On January 2, when Harvard University’s first African-American President, Claudine Gay, stepped down from her post, the high-decibel euphoria from the conservative cabal in the United States was along expected lines. Emboldened right-wing activists such as Christopher Rufo claimed that it was they who had got her out. In his verbal onslaught, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy said what Ms. Gay had published in her whole career was what a distinguished American academic published in just a few years. Further, he attributed the policy of affirmative action as the reason for scholars like her to ascend to the coveted position. Her reluctance to immediately condemn the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and her subsequent confession before a Congressional committee caused controversy, eventually leading to her resignation. There was also the issue of alleged plagiarism.
When Ms. Gay was appointed as the 30th president of Harvard on July 1, 2023, it was widely believed that Harvard firmly believed in and adhered to the larger contours of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The long cherished legacy of DEI is deeply embedded in modern consciousness not only in American academia but also the globe. It is not very difficult to foresee the consequences of any explicit racial slur against a student or a faculty member. The political ascendency of Donald Trump was, no doubt, a turning point as the conservatives stepped up their attack on the ethics of DEI and its political manifestation. Today, Hamas’s attack on Israel and Tel Aviv’s brutal response in Gaza perhaps effortlessly became a lame excuse for right-wing political pundits and social conservatives to strike at the celebrated values of DEI.
