The Weird Sisters Go to Washington

You would be forgiven if you thought you had stumbled into a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. You would be forgiven if you thought that the three women in question had everything in common with Shakespeare’s “weird sisters.

Last Tuesday, testifying before a Congressional committee, the leaders of three once-great educational institutions, MIT, Harvard and Penn, put on a display of weak-kneed, mealy mouthed, spineless equivocating when asked the obvious question: Were the crowds at their universities calling for an intifada against Jewish students engaging in hate speech? 

Denouncing anti-semitism seemed not to be part of their job description. If students on their campuses had been calling for an attack on any other minority victim group, they would have brandished their true strength and power. 

As was, they were anything but strong and empowered. Of course, if you call them weak and disempowered you will be immediately canceled for practicing hate speech.

So the weird sisters could not answer the question. Surely, they knew that they would be asked whether they countenance threats and harassment against Jewish students. Surely, they knew that Jewish students at their universities had been threatened and abused. Surely, they knew that those who committed such atrocities had not been punished or even reprimanded.

But no, the weird sisters said it was all a matter of context. Hate speech in and of itself was not to be banned or punished, especially if it was directed against Jews. 

I need not tell you, but the real reason that these demonstrators have not been punished is quite simple: they were not performed by white Christian students. The reigning oppression narrative directs all of its energy at the people who have been branded the true oppressors-- white Christians. 

I am not going to emphasize that the weird sisters are moral eunuchs. You do not need me to explain that. I will emphasize that they are functional cowards, lacking in moral courage, failing at the task of providing leadership for their institutions. 

Leadership means speaking clearly and intelligible. It precludes ambiguity and equivocation. When a leader of any organization talks out of both sides of his mouth, his staff and his followers do not know what to do. Clear, articulate expression is essential. It is not an afterthought.

As you know, the presidents of Harvard and Penn have been trying to dance their way out of their failed public performance. They have issued statements denouncing anti-Semitism. But that would have entailed risk, and the leaders were clearly trying to avoid taking any risks.

It is too little, too late. They could only state it after they had been widely denounced for their leadership failures. Besides, the issue is less about making a pro forma statement and more about backing it up with action. How many of the students who have harassed Jews on their campuses, who have disrupted classes and have threatened supporters of Israel will be expelled?

As for how they got their jobs, the answer is diversity quotas. Qualifications be damned; the leaders all had the right genetics.

As Alan Dershowitz had already pointed out, the diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucracy is largely responsible for this warped thinking.

Heather Mac Donald explained it in the Wall Street Journal this morning:

In the name of rejecting hate, colleges built their DEI bureaucracies in the first place and allowed bureaucrats and their faculty sympathizers to put certain facts and ideas off-limits. In the name of rejecting hate, colleges started requiring faculty—even in the hard sciences—to justify their research in the name of “inclusion” and “belonging.” Protected identity categories have constantly expanded while the haters shrank to an ever smaller subset of white males.

Students hate Jews because they have been taught to hate colonialist oppressors. For people who hate Jews the oppressor narrative fell like manna from Heaven. Mac Donald explained:

Students explain that their hatreds come from what they learn in class—that the West is built on white supremacism and oppression. Israel is cast as the Western settler-colonialist oppressor par excellence.

As you know, many alumni of these three schools have announced that they are not going to hire their graduates. Even Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports joined the denunciations.

The loudest voice has been hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, Harvard graduate who has been out front denouncing his alma mater.

From the Daily Mail:

A billionaire Harvard donor and alumnus has demanded the university president to resign after she refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews was harassment.

Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager who in 2014 gave $26 million to the university, said on Tuesday he was outraged by the performance of Claudine Gay.

Ackman, who is Jewish, accused her of 'profound moral bankruptcy' and said she and other university presidents who spoke at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday must 'resign in disgrace'.

The story continues:

'The presidents' answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership.'

He said that the trio's answers would be unacceptable in the business world.

'If a CEO of one of our companies gave a similar answer, he or she would be toast within the hour,' he said.

'Why has antisemitism exploded on campus and around the world?

'Because of leaders like Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth who believe genocide depends on the context.

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