Al Sharpton, a radical organizer with a platform on MSNBC and wide influence within the Democratic Party, led a protest Thursday outside the New York City office of billionaire investor Bill Ackman to protest the resignation, days before, of Harvard president Claudine Gay.
Leading a picket outside the office of hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman to protest his campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) January 4, 2024
We stand against Ackman’s attacks on Harvard University President Claudine Gay including his claims that she was a DEI hire. pic.twitter.com/Lv7vAaiIK1
Ackman, a Harvard donor, was a key figure in making the public case against Gay — first for her weak response to antisemitism on campus; second for the policies of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) that allegedly played a role in her hiring; and finally in the plagiarism scandal that appeared to tip the balance against her after the Harvard Corporation had backed her completely.
Gay’s selection process was the shortest in 70 years, according to the Harvard Crimson — and her six-month term in office was the shortest of any president in Harvard’s history. She was selected over 600 other candidates despite a thin academic record.
Her performance evoked criticism of DEI policies — as did the outbreak of antisemitism, which highlighted the way in which concerns about racial “justice” had been hijacked by radical activists to push extreme political agendas, in this case attacks on Israel and on Jews, who had been placed on the “wrong” side of the oppressor / oppressed divide in DEI’s peculiar ideology.
Gay claimed she was a victim of racism, and left-wing pundits and activists have pushed back against criticism of DEI policies following her resignation. There has also been a concerted effort to punish Ackman — and his family — for leading the charge.
On Thursday, Sharpton and his National Action Network — both of which have had major tax problems in the past — picketed Ackman’s New York City’s office. BET reported:
Members of [Sharpton’s] organization, the National Action Network chanted “No justice, no peace!” and “When DEI is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” The demonstrators also held signs that “This is good trouble,” a nod to the late civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis.
Speaking to reporters following the protest, Sharpton shared the importance of organizing the demonstration.
“This issue is not just about what they did to the president of Harvard University. It’s about the use [of her] as a scapegoat to fight DEI,” Sharpton said. “We would not have to have DEI if we wouldn’t have D-E-N-Y. We were denied. DEI was to make up for the denial historically of Blacks, of women, of gays, Latinos, and Asians.”
Sharpton has a long history of racism, homophobia, and antisemitism. He was a key figure in inflaming the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, following which race relations in America plummeted, as the Black Lives Matter movement arose and racial ideology became the predominant filter of political debate.
Following Sharpton’s protest, Ackman’s wife, former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Neri Oxman, was accused of plagiarizing several passages in her 2010 dissertation — a clear attempt to retaliate against Ackman for Gay’s early departure.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
