Bill Ackman says there's "a lot more work to do" even though Claudine Gay is no longer Harvard's president — and he has a new target.
Hours after celebrating the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay — an academic the Harvard alumnus has been an avowed critic of — Ackman made a long post arguing that it isn't just on-campus antisemitism and the plagiarism allegations against Gay he's worried about.
The fund manager posted a more than 4000-word essay to X early on Wednesday morning, outlining his various critiques of Harvard's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Ackman said in his essay that he believes DEI is "the root cause of antisemitism at Harvard."
"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 wrote.
But Ackman said such a dichotomy is, in his opinion, flawed.
"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 wrote.
The ideology, he surmised, was responsible for societal divisions.
"The country has seen burgeoning resentment and anger grow materially over the last few years, and the DEI movement is an important contributor to our growing divisiveness," Ackman said.
"Resentment is one of the most important drivers of racism. And it is the lack of equity, i.e, fairness, in how DEI operates, that contributes to this resentment," he continued.
Ackman then called for the resignation of the Harvard Corporation Board members who'd backed Gay.
"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 added that he thinks the university's Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging should also be shut down.
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.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 3, 2024
I first became concerned about @Harvard when 34 Harvard student organizations, early on the morning of October 8th before Israel had taken any military…
This isn't the first time Ackman has communicated his thoughts via a lengthy online message. In 2023, he wrote three open letters to Harvard to express his disapproval of Gay's leadership and actions.
Slamming DEI has been a pet topic for GOP politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Last year, DeSantis blamed DEI for causing the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
"This bank, they're so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff, I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission," DeSantis told Fox News in March.
But Ackman also insisted on Tuesday that his position on Gay's removal does not make him a right-winger.
"I am not right wing. I operate only in good faith, and I am not a bully. I just pay attention to the facts and see where they take me," Ackman said on X in response to criticism from journalist Mehdi Hasan.
Representatives for Ackman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
