Former professor at the California Western School of Law in San Diego, Winkfield Twyman Jr., ripped Harvard president Claudine Gay in a Newsweek op-ed published Wednesday. A Harvard grad himself, he claims Gay has made a career out of “disrupting” black male scholars.
The ex-professor argues those who use the race card to defend the Ivy League school’s embattled president simply do not have legitimacy in their argument. He goes further, insisting the recent attacks on her credibility are “well deserved” and not, as some have argued, “racial in nature.”
Twyman authored the race-related book “Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America.” Twyman specifically referred to backlash Gay has faced in recent weeks after she failed to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews during a congressional hearing and amid claims she has plagiarized the work of fellow professors at points in her career.
“And yet, many are coming to her defense. Having finally got their wish of a Black president of Harvard, Harvard seems unwilling to let her go,” he said, adding that the “racial wagons” have been circled around Gay ever since.
“This is not only misguided, but deeply ironic. Did you know that Claudine Gay during her Harvard career has repeatedly targeted and disrupted the careers of prominent black male professors?”
He also claimed Gay coordinated a “witch hunt” against economics professor Roland G. Fryer Jr. after his research into the killings of unarmed black men in Houston, Texas, found no racial disparities.
“He made the mistake of undercutting the racial narrative that the Left has adopted, and as a result, Gay did her best to remove all of his academic privileges, coordinating a witch hunt against him,” Twyman said. “Fryer survived Gay’s crusade of discharge but Fryer’s lab was shut down, his reputation tarnished.”
The author continued: “No one in good faith should defend President Gay because she is the first black president of Harvard. Even if you don’t agree with me that our racial struggle is in our past, someone who has targeted black male professors has waived any benefit of the ‘first black’ defense.”
