting that Blacks somehow "lacked the essentials" to be managers of a major league baseball team. Since then Dusty Baker and Dave Roberts--among others--have shown he was wrong.
But Campanis would not have been wrong about Caludine Gay.
The 'death of competence ' if it were both a human as well as am HR process.
McWhorter's going to get crossed off the list of a lot of Christmas parties this year.
Perhaps there was not a more accomplished black scholar who was willing to sully their career with what Harvard has become.
Who would want to read this shit anyway?
Even more pathetic that the serious scholar that she mainly plagiarized for her doctoral thesis is a Black woman. It's almost like Harvard board wants only Blacks that can't cut it (otherwise, you can't feel virtuous).
I suppose someone should be embarrassed if that is possible at Harvard.
It is reflective of what the institution has become. They're proud of rejecting any aspect of merit. Why would firing her change things?
If based on academic potential, Harvard would be largely populated by Jews and Asians, and the legacy mediocre blue-blooded Whites would fade away. But Harvard was never MIT or U of Chicago or even a competitive state college (U. Texas Austin, U.C. Berkeley, etc.). Instead, it is a dated colonial-era education concept that helped the children of the aristocracy to find a career path and meet their peers.
The push for equity now holds up neo-blue-blood legacy figureheads who never had a bit of academic talent, but who absolutely, positively must not be a White males. Still, as someone far out of her depth, Gay gives equity a very bad name. Add her to VP Harris, Chicago's mayor, NY's mayor, luggage thief Sam Brinton, and a long series of DC mayors to undermine the cliff and prepare the equity system for a massive collapse.
I'm shocked - Shocked, do you hear! - to learn Harvard has fully embraced the soft bigotry of low expectations.
My prediction: she's gone after the spring semester.
Why invite a semester of unrelenting, racially charged campus protests?
I think its wonderful that Harvard chose her and chose to keep her in light of her performance in the most viewed Congressional testimony of all time and lackluster scholarly output. The whole world now knows that Harvard is a racist and antisemitic institution favoring Blacks and Muslims over Asians, Jews, and white people. Everyone knows this is the result of DEI.
How much had Gen Eisenhower published when he became president of Columbia. There was assumption JFK would become president if Harvard when he left office.
Gay epitomizes the diversity (i.e. color judgment, class bigotry), equivocation, and instruction (DEI) model of progressive culture (PC). The liberal choice must be carried in folly and jest in order to sustain a viable conception of their religious sects.
Why does Harvard need a "scholar" as President?
When did it start (or stop) being a scholarly institution?
I think it's great that there is an open plagiarist at the top of Harvard, just like our august POTUS is a plagiarist. It's a perfect symbol of what we have become as a nation.
=====
is plagiarism worse than thoughtless law citation in breifs and articles?
The “appearance?” What ever made Harvard think that no one would notice?
could la Klaudine be the first domina?
then follows Kamala
then Ketanji
to make it
KKK
thier beloved symbol
Sweet Friday gloat post.
I guess Condi Rice wasn’t available.
". . . gives the appearance that Dr. Gay was not chosen because of her academic or scholarly qualifications, which Harvard is thought to prize, but rather because of her race"
Like, Duh!
The point about Gay is that:
1: She is black
2: She is a complete incompetent who owes everything she is to DEI
The people running Harvard wanted both those "qualifications"
Because an actually competent black President who thought (s)he'd made it in on individual merit, rather than as part of a racial spoils system, is likely to get upity.
And we can't be having that
It's part of the DEI deal. The black promises to try to look smart and whites promise to pretend that it shows she's smart.
A three-sigma smart black like McWhorter doesn't see the need. He already knows that he's smarter than most whites and what's the problem.
The problem is that Harvard needs a black and the smart ones are working elsewhere. Harvard has to go way down the curve.
Gay's actual problem isn't being dumb but not having good character. How smart do you have to be to be a manager, after all.
I wonder if McWhorter would take the job.
Gay's family controls the supply of cement in Haiti, the most impoverished & corrupt country in the Western Hemisphere (her cousin is development minister). Her family are literally gangsters.
