Former president of elite American university says she was targeted by "recycled racial stereotypes" about Black talent, following her response to pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus, which was dubbed as "anti-Semitism" by American right-wingers.
AFP
Gay, who made history as the first Black person to be president of Harvard, says she was targeted because she believed "that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation's oldest university." / Photo: AFP
Harvard University's former president has said following her resignation that she made mistakes but insisted she was the target of a sustained campaign of lies and personal insults.
"Those who had relentlessly campaigned to oust me since the fall often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults, not reasoned argument," Claudine Gay wrote in The New York Times on Wednesday.
"They recycled tired racial stereotypes about Black talent and temperament. They pushed a false narrative of indifference and incompetence."
"It is not lost on me that I make an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses: a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution. Someone who views diversity as a source of institutional strength and dynamism."
Gay was criticised in recent months after reports surfaced alleging that she did not properly cite scholarly sources. The most recent accusations came on Tuesday, published anonymously in a conservative online outlet.
Gay stepped down on Tuesday after coming under ferocious attack over her response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, which was dubbed as "anti-Semitism".
Resignation not enough
Gay was engulfed by scandal after she declined to say unequivocally whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate Harvard's code of conduct during testimony to Congress alongside the heads of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania last month.
Gay, who made history as the first Black person to be president of Harvard, said she was targeted because she believed "that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation's oldest university."
Gay, 53, was born in New York to Haitian immigrants and is a professor of political science.
Her downfall comes after the powerhouse university in Cambridge, Massachusetts's governing Harvard Corporation, had initially backed her after the public relations disaster of the congressional testimony.
The university's governing Harvard Corporation said that Gay had "shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks."
The House Republican who challenged Gay out during her testimony with the question about whether free speech extended to calling for the genocide of Jews has now called for members of the Harvard Corporation to apologise.
"Neither the resignation from Claudine Gay nor the statement from the Harvard Corporation included any apology for the morally bankrupt testimony," she wrote on social media.
At the heart of the crisis
Students and professors at Harvard were targeted after allegations of anti-Semitism linked to fury over Israel's brutality in besieged Gaza ripped through the famous institution and other elite US universities.
The historical campus in the heart of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was roiled in October by pro-Palestinian marches. The anger mirrored widespread concern among young, liberal American students over the civilian costs of Israel's war against Gaza.
However, the protests quickly sparked alarm, promoted by American far-right and Zionist groups, that anti-Semitism was flourishing in Harvard and other Ivy League universities, which host top students from around the world.
Protestors' banners called for a ceasefire in the bloody war gripping Gaza and proclaimed that accusing Israel of genocide is not the same as anti-Semitism.
A conservative Jewish group called the Jewish National Project drove a billboard truck around Harvard emblazoned with messages accusing Gay of anti-Semitism and being a "national disgrace."
SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES
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