The Claudine Gay story continued hogging the media spotlight yesterday, now with race-industry heavyweights ponderously weighing in, heavyweights like Ibrahim X. Kendi (if that’s his real name) who added nuance and intellectual heft to the conversation by explaining Gay actually lost her position
because racism! Gay herself doubled-down in a dull, repetitive New York Times op-ed, piling on even more racial grievances than were expressed in her resignation letter.
Meanwhile, anti-DEI warrior Christopher Rufo published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal yesterday headlined, “
How We Squeezed Harvard to Push Claudine Gay Out.” At one point in his op-ed, Rufo delightfully described Claudine Gay as
the apotheosis of DEI bureaucracy. Like me, Rufo sees much progress on the culture war’s front lines (
lightly-edited for brevity):
First, public support for DEI has cratered. Following the outpouring of sympathy on elite campuses for Hamas, many Americans—including many center-left liberals—began to question the sweet-sounding euphemisms of DEI and examine what they mean in practice.
Second, the political right has learned how to fight more effectively. Any activist campaign has three points of leverage: reputational, financial and political. Journalists applied reputational pressure, exposing Gay’s alleged plagiarism and Harvard’s scandalous effort to cover it up. Donors, led by hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, applied financial pressure, withholding contributions. And Congress applied political pressure, exposing Gay’s equivocations on antisemitism.
The nation’s leading university had subordinated veritas to politics, compromising its mission. The only choice was to force Ms. Gay to step down.
Rufo recognizes progress not just in Gay’s long-overdue removal, but across the conservative movement:
Conservatives have demonstrated an increasing sophistication in their successful campaigns against national brands such as Disney, Target, Bud Light and now Harvard. Legislators in Florida, Texas and other states have recently passed laws abolishing DEI in their state universities. Professors across the political spectrum are working on efforts to depoliticize academic administration, rebalance faculty politics, and restore truth as the guiding principle of American universities, including at Harvard.
Like me, Rufo apparently rejects the Superman theory of politics and understands that, having slept at our posts for so long and having allowed the enemy to comfortably nestle inside the camp, we face an extended battle, less of a singular battle and more of a series of intimate surgeries and recoveries. As Rufo put it:
If America is to reform its academic institutions, the symbolic fight over Harvard’s presidency must evolve into a deeper institutional fight. The Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci called this approach the “war of position,” a grueling form of trench warfare in which each concept, structure and institution must be challenged to change the culture.
But that wasn’t all.
A giant roundup: Claudine Gay story bears more fruits; SADS airline cluster; court dumps new Epstein docs; Florida smashes jab narrative; Trump appeals Colorado; scary news from Space; and lots more.
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