Peer Review….
Or should I say “Welcome to The Claudine Gay FEMALE University Presidents Fan Club Inaugural Event”
I am not quite sure why this is bothering me so much…but it is… so I am going to try my best to write my way out of it. I just read an OP ED piece by a NY Times writer I subscribe to. For now, his name will go unmentioned as I don’t want to create any bias and I love a platform where dialogue of all sorts is welcome.
For over ten years now I have been a peer reviewer on a rather obscure academic journal. It is an unpaid position, but I originally volunteered because I thought I wanted to publish some research I had done and was told by a treasured mentor that providing peer review would not only embellish my sparse resume but would help me get my own work published in academic journals.
I was told then; and I understand even now that no one, except your mom, other graduate students and perhaps your very own thesis advisors actually reads these long treatises word for word.
HOWEVER, the moral and ethical line of thinking was that you as the peer reviewer were the last line between publishing, checking references and asking the probing questions of a generally disinterested third party.
No one especially in the age of tweeting reads the whole book or the whole journal, but it is your contribution to legacy and having made a mark however small in your little niche of the world. You check your own work as best you can and then someone will come behind you, someone who likes you and someone who doesn’t will come behind you and they will fact check you out. Guess what… and then you are done; signed out; hurdles jumped, and you are on to the next thing. Hoping you’ve left nothing behind to bite you on the butt or in my case embarrass my sainted parents or my innocent children who idolize me.
Not to worry, the peer review process allows and encourages someone, a person of your peer group however that is defined in your circle to go through your references and ask the hard questions. You should welcome this process because it will save you headaches and if indeed you are chosen by the powers that be you are indeed vetted by the process, and they will defend you.
So, when my respected op-ed writer comments disputing the upended pitchfork in his hand
says and I quote here:
I, for one, wield no pitchfork on this. I did not call for Dr. Gay’s dismissal in the wake of her performance at the antisemitism hearings in Washington, and on social media I advised at first to ease up our judgment about the initial plagiarism accusations. But in the wake of reports of additional acts of plagiarism and Harvard’s saying that she will make further corrections to past writing, the weight of the charges has taken me from “wait and see” to “that’s it.” …. J. McWhorter… (op ed writer expert)
Why oh why; oh my oh my does it make my stomach hurt to read those words…
Just three days before Christmas… when all we hope for is for home, for belonging, for comfort and even chastisement clothed in a bit of grace. Be it your spouse, sibling, or fellow College alum from Harvard or wherever you went where you once felt you truly belonged. What nice thing might you say?
I know you all watched with me the Congressional Hearings for the now Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown as avidly as you watched the Congressional Hearings for the now Clarence Thomas. Who is at if not on Claudine’s side and do you have to be the one who’s not for her for something that happened well before she occupied the office for a scant six months.
Might you make note of spouse Patrick and Senatorial advocate Corrie in stark contrast for standing in the gap for candidate Ketanji in the public square. I am going to have a cup of tea and write a love letter of support for all my Female College Presidents. Stay strong, don’t resign; and don’t listen to everyone or anyone without considering the source.
I ask myself the following probing questions:
· What peer does Claudine Gay have?
· On what planet?
· When is someone good enough or not?
· What shape should the public discourse take in your opinion?
· When can you help a “sista” out?
OK……Take a really deep breath and then post the e-invitation to the official 2023 Claudine Gay Memorial FEMALE University Presidents Fan Club!
How might his radical random act of kindness and support show up for her in ways expected of a true colleague? If the dilemma of the African American intellectual still plagues us as my fellow alum Rayford Logan suggests it just might even now; can we embrace her even if we do not agree with one another? She needs us desperately. More importantly, we need her!
What advice could he offer that would not allow me to think less of him as a shameless agent of the patriarchy? Has his employer reviewed his doctoral thesis recently or seriously entertained his colleagues’ critiques of his curriculum at his last performance evaluation?
Did our op-ed writer offer to post his own dissertation or curriculum vitae for review as an addendum to his column for peer review? He is not a nobody! He is quite brilliant, articulate, all the things they say about us in front of us. He is an intellectual capable of introspection and most certainly aware of what collateral damage even an amazing gift of language can bestow on even a lesser opponent.
He is so good, so worthy… so worthy…clearly, I love him and clearly that’s why I subscribe and mount the pay wall and not because he is black, but because he fails religiously to hide the fact that he is black and it is an inexorable part of his identity and world view. Even Clarence has Ginnie!
Does he really truly believe the only reason Claudine Gay was hired to be Harvard’s President was because she was black? Ouch! Is this the height of respectability politics that she should step down because she is a black woman who is not worthy and the other white lady university president who already resigned in disgrace made the dignified exit?
Did he really not know that this would not be a nice Christmas present or Solstice celebration and that it would hurt so much more since they so resemble one another in a very particular way. I am so sure and perhaps just imagine that she would have been much nicer to him if he was in a similar pickle. I think that’s why she was hired. She made Harvard look good as the 30th President who is truly getting ready for the 22nd century of higher education in America. Look at how far they have come!
NOTES and references
& yes more reading…. in case you were wondering even now if I am capable truly of an original thought. I am not… I have lots of help!
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/12/harvard-names-claudine-gay-30th-president/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/05/30/ketanji-brown-jackson-harvard-supreme-court/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/09/24/rbg-ruth-bader-ginsburg-sweden-equality-women/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/22/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas-recusal-jan-6/