Don't expect her to resign out of a sense of "honor"
http://www.gdgbeton.com/english/about.html
Harvard had a better Black woman they could have picked-- Danielle Allen. (https://scholar.harvard.edu/danielleallen/home) Her Harvard bio is woefully abbreviated (25 years ago she was a shining star in the U of C Classics department), she's a brilliant linguist and philosopher and teacher and thinker, and she's sane and competent.
I can only assume she didn't want the job because she enjoys her work.
"The discrepancy gives the appearance that Dr. Gay was not chosen because of her academic or scholarly qualifications, which Harvard is thought to prize, but rather because of her race...."
No shit..
You know you messed up when the NYT has to say the quiet part out loud.
She's not the sharpest knife.
She was fast-tracked to fancy schools her whole life because nobody wanted to tell her she was mediocre.
Affirmative action needs to be burned to the ground.
This sudden interest in the media of Claudine Gay's academic work comes of a little disingenuous. If it was an issue it should have been an issue when selecting her. It seems like the only reason this is coming up now is because people are upset with her handling of the recent campus activities vis-a-vis Israel/Palestine. If she was a diversity hire, which it looks like she was, just admit. The unavoidable consequence of affirmative action and diversity goals is that less qualified people get positions than otherwise would have been there if the only criteria were the qualifications.
It seems clear that Harvard intends to "work around" it's Constitutional obligation of non-discrimination in admissions. If the University had any hope of getting away with that, the exposure of its President as a hard-Left ideologue pretty much buries it. Her plagierism adds the headstone to the grave.
It's pretty much a given she'll be toast in the coming weeks. My preference is that she stays. What better representative of an elite institution than a fraud. That our government is filled with Harvard's graduates only makes it sweeter.
The even bigger story is that Gay has only 11 published peer review articles. And she's president of Harvard? With every day, it becomes more apparent that the reasons for her appointment have nothing to do with her scholarship or abilities. WSJ had a good piece in Dec 17 pointing out that Claudine Gay turned scholars into victims when she stole their work, often by copying paragraphs word by word.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/claudine-gay-and-my-scholarship-plagiarism-elite-system-unearned-position-24e4a1b1
He's obviously correct.
Affirmative action became a thing because for a long time minorities were explicitly discriminated against. You are the most qualified applicant for this elite university? You're black? Then you are not welcome. That's an obvious injustice. The problem is this became individuals who happened to be minorities not receiving equal treatment to minority groups getting equal treatment, and then those minority groups growing exponentially as everyone tries to get a leg up. It is a terrible thing to deny a well qualified minority an opportunity due to minority status. It is also a terrible thing to accept an unqualified minority for the same position only because of minority status. Making your minority hires failures does nothing good for anyone.
The problem here is Gay was hired without any concern of her qualifications. She is a light weight whose only selling points were (a) her minority status and (b) her dedication to DEI. The question is not if Gay should be leading Harvard. The question is whether Harvard should continue to have elite status when it obviously is not dedicated to rigor and achievement.
Well at least she never in her life voted for a Republican. That's the one irredeemable flaw....There's an item in the NY Post that reports that Obama lobbied behind the scenes for her to keep her job, and she probably will.....She's got her problems, but Blacks rallied behind Michael Brown and O.J. Simpson. They will do the same for her. It's an election year coming up, and that's part of the equation. The sister of the Governor of Illinois is the one overseeing her tenure. Gay is safe.
The only way out of this for Harvard is for the Colorado Supreme Court to declare her ineligible to be President.
Claudine Guy is eminently unqualified to serve as Harvard's president, or even to be applicant for tenure-track professorship. 3rd-rate scholar, DEI shill, stupid person elevated well beyond "peter principle" of being promoted beyond your personal capacities.
Our household has Harvard grads, so can speak to matter.
Thank Penny Pritzker, progressive liberal, heiress, Harvard board member, "woke" white person apologist, Obama fan girl, billionaire, and Democratic campaign bundler rewarded US secretary spot, who chose Guy for spot.
DEI - that which controls everything at Harvard but cannot be discussed.
“Are we to let pass a tacit idea that for Black scholars and administrators, the symbolism of our Blackness, our 'diverseness,' is what matters most about us? I am unclear where the Black pride (or antiracism) is in this...."
It seems pretty clear to me.
