Claudine Gay Betrayed the American Values of My Black Elders to Exploit White Guilt

By Eli Steele

After weeks of speculation about whether Harvard University's president, Claudine Gay, would be forced to resign amid a plagiarism and antisemitism scandal, Gay announced that she was stepping down. In her resignation letter, Gay spoke of "personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus," and made no mention of her failure to properly address antisemitism or the never-ending allegations of plagiarism against her rather limited record of scholarship.

Gay, who exploited race to reach the pinnacle of Harvard, chose to blame racism on her way out the door.

When I first learned of Gay's fate, I thought back to one of the earliest lessons of my youth. The women and men that visited my parents at our Bay Area home always told me to never use race as an excuse. They said that the same attitude went for the profound hearing loss that I was born with. These adults had grown up under segregation and suffered grievous human indignities. They would not have been wrong in the eyes of many to blame racism for any unfair obstacles placed in their paths.

Yet my black elders knew on an instinctual level that to give in to race and racism was to give immutable characteristics power over individual identity and character. As one of my elders told me, "I'm not the n****r they call me. That's all them." They knew that giving in, identifying with the race that the racist saw, would have led them into the trap of endless victimization. And it is to their credit that these doctors, dentists, professors and filmmakers always insisted on finding the path of success somehow.

Needless to say, Claudine Gay comes from a different stock. She aimed for tenure at Stanford University despite an academic record that would make most think twice, and shot for the presidency of Harvard despite achievements that fell far short of past presidents'. The power of white guilt would compensate for any shortcomings she may have and propel her to the top.

Whether she was conscious of it or not, Claudine Gay's entire life was organized around race. Race was the excuse for all of her shortcomings. It was America that made her existence and path in life possible.
 
We've made diversity our most prized virtue, believing that if we lift it high enough, we can hide the stink of America's racist past. We wanted that first black female president of Harvard because we believed that a spectacle of race, rather than a monumental achievement of merit, would show the goodness of our country.

How desperate were we for racial innocence? So desperate that we betrayed the American principles that enabled countless blacks to reach a place in life that was an improvement upon the world they were born into! It is a sad reflection of America that we elevate the Claudine Gays of this world and not the meritorious women and men I grew up admiring.

But there is a silver-lining here: The trial of Gay in the public eye exposed the racial hypocrites and hypocrisies of our time unlike anything before.

For decades, black and white leftists have gaslit us, telling us repeatedly that our nation is systemically racist. They created books, articles, TV shows, studies, and films to overwhelm us with poetic truths. When we objected, they ignored our facts and instead subjected many working Americans to racial trainings of every kind. They lied to us that this was the difficult work, the difficult conversation that needed to be had in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Those around us who agreed to place race before humanity were rewarded in various ways, including with cheap lawn signs that signaled virtue to their neighbors. The leaders among these Leftists rode the exploitation of white guilt to dizzying heights—including to the presidency of Harvard.

Why then would we expect Gay and her peers to react with integrity and morals when the true and undeniable evil of antisemitism emerged before their very eyes? How could we have expected them to be shamed by the indisputable findings of plagiarism and a substandard academic record?

Gay and her peers long ago sacrificed humanity for racial essentialism. That's what we have all witnessed over these past few weeks.

Once, as a young boy, I gave in to self-pity and told one of my elders that life would be much easier if I wasn't deaf and being bullied everyday. She responded with a question: "Who are you?" I didn't understand, and made my point again, to which she simply repeated her question.

I remember leaving the room without answering her. It took me a long time before I understood her message. She was telling me to focus on my individuality, my character, my dreams, and not on some sad, insecure bully. She was pulling me away from giving power to my immutable characteristics by focusing on the true power in life: developing oneself into a strong individual with the power to contribute positively to society. Who are you?

That's what America is supposed to be about. That was the path the women and men of my youth took in life. Let's teach our young people to be like my elders—not Claudine Gay.

Originally published in Newsweek. Published here with the author's permission.

Eli Steele is a documentary filmmaker and writer. His latest film is "What Killed Michael Brown?" Substack: Man of Steele Twitter: @Hebro_Steele.