I missed this when it was published Thursday but it’s still very relevant. John McWhorter makes the argument that Claudine Gay already appeared to be sort of a borderline figure academically and now many of the few articles she has managed to publish have been revealed to contain plagiarism.
It has always been inconvenient that Harvard’s first Black president has only published 11 academic articles in her career and not one book (other than one with three co-editors). Some of her predecessors, like Lawrence Bacow, Drew Gilpin Faust and Lawrence Summers, have had vastly more voluminous academic records. The discrepancy gives the appearance that Dr. Gay was not chosen because of her academic or scholarly qualifications, which Harvard is thought to prize, but rather because of her race.
McWhorter acknowledges that there are degrees of plagiarism and what Gay is accused of is…
