My friend Peter, from Milton, MA, just outside of Boston and Cambridge, posed the following dilemma to me:
In keeping Claudine Gay on the faculty at nearly $1m per year, and lauding her, Harvard appears to be announcing to future students and faculty, as well as the world, that every category of plagiarism which she committed is acceptable.
I will defer to others who have so comprehensively cataloged her forms of plagiarism that Harvard deems acceptable. I am more interested in the application of Harvard’s plagiarism ideal.
Inquiring Minds Want To Know
To be helpful, I would ask these questions in order to better assure that the guidelines are clear: Is plagiarism good for everybody or only good for blacks, or is it female blacks, or is it female gay blacks, or is it those who self-identify as females?
What about the other near-endless permutations of sex, sexual preference, race, and ethnicity? Or is it good for everybody but whites? What is white, however?
Are Israelis whiter than Arabs or Persians? Israelis come from all sorts of races while Arabs do not. Elizabeth Warren self-identified as a native American; could she self-identify as a black and attain plagiarism protection?
Non-Malevolent Plagiarism
Are certain whites exempt? Installed President Joe Biden says that his plagiarism in college was okay because it wasn’t malevolent. My bad. I did not know there was a “not malevolent exception.” Is that for all whites, or only progressive whites, or only for progressive whites who become president decades later?
How would we know he would become a progressive white president decades later, particularly when he was a notable southern bigot much of his time in the Senate?
What about Asians? They are a minority in the U.S. As a group, they consistently achieve on merit, undermining the notion of oppressed minorities. Are they allowed to plagiarize but only in lesser forms, or not nearly as much? Or do they get no pass at all because they have the temerity to achieve?
Wicked Brain Hurt
What about the quality of plagiarism? Should some plagiarism be more appreciated than others? To employ the Boston vernacular, my brain is starting to hurt wicked bad.
Oh hell, Harvard simply ought to be inclusive and welcome all plagiarists with open arms regardless of their background or plagiarist skill set, and maybe make a name change. I suggest Harvard Plagiarist University.
