Demagogues: Attacking Hamas and the Jewish State in a Campaign for the Genocide of Black Holes in the U.S. Senate

My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth.

I’m very proud to be a member of the university that has given me inspiration for most of my professional career. My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis. It is distressing to have doubt cast on my dedication to confronting hate and to uphold scholarly rigor as well as my fear to be subjected to personal attacks and threats because of my race.

Claudine Gay had a single word that sealed her fate. She stepped down from Harvard’s presidency just six months into her tenure. It was not plagiarism or genocide, but a careful, neutral piece of language that struck some listening as outrageous for that reason, an attempt at anti inflammatory rhetoric that had the opposite. The word was “context.”

I made mistakes. In my initial response to the atrocities of Oct. 7, I should have stated more forcefully what all people of good conscience know: Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks to eradicate the Jewish state. And at a congressional hearing last month, I fell into a well-laid trap. I neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable and that I would use every tool at my disposal to protect students from that kind of hate.