The resignation on Tuesday of Claudine Gay, the first black woman to lead Harvard, owes much to a pressure campaign organized by ultraconservative circles. At the center of this operation is Christopher Rufo, an activist who wants to drive liberals out of the American education system.
This is his hour of glory. Christopher Rufo seems to be everywhere in the United States. He speaks on the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, the largest American business newspaper, and is a guest on the most important ultra-conservative channels such as Fox News and Newsmax.
The more traditional media, from the New York Times to the Washington Post, all emphasize the role of this far-right activist in the downfall of Claudine Gay, who resigned from her post as director of the famous Harvard University. She is the second university leader to resign in a month, following Lizz Magill, who was head of the University of Pennsylvania until December 9th.
Suspicion of plagiarism and clumsy explanation
The news site Politico even describes Christopher Rufo as “the mastermind of the operation” aimed at forcing the resignation of the first black woman in history to lead Harvard.
In her farewell letter, Claudine Gay does not return to the plagiarism allegations she faced, but highlights the “personal attacks and threats fueled by racism” from some of her critics. Without mentioning her, she is referring to the small circle of right-wing extremist activists that formed around Christopher Rufo to bring her down.
In fact, the media sequence that led to Claudine Gay's resignation appears to have stemmed from her awkward appearance before Congress on December 5, 2023. She was then heard as part of a parliamentary inquiry launched by Republican elected officials into anti-Semitism on the campus following the Hamas attacks on Israeli soil on October 7. The Harvard president appeared to suggest that “calls for genocide against the Jews” may not violate university policy in some cases.
This statement, for which Claudine Gay later apologized, sparked a media outcry and led several wealthy Harvard donors to threaten to stop supporting the university financially.
For Christopher Rufo and others, Claudine Gay's misstep was “the long-awaited start of their campaign against a symbol of everything they believe is wrong with the American university system,” says Thomas Gift, director of the Center for the Study of United States Politics at University College London .
It was Christopher Rufo who, together with the ultra-conservative journalist Christopher Brunet, raised the plagiarism allegations against Claudine Gay on Twitter on December 10th. It was the last straw for some wealthy donors, such as famous investor Bill Ackman. The latter “was the heart of the pressure campaign on the Harvard board,” emphasizes Thomas Gift.
For this expert, the resignation of Claudine Gay is “a significant victory for Christopher Rufo and his followers, showing the growing influence of this small circle of activists”.
A before and after by Christopher Rufo
An even more overwhelming victory for Christopher Rufo, who was still completely unknown to the general public in the USA almost four years ago. Before 2020, the 38-year-old activist tried to make a name for himself in right-wing commentator circles by already castigating his pet peeve: the American education system would be in the hands of dangerous leftists.
In September 2020 he was discovered by Tucker Carlson, then the star presenter of the very influential ultra-conservative channel Fox News. The famous king of provocation with racist undertones paid tribute to Christopher Rufo's latest discovery: “Critical Race Theory (CRT)”.
Also read: USA: Critical race theory, the Trumpists' new scarecrow
The young activist wants to make him the right's new battle horse against the liberals at school. For the public debate about education in the United States, there was actually a before and an after to Christopher Rufo's appearance on Tucker Carlson's show, says the New Yorker. In a lengthy investigation, the famous magazine details how this young activist reinvented the concept of CRT – until then limited to debates between academics about the effects of racism in areas such as law or education – in light of the culture of war between conservatives and progressives .
By September 2020, you could count the articles about this concept on one hand. The number then exploded: “Between 2020 and 2023, there were 25,000 articles addressing this issue,” calculated The New Republic magazine website.
“Suppose Critical Race Theory” has become the new catchphrase for some conservatives and has given Christopher Rufo his start in media fame. He then caught the attention of some very right-wing politicians like Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor and future candidate for the Republican nomination in the US presidential election is recruiting the young activist in 2022 to make him one of the architects of his “anti-woke” program.
The man who whispered in Ron DeSantis' ear
Christopher Rufo is thus portrayed as one of the leaders of the “Stop-Woke Act”, a comprehensive reform of the educational system in Florida that promotes the censorship of certain books or even prohibits the discussion of certain topics related to racism in the United States. .
“It is clear that Christophe Rufo very quickly became a very influential 'culture war soldier' on the right,” acknowledges Thomas Gift. And the victory over Claudine Gay means a consecration for him.
To his credit, he even explained to Politico his approach in three steps: launch a campaign of attacks on social networks, find powerful financial channels so that the so-called traditional media is forced to talk about it, and hope that Republican politicians Turning the party around Test in Congress.
This is what happened to the former director of Harvard. This victory even opened the doors to the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, showing that the anti-woke, anti-CRT troublemaker has now found his way into the conservative establishment's media inner sanctum.
But Christopher Rufo has no plans to stop. After the CRT, he found a new enemy: the “DEI” bureaucracy of universities (for “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion”). These are “all programs that promote diversity and inclusion at the university, such as positive discrimination,” summarizes Thomas Gift.
“Christopher Rufo argues that DEI programs allow progressives to prevent diversity of opinion on campus by excluding conservative ideas,” explains the political scientist. The activist also welcomed the fall of Claudine Gay as a victory over “THE bureaucracy”. In December, Christopher Rufo wrote that Claudine Gay had been accused by liberals (of the American left) of building a “DIE empire” at Harvard…
The next target of the witch hunt for Christopher Rufo and his allies is Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was also criticized for her performance during the December 5 congressional hearing. After Claudine Gay's resignation, investor Bill Ackman quickly wrote on X (dixit): “And you, Sally?”