The discrepancy gives the appearance that Dr. Gay was not chosen because of her academic or scholarly qualifications
But ISN'T THAT WHY she was hired?
Harvard was aware of Dr. Gay's scanty record when they hired her and repeatedly promoted her. Scholarship is not a requirement for her current job or her previous jobs. There are likely many jobs at Harvard for which the requirements are "PhD. and black" or "PhD. and female." The presidency is a more exalted position for which the job requirements are "PhD. and black and female." Good for Harvard for imposing such stringent quotas.
Blogger Rich said..."The even bigger story is that Gay has only 11 published peer review articles. "
Even bigger story? That's literally the title of the post.
Readering said...
How much had Gen Eisenhower published when he became president of Columbia
well, let's see..
I guess, only one full length popular book..
Crusade in Europe
then there was Eisenhower Papers 21-volume scholarly edition; complete for 1940–1961
so, many of those TWENTY ONE VOLUMES were post 1948..
Still, more than enough to so, that reading is an idiot! Thanx for playing dumb ass
12/22/23, 3:47 PM
Blogger Readering said...
How much had Gen Eisenhower published when he became president of Columbia. There was assumption JFK would become president if Harvard when he left office.
12/22/23, 3:52 PM
Ike had only minor accomplishments to his name, like winning WWII in Europe, and two terms of President. Unlike the DIE hire, he enforced the federal desegregation order at Central High School in Little Rock by using the Army while DIE hire couldn't desegregate a paper bag.
So, his executive experience was probably not up to snuff to lead Columbia. Definitely a poser! /sarc
Readering said...
How much had Gen Eisenhower published when he became president of Columbia.
Let me know when Gay successfully coordinates multiple amphibious invasions and the destruction of one of the most significant militaries in Europe.
There was assumption JFK would become president if Harvard when he left office.
You might be on firmer ground there.
The NY Post reports that Harvard cleared her before investigating the plagiarism charges.
It's like the FBI clearing Grandma Maojackets of mishandling classified information during their sham investigation and then declaring GM's gross negligence was not intentional and no prosecutor would move forward with such a case. Except, such gross negligence is a crime and is prosecutable. Everyone who has a clearance is REQUIRED to protect classified information from unauthorized disclosure. GM just didn't give a damn about such protection.
In my work I meet a lot of doctors, and almost without exception, they are highly qualified no matter what their race. I fear that may be changing with the destruction of academic rigor in the name of diversity, but for now it still holds.
Any large hospital staff will have half a dozen black doctors who are more qualified than this "Dr." Gay to run anything from Harvard to a hot dog cart. Nearly all of them will have hard science bachelor's or master's degrees in addition to their M.D., many with more published scientific papers than the president of the illustrious Harvard University.
A solid majority of them will be from Nigeria or Ghana or other places in Africa where education is taken very seriously in the upper strata of society. African headmasters are not shy about applying the cane to the backsides of classroom troublemakers or loafers, and there is no mercy for those who arrive to school unprepared or who can't handle the work in the first place.
As a rule these men (and they are all men) tend to be filled with scorn for American-born blacks and their culture, and dismissive of the way affirmative action undermines academic standards. I have heard them say things I would instantly be fired for saying as a white man.
They are decent, intelligent, talented, respectable men whom I enjoy working with. Why can't Harvard find someone of comparable accomplishments, instead of lightweights with worthless grievance-mongering degrees like this Dr. Gay? Why can't American blacks follow their example?
How much had Gen Eisenhower published when he became president of Columbia.
I dunno. He planned and supervised the North Africa campaign and that Normandy business. 5 star general, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in the existential conflict of the twentieth century. I wonder if that can measure up to the impact of peer-reviewed publications of academics that maybe 13 people have read, including family.
When I think of the value of lefties in our society, I’m reminded of the philosophical question “what is very big and grey and completely meaningless?”
An irrelephant.
- Krumhorn
Harvard's problem is that it chose to hire an incompetent diversity emblem at a particularly bad time. They never guessed that the issue of anti-semitism in Academia would explode as it did. At this point, the reputation in jeopardy is not Gay's but that of the board that appointed her, a much wealthier and more powerful group. They can't fire her without admitting that they made a terrible mistake. They have to hope that the firestorm in the Liberal press would lead to Gay's resignation. If Gay holds firm, the impact on Harvard will be long-lasting and profound.
