Whether it's Harvard president or Senate staff, identity politics can't excuse bad behavior

It’s been a bad month for Harvard President (for now) Claudine Gay. 

It started with her disastrous testimony before Congress. When asked if calling for the genocide of Jews is a violation of Harvard’s code of conduct, she gave a wishy-washy answer about it being “context” dependent. Her testimony pointed to a startling double standard on what speech is allowed on campus, with some groups protected more than others. 

That’s not the only double standard on campus. 

Following Gay’s comments, additional scrutiny uncovered numerous examples of alleged academic dishonesty (i.e. plagiarism). 

This is incredibly embarrassing for Harvard, one of the top universities in the world. Yet so far, the university’s top board has stood by Gay, in regard to both her testimony and her sloppy research.

Inadequate citation has been discovered in both her dissertation (including in her acknowledgments, of all things) and several of the journal articles listed on her résumé. 

It raises the question: If a student were in this position, would he or she be given the same latitude? 

Or, if someone else were president – say a white male – would the Harvard Corp. still offer its support? Former President Larry Summers was forced out in 2006 over much less: The faculty couldn’t handle comments he made about women in the sciences. 

Gay is in her first year as the university’s first Black president, something that has garnered a lot of attention. And in her current and previous roles, Gay has helped embed the dogma of diversity, equity and inclusion at Harvard. 

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Gay’s identity as a Black woman, however, shouldn’t shield her from scrutiny, nor should it imply that she is held to a different set of standards than any other scholar.

Our society has become obsessed with identity politics, but someone’s race, gender or sexual orientation is not a free pass for bad behavior. 

Conservatives to blame? Give me a break.

In recent days, conservative outlets have broken the news of Gay’s alleged misconduct, as well as a salacious story about a Senate staffer accused of recording himself having sex in a Senate hearing room (and posting the video online). 

Oddly, the fact that right-leaning media discovered these stories has garnered more attention than the discoveries themselves – at least at first. 

Let me give you a few examples from shortly after the plagiarism allegations surfaced.

Symone Sanders Townsend, former chief spokesperson and senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, complained on X, formerly Twitter: “Conservative activists are claiming the first Black president in Harvard’s 387 year history is an affirmative action hire & actually not qualified for the job. Folks…Black women do not get jobs only white men have ever had by being mediocre and unqualified. Not happening.”

Then, Derrick Johnson, the president and CEO of the NAACP, said: “Enough is enough. @Harvard President Claudine Gay is a distinguished scholar and professor with decades of service in higher education. The recent attacks on her leadership are nothing more than political theatrics advancing a white supremacist agenda.”

They both gloss over the allegations themselves and focus solely on Gay’s identity and who brought the misconduct to light. 

Similarly, Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, told The New York Times: “It’s part of this extreme right-wing attack on elite institutions. The obvious point is to make it look as if there is this 'woke' double standard at elite institutions.

“If it came from some other quarter, I might be granting it some credence. But not from these people.”

Huh? Shouldn’t people be more concerned about whether there is truth to the allegations – not how they came to light? 

Surely, this isn’t another situation that “depends on the context,” as Gay told the congressional committee. 

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If you have sex at work, you're going to get in trouble

And then there is the story about a staffer (no longer working) for Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland. 

The staffer, Aidan Maese-Czeropski, at first tried to offer a sob story about how he was in the line of fire simply because he’s gay. “This has been a difficult time for me, as I have been attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda,” he wrote on LinkedIn. 

Nice try. 

Yet, just like Gay’s alleged plagiarism, the mainstream media focused on how a conservative outlet broke the story.

NBC News had this headline: “Senate staffer alleged by conservative outlets to have had sex in a hearing room is no longer employed.”

Does that somehow make the story less true? 

The fact that a conservative outlet broke the story and the fact that the staffer is gay have nothing to do with the substance of the allegation. He is accused of having sex at work, filming it and posting the video online. Anyone who does something like that will face consequences. And should. 

In regard to Harvard, now that news outlets such as CNN, which found "even clearer examples of plagiarism" in Gay's academic writing, are questioning her work, I don’t see how she can stay in her job. 

The longer Harvard leadership tries to cover for her, the more obvious this double standard for identity will become.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques