Hours after Harvard’s president resigned over plagiarism and campus anti-Semitism accusations, a liberal Harvard donor acknowledged the leftist ideology behind the recent explosion in campus antisemitism.
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman wrote in a Jan. 3 post on X that the antisemitism on Harvard’s campus was a “‘canary in the coal mine’” for the harm done by the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) ideology embraced by Harvard and the left. “I came to learn that the root cause of antisemitism at Harvard was an ideology that had been promulgated on campus, an oppressor/oppressed framework, that provided the intellectual bulwark behind the protests, helping to generate anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate speech and harassment,” Ackman wrote about the pro-Hamas demonstrations at Harvard following the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack. “Then I did more research. The more I learned, the more concerned I became, and the more ignorant I realized I had been about DEI, a powerful movement that has not only pervaded Harvard, but the educational system at large.”
Ackman, who donated $17 million to Harvard in 2014 alone, repeatedly criticized former Harvard President Claudine Gay as well as anti-Semitic demonstrations and harassment on Harvard’s campus. In a Nov. 4 letter to Harvard University, Ackman warned former President Gay that her response to Harvard’s antisemitic campus climate could compromise federal funding. Ackman also listed abuses taking place on campus, and mentioned that other alumni shared his concerns.
In his recent post, Ackman went beyond condemning anti-Semitism and struck at the racism underlying DEI initiatives. “DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (and it is remarkable that I even need to point this out). Racism against white people has become considered acceptable by many not to be racism, or alternatively, it is deemed acceptable racism. While this is, of course, absurd, it has become the prevailing view in many universities around the country,” he added.
Ackman went on to decry racial discrimination in business, universities, and in the government, saying that, “DEI is inherently a racist and illegal movement in its implementation even if it purports to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed.”
Later on, Ackman called out DEI as an “ideology that portrays a bicameral world of oppressors and the oppressed based principally on race or sexual identity is a fundamentally racist ideology that will likely lead to more racism rather than less.” Ackman stressed that, “A system where one obtains advantages by virtue of one’s skin color is a racist system, and one that will generate resentment and anger among the un-advantaged who will direct their anger at the favored groups.”
Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they stop pushing DEI Ideology and address its discriminatory effects
