1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones condemns 'racist' attacks against embattled Harvard president
1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones argued that Harvard President Claudine Gay is taking heat because she is Black, and that critics are using the line that she’s been soft on antisemitism at her school merely as a ruse to oust her.
"1619 Project" creator Nikole Hannah-Jones argued Tuesday that embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay is taking heat because of her race, and critics are accusing of her of being soft on anti-Jewish hate as a phony excuse for firing her.
Hannah-Jones told CNN that the furor over Gay is to do with her being African American.
The journalist’s comments came days after Gay was grilled in a congressional hearing and later apologized after giving equivocating, vague responses about whether calls to exterminate Jews violated Harvard conduct rules. Gay has also been accused of multiple instances of plagiarism in past academic writings.
Nikole Hannah-Jones recently told CNN's Abby Phillip that critics are grilling Harvard University President Claudine Gay, not because of her hesitation to condemn antisemitism, but because she's Black. (Screenshot/CNN)
After the hearing, U.S. lawmakers, conservatives and others called for Gay’s resignation, though Harvard Corporation fellows reaffirmed their support for Gay in a recent statement.
Phillip mentioned to Hannah-Jones that it seemed as though Gay’s critics are the same ones that blasted her for the racially focused interpretation of the American founding she made in her "1619 Project" writings. Hannah-Jones' Pulitzer-winning work has come under fire on the right for inaccuracies but has been celebrated by the left for re-contextualizing America's founding as inextricably linked to slavery.
"Do you think that these two things are related, this idea of pushing back on diversity and inclusion in higher education and getting the president of Harvard ousted from her position?" Phillip asked.
Hannah-Jones agreed they’re more than related, expressing her view that Gay’s critics are using the antisemitic incident as cover to oust a diverse Harvard president.
She replied, "Oh absolutely, so they’re using the guise of pretending that this is about concern over antisemitism, which is, of course, something that all of us should be concerned about – to really just further their propaganda campaign against racial equity."
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Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, during a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Hannah-Jones continued, saying, "So, when you think about the fact that Harvard, this nation’s oldest university, had about a 370-year explicit racial quota of only hiring White men to be the president, it’s laughable to think that the first-ever Black woman following that unbroken line of white racial quotas is the one who’s unqualified."
She added, "This is kind of the beauty of how racism works."
The journalist suggested that Gay is a victim of being Black and successful, adding, "If you are Black and you don’t achieve, if you don’t succeed at the highest echelon, it’s because you’re lazy and you’re not smart enough. If you do achieve, and you do succeed, and you do rise to the top of your profession, it’s because you didn’t deserve it."
Philip followed up with a question about critics claiming that Gay is being protected in her job "because of her race. What did you make of that?" she asked.
"Well, it’s racist," Hannah-Jones said. "I mean, no one has produced a shred of evidence that shows that the sole qualification that President Gay had was that she is a Black woman. That’s insulting. It defies logic."
The author insisted, "She’s clearly qualified… They just see this as an opening to further sow racial division and to further their campaign of trying to attack any efforts around diversity and anti-racism."
Fox News' Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.
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