Media and Left-Wing Activists Ignore Claudine Gay’s Plagiarism of Carol Swain, Say Harvard President’s Ousting Is About Racism

Peter D'Abrosca
Claudine Gay

In the wake of Harvard University’s firing of former President Dr. Claudine Gay, the mainstream news media and far-left online activists reacted by accusing their political opponents of racism, despite the fact that Gay’s ouster was preceded by public anti-semitism and plagiarism of political scientist Dr. Carol Swain.

“Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism,” said a headline from The Associated Press. 

In a similar manner, The New York Times’s Mara Gay, no relation to the ousted Harvard president, joined MSNBC Wednesday morning to defend Gay’s plagiarism and blame the political right for her ouster.

“The thing that really disturbs me is the unrelenting campaign from the right and from some conservative activists to slander, discredit and ultimately, I guess, somebody used the phrase ‘we’ve claimed a scalp’ I think on social media, you know to essentially unseat Gay and other presidents as well,” she told “Morning Joe’s” Mika Brzezinski.

“So this is really an attack on academic freedom, it’s an attack on people who are pluralists and believe that you should bring people from all over the world together, of diverse backgrounds and that you actually have more scholarly rigor, and more value can be brought by having people from different backgrounds,” Mara Gay said. “This is an attack on diversity. This is an attack on multiculturalism, and on many of the values that a lot of us hold dear. Those attacks, I don’t have to say that they’re racist, because you can hear and see the racism in the attacks.”

NPR’s Eric Deggans called Claudine Gay’s firing “intimidation.”

“The intimidation is the point. Will the next president at Harvard stand for diversity? Will that person be female? Will that person be Black? If not, they have forced several steps back. And everyone across the school gets the message,” he said.

Former White House aide Keith Boykin said if Claudine Gay’s work should be scrutinized, so should everyone else’s.

“If we’re going to start scrutinizing every detail of college presidents’ past writings for technical attribution issues, then let’s do it. Let’s go look at everyone’s past writings, not just Claudine Gay at Harvard. Let’s put them all under a microscope and see how they hold up,” he said.

His endorsement of egalitarianism was met with enthusiastic agreement from the political right.

“I fully agree,” said conservative commentator Mike Cernovich.

“Your terms are acceptable,” said Stephen L. Miller.

Far-left author Ibram X. Kendi, known for racial agitation, also groaned about Claudine Gay’s firing.

“When a racist mob attacks a Black person, it finds a seemingly legitimate reason for the attack that allows for it to accrue popular support and credibility, and which allows the growing mob to deny they are attacking the person in this way because the person is Black,” he said.

Swain joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy in the days following the news that Claudine Gay had plagiarized her work.

“Well, you know something, I’ve gone through the range of emotions, and as you know, Sunday evening I wanted more information,” Swain told Leahy art the time. “Monday I looked at some of her articles and I became upset and sad. Because independently of the passages that were lifted from my book, Black Faces, Black Interest, the Representation of African Americans in Congress, that prize winning book her work, it’s been in the same area where I, you know, produce my prize winning research, and if you go to her articles, she will have my book listed in her bibliography, but she doesn’t engage the work. She doesn’t let people know that her research questions, everything she was dealing with, came pretty much from the ideas that were in Black Faces, Black Interests.”

“I must confess the entire #ClaudineGay affair, and Harvard’s incompetent handling of it has created enormous stress for me,” Swain said in the wake of Claudine Gay’s firing. “I never expected #HarvardU and many scholars I once respected to attempt to redefine plagiarism because the ends justify the means in their sight. It is a sad day in America when Harvard can get faculty to compromise high academic standards so easily. This is being done to advance social engineering, diversity, equity, and inclusion (#DEI) goals.”

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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
Photo “Claudine Gay” by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer.

 

 

 

 

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One Thought to “Media and Left-Wing Activists Ignore Claudine Gay’s Plagiarism of Carol Swain, Say Harvard President’s Ousting Is About Racism”

  1. Fireguy
    January 4, 2024 at 4:54 pm

    Classic example of how a ‘educated’ person, black, white or any other color doesn’t necessary have the basic wisdom or walking around sense to teach blocks to kindergarten kids. I have seen many blacks and whites that were ‘educated’ and used their education and skills to excel in the work place and life. She ain’t one of them. Neither are the goof balls saying her having to resign was raciest.

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