Cornel West Blames ‘Racism’ for Harvard President’s Resignation in ‘Antisemitic’ Post

Harvard Professor Cornel West speaks at a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Joshua Klein

In a post widely deemed “antisemitic” in which he rages against the “undeniable” racism perpetrated against “both Palestinians and Black people,” prominent progressive activist and independent presidential candidate Cornel West blamed “racism” for the recent resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay.

Gay’s departure followed her involvement in antisemitism scandals, disastrous congressional testimony, and plagiarism allegations at the famed university.

In a viral X post from Tuesday, Ivy League professor Dr. Cornel West claimed the ousting of Harvard’s first Black woman president is linked to those “enabling” violence against Palestinians in Gaza.

“How sad but predictable that the same figures and forces enabling the ethnic cleansing and genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza – Ackman, Blum, Summers and others – push out the first Black woman president of Harvard!” he wrote, referencing Gay’s Jewish critics — billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, affirmative action opponent Edward Blum, and former University President Lawrence Summers.

West — who is running as a 2024 presidential candidate, not on the Democrat ticket but as an Independent — goes on to describe racism targeting Palestinians and black individuals as rampant, and exacerbated by the influence of money and power on policy.

“This racism against both Palestinians and Black people is undeniable and despicable!” he exclaimed. “I have experienced similar attacks from the same forces in academia with too many of my colleagues remaining silent!” 

“When big money dictates university policy and raw power dictates foreign policy, the moral bankruptcy of American education and democracy looms large! But we shall remain strong in our fight for Truth Justice Love!” he added.

His remarks follow Harvard President Claudine Gay’s Tuesday resignation, following weeks of her battling scores of accusations of plagiarism in the wake of her botched testimony before Congress about the rise of antisemitism on college campuses from anti-Israel activists.

West’s post elicited a vehement backlash from numerous figures.

“This is about as blatant antisemitism as one is likely to see from an Ivy League professor. How are any of the named individuals responsible for anything going on in Gaza beyond being Jews? What does Ed Blum have to do with Christine Gay beyond being a Jew?” asked Jew­ish Insti­tute for Lib­er­al Val­ues (JILV) founder David L. Bern­stein. 

“I guess Cornell really needs attention, even more than usual, and thinks appealing to antisemites is the way to be it,” he added.

“How sad and predictable that instead of blaming Harvard President Gay herself for repeatedly committing plagiarism, Cornel West chooses instead to deflect by invoking the race card when he knows full well that this has nothing to do with race,” wrote columnist Michael Freund.

“Set aside everything else for one moment- this insanely antisemitic post from @CornelWest blames the (nonexistent) ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide’ in Gaza on… American Jews,” wrote National Jewish Advocacy Center director and legal expert Mark Goldfeder.

“Since it was liberal white democrats that pushed her out and targeted you too, I see why you don’t support democrats anymore,” wrote former state Rep. Vernon Jones.

Gay’s resignation — just over six months into her presidency — makes her tenure as president the shortest in Harvard’s history, according to a report by the Harvard Crimson.

Gay informed the Harvard community of her resignation in an email saying it has been “frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”

Her resignation comes nearly three months after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, which Harvard’s leadership failed to properly respond to after over 30 of its student groups signed a pro-terror statement blaming Israel for the attack against itself.

In addition, along with the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT, Gay delivered a disastrous testimony before congress regarding antisemitism last month.

During the congressional hearing, the presidents infamously declined to declare whether advocating for the genocide of Jews violates their schools’ rules of bullying and harassment. Days later, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned.

Subsequently, Gay’s own Ph.D. dissertation was called into question by conservative activist and CRT expert Christopher Rufo, who accused the Harvard president of plagiarism. After that, the plagiarism allegations against Gay only continued to mount, brining the total number against Gay to nearly 50.

In response to news of her resignation, a number of woke activists and Critical Race Theory (CRT) supporters expressed outrage.

“Racist mobs won’t stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism. What these racist mobs are doing should be obvious to any reporter who cares about truth or justice as opposed to conflicts and clicks,” wrote Ibram X. Kendi.

“The next president of Harvard University MUST be a Black woman,” wrote former Huffington Post reporter Marc Lamont Hill.

““Chris Rufo and bad faith right wing actors win again,” wrote Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali.

Former ESPN reporter Jemele Hill posted, “When white people are hired in any position, the automatic assumption is they were the best person. When Black people are hired, it’s assumed we got there because of affirmative action — which by the way doesn’t mean under-qualified. If affirmative action never existed, a lot of white people would still believe deeply in their own superiority because that is what they’ve been taught.”

“Considering there have been 30 presidents at Harvard and Claudine Gay was the only Black one in history, she had to be extremely qualified to even be in that position,” she added.

West, who resigned from Harvard in 2021, held a dual appointment in the Harvard University Divinity School and Department of African and African-American Studies.

The former philosophy professor has a long history of controversial and divisive rhetoric, and has been accused of citing Jewish conspiracies in recent years, notably attributing his denial of tenure at Harvard to his stance on Israel.

In November, he faced backlash after declaring his solidarity with “anybody who’s occupied” — claiming that his “people,” too, have “dished out love warriors and freedom fighters,” as he attacked the “American empire” and “cowards in Washington, DC,” for their unwillingness to capitulate to Hamas’s demand for a ceasefire.

Despite his remarks about Israeli “occupation,” Gaza has not been “occupied” by Israel since 2005 when Israel withdrew all of its soldiers and civilians in a “disengagement” that aimed to reduce violence in the region. 

In response, Hamas launched thousands of rockets at Israel and started several wars.

In October, he seemed to justify Hamas’s monstrous massacre, which saw the deaths and kidnappings of hundreds of men, women, and children, calling it a form of resistance to “oppression.”

He also likened America and Israel to the terror group while claiming they both have “blood on their hands.”

In 2021, West declared that American police “have been out of control since the slave patrol.”

Previously, he expressed his belief that then-President Donald Trump was becoming the “American version of a Hitler and a Mussolini” after Trump told members of the “Squad” to go back to their countries of origin even though three of them were born in the United States.

West also called Trump a “fascist Frankenstein,” stating that this is a “very historic and pivotal moment in the history of this nation” because “this democratic experiment” could “come to an end.”

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.