While guest hosting Alex Wagner Tonight on Friday, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi teamed up with The 1619 Project’s Nikole Hannah-Jones to accuse former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s critics of not caring about anti-Semitism or plagiarism, but for opposing racial progress and black people in positions of power.
Velshi claimed to be a mind reader who knows what conservatives really think as he began, “But this one is important for people to understand, because a lot of Americans have been hoodwinked. They think that Claudine Gay is out because she said something anti-Semitic, which she didn’t. They think that Claudine Gay is out because she plagiarized, she had some inconsistencies in her citations, which she reviewed and asked for corrections to and Harvard determined that that was not-- the proper steps were taken. She's out because they came for her.”
He also claimed that “She's out because a very organized group of people, very similar to the people that came for you, came for her.”
Hannah-Jones’s critics are actual experts on the Founders, revolutionaries, and their relationship with slavery, including black women very much on the left side of the spectrum, that accuse her of simply being wrong. Yet, people like Velshi try to rehabilitate The 1619 Project into something that is merely a different opinion or perspective on American history that is more honest and nuanced.
As it was, Hannah-Jones was naturally eager to keep this fiction alive, “Yes, absolutely, you know, one, let me just say, my heart is really with Dr. Gay. This is a woman who has had a stellar academic career, and has had her reputation sullied strictly for political reasons. I know exactly what that's like.”
She added “This is not about plagiarism. This is not about anti-Semitism. This is about, as you said, an extremely well organized propaganda campaign from the right to make anyone black in a high position of power to seem like a diversity hire, an unqualified affirmative action hire.”
Hannah-Jones further warned, “This is the next iteration of the anti-Critical Race Theory campaign that led to the banning of books and curricula that’s now trying to target people of color in leadership positions and do a great deal of damage to the racial progress that has been made.”
Velshi, of course, agreed, “And in fact, it's the same people, the same guy, Chris Rufo, who popularized CRT, incorrectly, who also had Donald Trump write, you know, edicts about what it should be. The same people who wanted to get 1619 out of vernacular, and started the hashtag 1776. It's the same thing. It's this movement that says some of you have come too far, and we're taking it back then.”
No, it isn’t. An Ivy League president who can’t tackle anti-Semitism while having a history of plagiarism is just an Ivy League president who can’t tackle anti-Semitism while having a history of plagiarism. It’s really not that complicated.
Here is a transcript for the January 5 show:
MSNBC Alex Wagner Tonight
1/5/2024
9:43 PM ET
ALI VELSHI: But this one is important for people to understand, because a lot of Americans have been hoodwinked. They think that Claudine Gay is out because she said something anti-Semitic, which she didn’t. They think that Claudine Gay is out because she plagiarized, she had some inconsistencies in her citations, which she reviewed and asked for corrections to and Harvard determined that that was not-- the proper steps were taken. She's out because they came for her. She's out because a very organized group of people, very similar to the people that came for you, came for her.
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES: Yes, absolutely, you know, one, let me just say, my heart is really with Dr. Gay. This is a woman who has had a stellar academic career, and has had her reputation sullied strictly for political reasons. I know exactly what that's like.
VELSHI: Yes, you know what that looks like.
HANNAH-JONES: This is not about plagiarism. This is not about anti-Semitism. This is about, as you said, an extremely well organized propaganda campaign from the right to make anyone black in a high position of power to seem like a diversity hire, an unqualified affirmative action hire. This is the next iteration of the anti-Critical Race Theory campaign that led to the banning of books and curricula that’s now trying to target people of color in leadership positions and do a great deal of damage to the racial progress that has been made.
VELSHI: And in fact, it's the same people, the same guy, Chris Rufo, who popularized CRT, incorrectly, who also had Donald Trump write, you know, edicts about what it should be. The same people who wanted to get 1619 out of vernacular, and started the hashtag 1776. It's the same thing. It's this movement that says some of you have come too far, and we're taking it back then.
