Claudine Gay is the new Nikole Hannah-Jones in the same way that Eric Bieniemy is the latest version of Sherman Lewis. And while there is a big difference between being a leader at an institution of higher education and coaching a football player, the common denominator remains the same: excluding black people from certain positions of power.
Gay — the first black woman to serve as president of Harvard University — resigned Tuesday, “amid accusations of plagiarism and criticism of her testimony at a congressional hearing where she was not able to say unequivocally that calls for genocide of Jews on campus would constitute a violation. the school conduct policy,” according to a report from the Associated Press.
The report goes on to say: “Gay, Harvard’s first black president, announced her departure just months into her term in a letter to the Harvard community. Following the congressional hearing, Gay’s academic career came under intense scrutiny from conservative activists who uncovered several instances of alleged plagiarism in his 1997 doctoral dissertation. The Harvard Corporation, Harvard’s Board of Trustees, initially sided with Gay, saying a review of his scholarly work found “a few instances of inadequate citations” but no evidence of research misconduct. A few days later, the Harvard Corporation said it had found two additional examples of “redundant language without proper attribution.” The jury said Gay would update his thesis and request corrections..”
Since people don’t like to read anything other than a headline, I’m going to translate what this last paragraph is really about. After the false racial awakening that occurred in 2020, a Black woman entered a “double history” by being the first Black person and the first Black woman to hold the top position at the only university this country considers the best. And because of that, “the right” was pissed that an overqualified black woman – because your resume always has to be two to three times better than your white counterparts’ when you’re a person of color – held so much power. So they did what they always do and tried to discredit her. And once they did that, they intimidated everyone until they got what they wanted: his resignation, just months after taking his job.
(Sidebar: What you’re reading is a column, which means it’s my opinion. But let’s not act like that’s not how it all happened, especially when the anti-DEI crowd is stronger than ever in a country without an affirmative system. Action.)
What happened to Gay is very similar to what happened to Hannah-Jones when she was in North Carolina. A few years ago, Hannah-Jones was in the same hot seat when she joined the faculty of Howard University – an HBCU – after UNC trustees voted to retain her tenure, but only after initially voted against. The right used the same playbook with Hannah-Jones as they did with Gay.
This is how NPR I broke it down:
“Some of that opposition came from Walter Hussman, a UNC donor and Arkansas newspaper publisher whose name adorns UNC’s journalism school. Hussman, who is also an alumnus, told NPR that criticism from some prominent scholars that Hannah-Jones had distorted the historical record by arguing that protecting slavery was one of the founding fathers’ primary motivations in their quest for independence from the British gave him pause. . (Hannah-Jones recently tweeted that she may back up this claim in an upcoming book.)»
What does this have to do with sport?
Well, sport reflects that.
Look around you, do you see predominantly black owners among the pros? Michael Jordan was the only black majority owner in the NBA, NFL and MLB — then he cashed in and gave it all up in June when he sold the Charlotte Hornets. Ironically, the Bobcats/Hornets were once owned by Bob Johnson, as that city/franchise is the only one to ever have majority black owners in league history. This city (Charlotte) is also home to two of the worst owners the NFL has ever had to deal with, Jerry Richardson, the former owner of the Panthers, and Dave Tepper, current owner of the Panthers.
Baseball doesn’t belong to black people and the NFL simply doesn’t allow it. It’s the same reason black head coaches face the same obstacles in Major League Baseball and Football. Sherman Lewis was passed over for head coaching jobs in the 90s. Eric Bieniemy is the new poster child.
And if you still refuse to connect the dots, just pay attention to the fact that the NFL’s Rooney Rule is nothing more than a fake affirmative action/DEI initiative that allows teams to say, “Hey, we “We have a few black people here, we can” Don’t be racist! THE The NFL just concluded its “Inspire Change” weeks in which they focused on their “commitment” to “social justice”. But does anyone feel inspired by everything this league has done given who they’ve always been?
No.
When news of Gay’s resignation broke, I immediately thought of Tommy Amaker, the current Harvard men’s basketball coach. In 2007, Amaker and Traci Vert (women’s tennis coach) brought color to Cambridge. In 2022, Carrie Moore joins them, becoming the first black woman to coach women’s basketball at the school. While Hannah-Jones was coaching at UNC, Hubert Davis – the first black coach in the history of the school’s storied basketball program – I sat and said and did nothing. Part of me wonders if Amaker, Green and Moore will do the same thing about Claudine Gay, or if they will speak up and use their platforms. However, a larger part of me understands that they are there to develop players and manage their respective programs, because taking on the added responsibilities of being change agents on racial and social issues is not part of their job responsibilities – which is their task. their white counterparts are almost never expected to do so.
If you came to the end of this column hoping I had an answer about how things need to change in academia and sports, or what black people at Harvard should do, I don’t have one for you. But if you’ve gotten to the end of this column and have a better understanding of how these things work and are all connected, then I’ve done my job.
