Janel George has done rather well for herself. She’s an associate professor of law at Georgetown University School of Law, a plum position, well-paid and not too taxing. Janel George feels keenly, as a member of a “marginalized community,” the need to be constantly on the qui vive against White Supremacy. It is White Supremacy which she believes explains the downfall of Claudine Gay, the former president of Harvard, who resigned after being exposed as a serial plagiarist. Professor George has just delivered herself of a splenetic diatribe against that hydra-headed monster that not only, she thinks, pulled Gay down from her well-deserved presidential pedestal by attacking her “character” — plagiarism had nothing to do with it — but lies in wait for any talented black person whose mere existence threatens white people’s sense of superiority.
More of her sour diatribe can be found here: “Miseducation and the Project of Panic, Propaganda and Power,” by Janel George, Ms. Magazine, January 30, 2024:
As a Black woman academic, it has been painful to witness the attacks on the character of Claudine Gay—Harvard University’s former president and its first Black leader—and their after-effects. However, as a scholar of education, race and the law, these attacks also ring familiar. The project of white supremacy is to instill panic, to distort history and facts, to erase the contributions of Black and other minoritized people.
White supremacy appeals to the basest parts of us by stoking our fears, stereotypes and biases. It relies on disregard for the truth. It relies on resistance to recognizing the humanity of Black and other minoritized people. It appeals to the worst in America. And I believe it will take the best of America to affirmatively defeat it.
The current so-called “culture wars” facilitated by the likes of Christopher Rufo and Edward Blum—fueled by a now-defunct Trump executive order attacking federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts—are being waged on multiple fronts, from classrooms to libraries to institutions of higher learning.
The attack on Claudine Gay’s intellectual integrity is just the latest effort of this project, which has included attacks on public education, a fabricated moral panic about critical race theory (CRT) as well as bans on books by historically marginalized writers. These are all threads of the same project.
For god’s sake, Prof. George, Claudine Gay had no “intellectual integrity.” She was a serial plagiarist, having copied without attribution at least forty passages — some of them paragraphs long — from others. Her plagiarism began with her doctoral dissertation and examples can be found in almost every one of her slender list of publications. One of her victims, and her sternest critic, was a black professor, Carol Swain, who was the first person to call for the immediate sacking of Gay — “fire Gay posthaste” — in order to steer Harvard, she said, “back towards sanity.”
Anti-Blackness is at the root of this agenda, but Black Americans are not the only ones in its crosshairs. This project has fueled the momentum for the Supreme Court to strip women of bodily autonomy and to dismantle affirmative-action in higher education, which will undoubtedly harm Asian American students who were used as convenient foils to wage the attack, alongside other minoritized students. This project co-opts the language of the civil rights movement’s martyrs, arguing that remedying past racial harm is racist, and espousing a colorblind Constitution that fails to contextualize the history and purpose behind the Reconstruction Amendments, which Justice Jackson has recognized in Supreme Court debates. All the while, these efforts facilitate white supremacy….
Today’s racial retrenchment relies upon miseducation and is deploying it beyond the classroom. Today, miseducation is taking place in the media, from social media to the left-wing media, and is part of a coordinated and organized conservative campaign….
So according to Janel George, the “left-wing media” is “part of…an organized conservative campaign.”
Just as proponents of anti-CRT legislation are not concerned about what CRT actually is or whether it is being taught in schools, critics of Gay were not concerned with the findings of the Harvard Corporation’s investigation concluding that she had not engaged in any research misconduct or statements of those she was accused of incorrectly quoting, who also asserted she did nothing wrong. Gay’s critics disregarded her numerous credentials and experience, concluding that her Black skin and gender rendered her “unqualified” or a “diversity hire”—all code for her being undeserving of the position because of her Blackness—and fabricated their own narrative of her to fit racial tropes….
The Harvard Corporation, shamefully, cleared Claudine Gay of plagiarism before it had even investigated whether her academic work was copied, and everyone — but apparently not Janel George — knows that. Gay was a constant and indefatigable plagiarist, beginning with passages lifted from others in her doctoral dissertation, and she continued that practice in practically all of her thin list of publications. Gay had “numerous credentials”? What can George be thinking of?
At its heart, the project of white supremacy relies upon our complicity. By naming it, speaking out against it, and resisting it, as well as teaching and learning about the tactics used to sustain it—we collectively draw upon the best of us to defeat it.
Don’t be fooled by talk of racial progress in this hopelessly racist country. Janel George wants us to know that America is only marginally better for black people now than it was in the days of slavery. White Supremacists are everywhere. If they could drive as distinguished a scholar as Claudine Gay from her office, what hope is there for the rest of us? Do not be complicit in “the project of white supremacy.” Talk, write, fight, and “call upon the best of us” to defeat the sinister carriers of white supremacy. Who are the “best of us”? Isn’t it clear whom Janel George has in mind?
