Claudine Gay: the great DEI grift exposed

Will no one rid us of these meddlesome thieves?

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

I maintain that Claudine Gay, the now-former president of Harvard University, just may have, though, mind you, quite by accident, made the world a much better place. She accomplished this not by resigning as president of Harvard over ineptitude and academic dishonesty, and not in any way, shape, form, manner, or style that she intended, but by being selected, despite austere qualifications, to be the president of one of our most prestigious universities in the first place.

Gay’s inexplicable rise and quite explicable fall illustrate, in a difficult-to-misinterpret fashion, the plain grift that is the DEI industry.

You can explain and attempt to justify DEI in all of the highfalutin terms that you want, but in the end, it comes down to something quite simple: it’s a way for those who eschew achievement, merit, honesty, and perseverance to get ahead on the dubious grounds of identity. It’s a con game designed to pour money into the coffers of those for whom a genuine work ethic is anathema.

It's plain and simple grift, endorsed by our own government and institutions of higher education. You know, the same people who are supposed to be watching out for such things on our behalf. And worse, there was no need for DEI to ever get started in the first place.

I spent a quarter of a century in higher education as a faculty member and a decade more as a member of the technical staff. In all of this time, I never met anyone, regardless of politics or personal inclination, who thought that giving a leg up to those in genuine need was a bad idea. All of us considered ourselves fortunate to have “arrived” and, almost without exception, were willing to mentor anyone with the ability to do the work who wanted to join us, especially those who were underrepresented in our fields.

If you were a student in any of our introductory physics classes and showed an aptitude and interest in what we did, we’d do everything in our power to convince you that you had a home with us. There was simply no end to those willing to mentor students who were interested in physics, especially those who were not already well represented among our ranks.

There was no dearth of this practice across any campus that I knew about. Most academics of my generation cared deeply about helping those who just needed some encouragement and mentoring to succeed.

I never once witnessed a student or colleague from an underrepresented class being given anything but a warm welcome. When decisions were made concerning hiring, promotion, or admission, in any case where qualifications were roughly equal, the call generally went to the underrepresented applicant. I had no problem with this, and neither did hardly anyone else. All of us wanted to look around at a department/college/university that was truly diverse and looked like the America we lived in off campus.

But here’s the thing about that: America is a heterogenous melting pot when it comes to every human quality, save one. We are a diverse nation when it comes to race, ethnicity, religion, sex, and political inclination. But the ideal that unites us in our pursuit of the American dream is that we are willing to work to achieve it. Ours is a nation of people who do not fear hard work or being challenged.

We are a nation that rolls up our sleeves and gets to work in pursuit of opportunity. That’s precisely why people are willing to walk thousands of miles and cross our southern border illegally to get here. They are chasing the American dream.

The DEI mafia gained purchase in higher education by exploiting the generosity of well-intentioned people enamored of fairness in opportunity and spinning it into a con turned against them. And after finding out how easy it was to prey on the humanity of their marks, they did it to enrich themselves.

This meets every definition of grift—and an un-American one at that.

Now that Claudine Gay, Ibram X. Kendi, and Nikole Hannah-Jones, among others of their ilk, have been exposed for all to see as the wealthy charlatans they are, we just might be in a position to put a dagger in the heart of DEI. Hell, even the acronym is a con. There’s little substantive diversity in DEI, the equity component is patently racist, and inclusion only applies to people who are onboard with the rest of the nonsense.

I am under no illusion that ending DEI will be quick or easy. It has spread like kudzu through higher education, government, and business over the past few decades. But for the first time, it’s completely evident for anyone who cares to see, the magnitude of the grift. I don’t think that the old tricks of smearing opponents, redefining things to mean what the DEI mafia wants, or ignoring inconvenient realities are going to work for much longer.

You can carry on that “wokeness” doesn’t actually exist all you want; no one is buying that anymore. It’s very difficult to pretend that DEI makes institutions better; ask Harvard how that worked for them. The grift is just obvious.

In what parallel universe does an applicant, Claudine Gay, with 11 publications (not a book among them), become president of arguably the most prestigious university in the world? How do racial grifters like Kendi and Hannah-Jones parley excruciatingly poor scholarship (and management skills) into positions of prestige and power in the academy?

My interest in all of this is very personal. I retired early from a job that I mostly loved, teaching physics and astronomy, because I concluded after decades of trying not to that academia had become corrupt beyond redemption in the potential span of my career. DEI was a major driver of my disgust and dismay.

I do my “Science Friday” broadcasts here each week to fill part of the void that I feel every day when I don’t walk into a classroom full of students to teach physics and astronomy. And I will never get tired of wearing out the Nimrods who made the academy unbearable for rational people of conscience.

You hear that, you DEI grifters? I ain't through with you by a damn sight. The best part is that I’m going to have to get in line to take my shots.

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Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time with family, riding bicycles and motorcycles, and arranging and playing music. Follow him on Twitter @MartinHackworth and on Substack at martinhackworthsubstack.com