Lucky Break #2
Here's Summers' second piece of good news: The motion of censure to be discussed at the March 15th faculty meeting has been distributed, and it plays right into the hands of Summers and his right-wing supporters. (You know who you are, Steve Pinker.) I'll post it below, but let me just say a few things first.
The motion has been proposed by J. Lorand (Randy) Matory, a professor of anthropology. I interviewed Matory for
Harvard Rules (on the record, obviously, or I wouldn't mention it), and he struck me as an intelligent, honorable and principled man. But without a doubt, he's on the far left of the Harvard faculty; he's the kind of left-wing intellectual that outsiders can portray as "radical" till the cows come home. Matory was a signer of the divest-from-Israel petition, and I think it's fair to say that he's never forgiven Summers for the president's "anti-Semitic in effect if not intent" rebuttal. Matory believes deeply that, given the United States' political and financial support of Israel, we need to treat that nation as we would a 51st state. He sees Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as a fundamental human rights issue.
His motion begins with language that many professors could likely support. Matory says that Summers has "a pattern of aggressive communication and inattention to faculty opinions." True.
But then Matory moves onto ground that will make many professors uncomfortable. He suggests that Summers doubts the "capacities and rights" of "African-Americans, third-world nations, gay people, and colonized peoples." In the next paragraph he refers to "subordinate populations" and rejects "the proposition that the criticism of Israeli military policy toward the Palestinians is inherently anti-Semitic."
Colonized peoples...subordinate populations...Israeli military policy.....
Such language is too divisive and political for the Harvard faculty. (This isn't Berkeley circa 1969 we're talking about.) It sounds a little like the Port Huron Statement of 1962. The faculty won't support it, and the pundits are going to make hay with it. Summers won't have to say a word; his allies will do his work for him. And, in this case, so will one of his opponents.
It's a shame. The fight at Harvard is not just about Summers' personality and leadership style. It's about the direction and character of the world's most influential university. That, and not a political fight about colonized peoples, is the true nature of this debate. Matory is well-meaning, but he's going to do his cause more harm than good.