DavidW says
It’s amazing how many blacks call out white supremacy yet can never seem to point to any tangible evidence that white supremacy actually exists. The only whites who seem to care about white supremacy are the white liberals/leftists who keep pointing out its existence yet are also unable to point out any tangible evidence (if they want an example of “white supremacy” they should look at the education systems being run by leftist education departments in democrat-run school districts). Most normal whites pay attention to non-race things, like trying to keep their families together while constantly being attacked by the family-hating left.
40 rounds says
Blah blah blah blah blah…
Wellington says
For the ultimate “architect” of this new found racism in America, with whites as the “them” to be excoriated, even hated, watch this assessment by America’s greatest living historian, Victor Davis Hanson. Almost eight minutes in length but well worth the watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faPNpovMeuU
Rufolino says
This racism is turning pathological.
somehistory says
In the past, it was scornful if the **race** of a Black person was noted….it was racist to point out that the ‘driver’ was Black, a student was Black, etc.
Now, what woman gets a position? What man gets a nomination? It’s Black woman this, and Black man that.
But that’s not good enough. The constant claim of Whites holding Blacks back, causing the Black students to fail, the Black *transgender* person to fee unwanted; to seek a Black person to blame; stores closing when they make no profit due to the criminal element is so **racist** says a. pressley….the Black rep with the bald head…..race must never be left out of the picture.
The **Black woman** who cheats is no better than the White man who cheats. But Black racists want it to be that any Black can commit any foul, any error, any crime because for years they were “disenfranchised” and all of them…not just the slaves of years…many decades ago…have been enslaved and held down by the Whites.
In this woman’s view, any harm done by a Black is okay because some Whites in the past mistreated Black people, so this is just equality and equity and Whites should all face discrimination because we only deserve it.
If only all Whites would just fall in line….with the racists and the mozlums, all bad things, strife, war, cancer, heart disease, failing grades, robbery, acne, ingrown toenails, overflowing toilets, and halitosis would suddenly cease to exist.
tgusa says
Their goal is to divide us by skin color or on racial lines because they realized that dividing us among values wont work. Why they are doing this, how would it benefit everyone, what is the objective, I’m not sure.
Violet says
I agree.
Self proclaimed experts and oh so smart profs who have no wisdom along with liberal wokes are the useful idiots of the 21st century.
tgusa says
“If only all Whites would just fall in line….with the racists and the mozlums, all bad things, strife, war, cancer, heart disease, failing grades, robbery, acne, ingrown toenails, overflowing toilets, and halitosis would suddenly cease to exist.”
That’s a good one (lol) among everything else you wrote up there. Keep it up, please, I would love to hear more, somehistory.
James Lincoln says
somehistory,
I have always thought that Martin Luther King, Jr. had it right:
“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Somehow, in 2024, that’s not good enough.
tgusa says
Evidently, having an aversion to lying cheating and stealing is White Supremacy. Is this woman stating that lying cheating and stealing is the cultural standard among blacks and anyone opposed to it is a White Supremacist? That is really not a good message to send but she probably doesn’t realize how bad it is because she plagiarized that well worn leftist definition.
“marginalized community,”
Perhaps if she stopped with the support of lying cheating and stealing that community wouldn’t be so marginalized. What do the honest people in so-called marginalized communities think about her support of lying cheating and stealing?
If whites object to lying cheating and stealing the greater the shouts of white supremacy. The more whites try to segregate themselves from marginalized communities that dont have a problem with lying cheating and stealing the louder the shouts of white supremacy.
Guess what hon, the majority of whites have a longstanding aversion to lying cheating and stealing by other whites within white communities. I guess that is just more white supremacy on display. She believes we dont care for her (marginalize her) because she is black but in reality it is the culture we dont care for and most whites dont care what color you are if you think lying cheating and stealing is OK.
She and other marginalized people need to make up their minds. They cant find a home in the anti lying cheating and stealing white supremacist community until she disavows lying cheating stealing. Endorsing lying cheating and stealing is not the way to go about that.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Rufolino: Racism against White people has been pathological for some time now. The firing of the fraudulent, Claudine Gay, simply served to stirred up a hornets nest of racism against Whites. Affirmative Action, which was originally intended to broaden and deepen the meritocracy to include Blacks and other minorities, was hijacked and redefined as a way to recognize and promote people based upon their melanin levels. RIP MLK.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
* stir
Gene Currivan says
Just another filthy, America-despising ape
davidafoot says
If they have a need to copy whites because it is all too much for them, then they may be the ones proving that there really is a white supremacy!
Ian Harris says
Whites are superior. Get over it! Remind me how many black scientists, composers, writers, artists, philosophers came out of black Africa prior to the 20th century. Whites having left, most African states have reverted to corruption and mismanagement. What civilisation black Africa experienced was brought in by Christian missionaries and traders 15th century onwards. Meanwhile poverty and slavery were rife and in many respects still are. Breast beating whites doesn’t even begin to equal black Africa. Only Asians equal whites in most artistic, scientific and cultural fields.
Today most black families are single parents as the men screw around and don’t stay around. Black crime far outweighs white crime from a much smaller black/white percentage. Need I say more? Black moaning is unjustified by fact and history.