She’s a perfect symbol of what Harvard has become. I do think the plagiarism charge is more serious because that aceden Uc crime is more serious than any anti-semitism shown by her so far.
Kellerreiss said... "Thank Penny Pritzker, progressive liberal, heiress, Harvard board member," etc., "who chose Guy for spot."
Hey, don't be dissing Penny. She's Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation for a good reason: she made her money the old fashioned way by inheriting it.
What better qualification for senior leader of the Harvard Corporation?
Biden has been caught plagiarizing and consorting with China, Iran, Ukraine, etc. Claudine Gay may be resisting the attempts to get rid of her, but she had no qualms about corruptly dismissing others. But then, Democrats always seem to like and keep people who have been caught at a little bit of corruption. It's a sort of basic qualification for the job, in their eyes.
""It has always been inconvenient that Harvard’s first Black president has only published 11 academic articles in her career and..."
"... not one book (other than one with three co-editors). "
Nobody was really paying attention until the recent unpleasantness. Now, Harvard has an embarrassing problem.
The second and third order consequences of Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act have been a marvel to behold. The death of competence and societal standards.
She should just Stand by Israel more, and she'll be OK. Maybe go the wailing wall or wear an Israeli flag on her dress. Remember, its not what you know, its whether the ADL likes you.
Oh, and give her Jewish Students bodyguards and gold crowns to wear.
She should just Stand by Israel more, and she'll be OK. Maybe go the wailing wall or wear an Israeli flag on her dress. Remember, its not what you know, its whether the ADL likes you.
Oh, and give her Jewish Students bodyguards and gold crowns to wear.
THis whole keruffle reminds me of someone saying "Antisemitism doesn't mean you dislike Jews, It means Jews dislike YOU".
Claudine Gay is the Kamala Harris of university presidents.
Joe Biden should offer her a job at the White House. She would be the first Gay African American woman of colour special assistant to the president.
"How much had Gen Eisenhower published when he became president of Columbia. There was assumption JFK would become president if Harvard when he left office."
Well, when Gay leads the Allies in defeating Hitler, I will cut her some slack.
An otherwise fine essay is marred by this, though perhaps he does it out of kindness:
"chronically lackadaisical attention to crediting sources"
This mischaracterizes the instances of plagiarism that have been identified. There was nothing lackadaisical about any of it- it was all deliberate misuse of others' work. When you go through several paragraphs of copying and pasting and then change only a random word here and there while keeping 99.9% of the rest of the text intact, you are betraying a consciousness of guilt. Her only plausible defense is that she believed what she was doing was not plagiarism, which admission would make her incompetent on an whole new level.
Upon further review… Gay would not be the first Gay black African American woman of colour in the White House. Gay would be the first former college president… black African American woman of colour.
So much intersectionality out there we need an intersectionality gps.
Darryll J. Pines, President of the University of Maryland. 246 publications. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=i38CcXYAAAAJ
Baris Weiss has told us how this all came about:
"What I saw was a worldview that replaced basic ideas of good and evil with a new rubric: the powerless (good) and the powerful (bad). It replaced lots of things. Color blindness with race obsession. Ideas with identity. Debate with denunciation. Persuasion with public shaming. The rule of law with the fury of the mob.
People were to be given authority in this new order not in recognition of their gifts, hard work, accomplishments, or contributions to society, but in inverse proportion to the disadvantages their group had suffered, as defined by radical ideologues."
That sums up perfectly how this utter mediocrity wound up heading Harvard, and thus trashing its reputation for a long, long time to come.
Harvard and the Ivies have been lording over us for far too long. People driving past Harvard Square will now sneer at their arrogance and ANTI-intellectualism.
"That Dr. Gay is Black gives this an especially bad look."
That you capitalized 'black' is a bad look. What? Are we magic or something?
"If she stays in her job, the optics will be that a middling publication record and chronically lackadaisical attention to crediting sources is somehow OK for a university president if she is Black...."
Now it's Optics. This is the second instance of 'moving the goal posts' on the blog today. This was supposed to be about free speech on campus - which Gay answered clumsily, even rudely, but correctly. Now it's just a witch hunt.
