Claudine Gay’s ouster from Harvard has illuminated for some prominent old-school Democrats the racket that is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in academia. After expressing his revelations on Twitter, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is taking ambitious action to uncover more possible issues and inefficiencies plaguing America’s colleges.
In an interview on CNBC Friday, Ackman announced he intends to launch a think tank to investigate higher education in the U.S. The move follows the plagiarism and antisemitism scandals at Harvard University, his alma mater. The organization, he said, will include a chief executive officer and a board of directors that target “these issues in a very aggressive way.”
“It’s going to be a think-and-do tank,” he said during the appearance. “We’re going to study these issues and come up with solutions to problems, and we’re going to implement them.”
Ackman was compelled by recent reporting that showed Gay’s many alleged violations of academic standards in her past scholarship. Despite this record, Gay felt entitled to her prestigious position at Harvard because of her minority status. DEI protected Gay even after her less culpable peer, now-former University of Pennsylvania president Liz McGill, resigned after her poor testimony before Congress over her handling of Penn’s antisemitism. After pressure mounted, Gay finally stepped down, but not before blaming her begrudging exit on a racist coup.
Since his political awakening, Ackman has aptly recognized that DEI can drive antisemitism in academia because it indoctrinates students with the oppression pyramid. Under this framework, Palestinians are victims of colonialism and Jews are conflated with white supremacists, regardless of the fact that the latter group in October suffered the most brutal attack since the Holocaust. Rather than eliminate it, DEI fuels racial division, Ackman suggested.
“DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (and it is remarkable that I even need to point this out),” Ackman wrote in a Twitter post explaining his realizations. “Racism against white people has become considered acceptable by many not to be racism, or alternatively, it is deemed acceptable racism. While this is, of course, absurd, it has become the prevailing view in many universities around the country.”
In addition to starting his higher education watchdog, Ackman is trying to reform Harvard now. He is backing four alumni to join Harvard’s board of overseers, the second most powerful governing body at the school after the Harvard Corporation. The board can approve or reject the appointee for president, who would replace Gay.
Other influential business people and big donors should see now that higher education has been captured by a noxious ideology that fosters racial animus and leaves students who value meritocracy out to dry. Here’s to hoping for more eureka moments like Bill Ackman’s.