Black law professor says Harvard President Claudine Gay DESERVES attacks on her credibility because she helped destroy careers of two African-American scholars whose work contradicted her woke beliefs
A black former law professor has said recent attacks on Harvard President Claudine Gay's credibility are “well deserved” after she allegedly destroyed the careers of two African-American scientists.
Winkfield Twyman Jr., a former professor at California Western School of Law in San Diego, has argued that Gay “made a career of attacking black scholars” in a sensational opinion piece for Newsweek.
Twyman, who graduated from Harvard Law School in the 1980s, writes that criticism of Gay's presidency, especially in light of her damning testimony on campus anti-Semitism in Congress, is justified.
“Many are defending Gay by claiming that the attacks against her are racist in nature. They are not. They are all well deserved,” he wrote.
Gay, the first Black woman to lead the prestigious institution, has faced widespread criticism after failing to unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism on the Ivy League campus.
She has also come under scrutiny over claims that she plagiarized the work of other academics during her career.
Claudine Gay has faced widespread criticism following her damning testimony about anti-Semitism on campus during the conference earlier this month
Winkfield Twyman Jr. (pictured), an ex-professor at California Western School of Law in San Diego, has argued that Gay 'made a career attacking black scholars'
“And yet many come to her defense,” Twyman wrote, “having finally gotten their wish of a black Harvard president, Harvard seems unwilling to let her go.”
He added that the “racial wagons” were circling Gay, which, he argues, “is not only misleading, but deeply ironic.”
“Did you know that Claudine Gay repeatedly attacked and disrupted the careers of prominent black male professors during her career at Harvard?”
The author continued, “No one in good faith should defend President Gay because she is the first black president of Harvard. Even if you don't agree with me that our racial struggles are in our past, someone who has targeted black male professors has relinquished any benefit from the 'first black' defense.”
Twyman, who wrote the race-related book Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America, alleged that Gay had previously fired one black professor and “sullied” the reputation of another.
Twyman claimed that gay Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. resigned as dean of Harvard's Winthrop House in 2019 after joining Harvey Weinstein's legal team.
He also alleged that Gay coordinated a “witch hunt” against economics professor Roland G. Fryer Jr. after his investigation into the killings of unarmed black men in Houston, Texas, found no racial disparities.
“He made the mistake of undermining the racial narrative that the left has adopted, and as a result, Gay did her best to strip him of all his academic privileges by coordinating a witch hunt against him,” Twyman said.
President Claudine Gay, who has come under immense fire for her mishandling of anti-Semitism on campus in the aftermath of October 7, has recently been accused of plagiarism in her academic articles.
It is not clear whether Harvard's board will demand her resignation
In the wake of mounting calls for the resignation of President Claudine Gay (pictured), faculty members are now turning the spotlight on the other 11 members of the Harvard Corporation – the Ivy League's powerful governing body that continues to support it.
“Fryer survived Gay's campaign of firing, but Fryer's laboratory was closed and his reputation was tarnished.”
Twyman's criticism comes just days after Harvard history professor James Hankins compared the college to a medieval dictatorship in its handling of the plagiarism scandal – and says the Ivy League school needs a “reset.”
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, James Hankins explained that the value of modern research universities depends on those institutions' academic integrity and ability to honestly reflect on mistakes.
Those who dismiss the recent plagiarism charges against President Gay are undermining the “project of improving human life through research and science,” he wrote.
Gay's defense, Hankins wrote, appears to reveal a “shift” in the university's priorities.
“Harvard's mission is no longer simply to advance knowledge, but knowledge 'that will help address deep societal problems and promote constructive discourse,'” he wrote.
'From such a perspective, academic honesty seems to matter less than having the right progressive values, and the refusal to make public underlying data is permissible as long as the conclusions support a favored narrative.'
As accusations of Gay's plagiarism continue to filter through the various channels of Harvard's vast bureaucratic body, Hankins said that if the university would only “damage our hard-won prestige, lower the value of our degrees and lower the standards necessary for academic excellence would erode' if it doesn't take them seriously.
Harvard history professor James Hankins wrote in the WSJ that the school needs to be more serious about academic honesty as the president faces plagiarism allegations
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Flier, former dean of Harvard Medical School, recently said he had advised several administrators to do more to address the ongoing unrest surrounding the school.
“You have to be more outspoken here,” Flier recalled telling executives as he spoke to management New York Times. 'When people say the university makes mistakes, they are talking about you!'
Professor Kit Parker said the school is facing a fork in the road and board members must resign to choose the right path.
'The big question now is: how arrogant is Harvard?' the professor of bioengineering and applied physics told the WSJ.
“And when I say Harvard, I mean the Harvard Corporation. Do they think this will go away?'
The Harvard Corporation stated that an independent investigation into the plagiarism allegations found three instances of “inadequate citation” in Gay's academic work, but no misconduct.
Gay also subsequently issued two apologies following the backlash over her testimony in Congress, which further condemned Hamas, the Palestinian terror group behind the atrocities.
The Harvard Corporation admitted that it should have condemned Hamas's attack in Israel sooner, but gave its full support for continuing in its role.