"Are we to let pass a tacit idea that for Black scholars and administrators, the symbolism of our Blackness, our 'diverseness,' is what matters most about us?"
You'd be AMAZED at how easily I'd let that pass in this fascist moment.
"I am unclear where the Black pride (or antiracism) is in this...."
Then why should anyone listen to you, you clueless fool? You're confused again, Urkel. Like Obama, you need to ask somebody 'black' how to act. It's clear you let Elise Stefanik's imitation of Roland Freisler get you excited, and now you're on this Nazi bandwagon you could've, and should've let pass, without mention.
You're useless.
"Affirmative action needs to be burned to the ground."
Too late for that, the rot is too deep. It's Western Civilization that's going to be burned to the ground.
When I was on the job market, being both hard left and black or gay were hard requirements for any full-time jobs.
We wasted our lives on this bullshit, trying to accomplish scholarship instead. I blame Althouse's generation. They did the hiring, though I never saw ONE of them give up their own bloody jobs and actual historical privilege to balance a fucking "injustice" from the past that advanced their careers I've many better scholars and had nothing to do with people like me. It was a perfect storm of projection.
They just pretended they weren't being grotesquely racist against heterosexual white candidates. They never objected, choosing instead to feather their nests.
They literally destroyed every principle academia claimed to possess.
Congratulation on your success.
rcocean - you really are pathetic.
Not aware that Eisenhower was accused of 40 instances of plagiarism Readering. Amazingly imbecilic statement, but what else is new huh?
Liberalism
It's about "a favored class of economic actors, that become the powers in the land"
https://www.city-journal.org/article/john-gray-surveys-the-ruins
https://www.facebook.com/reel/371420812088434
Oh come on, “rcocean.” You know it’s not just Jews who hate you. Speaking from your own personal experience you can admit that it’s everyone who hates you.
Seriously. You are one of the most miserable twats on the internet.
She was an enthusiastic advocate for DEI which explains her selection. They needed a woke Black DEI advocate from their social strata (see “rich gangster” above) to represent Harvard. Of course there are many brilliant Black scholars who could have been considered. We all know why. They worked too hard to take a role as figurehead.
Then there’s this: McWhorter's going to get crossed off the list of a lot of Christmas parties this year. I think McWhorter crossed that bridge a long time ago.
Damn it’s a Christmas Miracle. I agree with hpudding.
That you capitalized 'black' is a bad look.
I agree with that but I’m too lazy to correct my stupid iPhone. So when I don’t capitalize it that is a sign I’m on my laptop.
"Instead, it is a dated colonial-era education concept that helped the children of the aristocracy to find a career path and meet their peers."
While it is certainly true that Harvard existed before the USA did, I think its ascendancy began with the defeat of the southern States by the New England coalition, in which the Massachusetts contingent were prominent. Harvard was the flagship institution of the conquerors, and laid claim to the right to expound their doctrine, and choose and educate their leaders. A right it continues to exercise to this day.
One of the many interesting themes of James Gould Cozzens classic, By Love Possessed, is the way the New England aristocracy, in the early 20th century, see themselves as the proud inheritors of the victors in the Civil War. Their virtue is proven, their prosperity is founded, in that triumph. To them "Union" is not a condition. It is the name of the winning side in a mortal struggle.
Ok donald I see you. Good boy.
To be fair, it's not just about race. You also have to have the right politics and attitude to fit the cultural moment.
For example, there is no way that McWhorter ever could be an Ivy League president, no matter how impressive his publications might be.
Jason Riley made the same point a couple of days ago in the WSJ. The Harvard Corporation has put itself in a no-win position: by hiring a president who was unqualified; by lacking the courage to rectify that decision when Gay badly failed her first public test; and now by turning a blind eye to clear violations of academic ethics. As a result Harvard is and will continue to suffer damage in the public eye. More importantly a goodly number of very generous donors are withdrawing support and I am sure will continue to do so until both Gay and the current Board of Overseers is gone.
It is a little known fact that Eisenhower plagiarized the invasion plans used by William the Conqueror. That's why he chose to land at Normandy....it was after all, a Norman Conquest.
Gives the appearance? Ha
Ok, time to move on from Gen Eisenhower to Ben Sasse....
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