Billionaire Harvard grad Bill Ackman unloaded on his alma mater’s policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion in a 4,000-word essay in the wake of President Claudine Gay’s resignation; he says Gay’s removal isn’t enough —the board has to go as well.
From The New York Post:
“The E for ‘equity’ in DEI is about equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity,” wrote Ackman, the 57-year-old founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management.
“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),” Ackman added in the lengthy post.
He continued: “Under DEI, one’s degree of oppression is determined based upon where one resides on a so-called intersectional pyramid of oppression where whites, Jews and Asians are deemed oppressors, and a subset of people of color, LGBTQ people and/or women are deemed to be oppressed.”
Ackman bashed this ideology as one in which “there is no such thing as being ‘non racist.’”
…
“The Board should not be principally comprised of individuals who share the same politics and views about DEI,” Ackman wrote. “The new board members should be chosen in a transparent process with the assistance of the 30-person Board of Overseers.”
Ackman’s full essay below:
In light of today’s news, I thought I would try to take a step back and provide perspective on what this is really all about.
I first became concerned about @Harvard when 34 Harvard student organizations, early on the morning of October 8th before Israel had taken any military…
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 3, 2024