Plagiarism Can Kill A Career If You Are Black, But Not if You Are These White People

Jessica Washington

January 5, 2024 at 10:45 AM·9 min read

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Cambridge, MA - December 15: Claudine Gay speaks to the crowd after being named Harvard Universitys next president. Harvard University on Thursday named Gay as its next president in a historic move that will give the nations oldest college its first Black leader.

Former Harvard President Claudine Gay announced her resignation on Tuesday — to the disappointment of many who lauded her appointment as the first Black president as a major achievement. For weeks, accusations of plagiarism plagued Gay. But many Black scholars argued that her real crime was being a Black woman in a position of power.

It’s worth asking how high-profile cases of plagiarism and other similar (and in some cases more egregious) forms of misconduct have been handled when the person accused was Black woman and when they were white.

Former Harvard President Claudine Gay is obviously the most high profile case involving accusations of plagiarism right now. The accusations, which emerged publicly in December, primarily came from right-wing journalists, including Christopher Russo. Harvard University investigated, finding multiple incidents of “duplicative language,” and poor citations but nothing that rose to plagiarism or misconduct.

Claudine Gay Aftermath

Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, during a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. Lawmakers on the education committee will grill the leaders of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about their responses to protests that erupted after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

As we all obviously know now, Gay resigned from her position on Tuesday while engulfed in a media firestorm. Countless articles have been written about the allegations and while Gay has held on to her teaching position at Harvard University, she lost her position as President only six months into her tenure.

Alan Dershowitz

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 29: Attorney Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team, speaks to the press in the Senate Reception Room during the Senate impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol on January 29, 2020 in Washington, DC. Wednesday begins the question-and-answer phase of the impeachment trial that will last up to 16 hours over the next two days.

In 2003, then-Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz was accused of plagiarizing multiple parts of his book The Case for Israel. Dershowitz vehemently denied the allegations arguing that this was a witch hunt against him because he was pro-Israel.

Alan Dershowitz Aftermath

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 27: Attorney Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team, leaves the Senate chamber at the end of the day’s Senate impeachment trial proceedings at the U.S. Capitol January 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. The defense team continued its arguments on day six of the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump. (

Alan Dershowitz was cleared by the university remained in his position at Harvard University. He later retired from teaching there in 2013. Dershowitz was a major ring-leader in the movement to get Claudine Gay fired, writing in an op-ed that we have to “the D.E.I. bureaucracy must be dismantled, discredited and utterly destroyed.”

Former Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 02: Marc Tessier-Lavigne attends the World Science Festival - On The Shoulders Of Giants: A Speical Address by E.O. Wilson Brunch at a private residence on June 2, 2012 in New York City.

Last year, an investigation by Stanford University found that there was “manipulation of research data” in several papers authored by then-Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. However, they concluded that he did not personally engage in research misconduct.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne Aftermath

19 June 2018, USA, California: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (4-R) and his wife Elke Buedenbender (6-R) walking on the grounds of Stanford University with the President of the University, Marc Tessier-Lavigne (2-L), Bernd Girod (4-L), Professor of Electrical Engineering, and the delegation and looking at a cast of the Rodin sculpture “The Burghers of Calais”.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s accusations were given significantly less media scrutiny than Gay’s case. The accusations that data had been manipulated in his research were lodged publicly in earnest against the former university president in November of 2022. He resigned in July of 2023.

Neil Gorsuch

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 22: Judge Neil Gorsuch testifies during the third day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, March 22, 2017 in Washington. Gorsuch was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy left on the court by the February 2016 death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Supreme Court had it’s own plagiarism scandal. Prior to his confirmation, Politico reported that he had “copied the structure and language used by several authors and failed to cite source material in his book and an academic article.” Multiple scholars interviewed by the outlet agreed that it was plagiarism.

Neil Gorsuch Aftermath

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 07: United States Supreme Court (front row L-R) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (back row L-R) Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pose for their official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Obviously, there were no consequences because he ended up sitting on the Supreme Court with a lifetime appointment.

Neri Oxman Wife of Bill Ackman

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: David Tuveson, Neri Oxman and Bill Ackman attend 2023 CSHL Double Helix Medals Dinner at American Museum of Natural History on November 15, 2023 in New York.

Billionaire and Harvard donor Bill Ackman was a major force behind the push to oust Claudine Gay over plagiarism. But his wife, Neri Oxman, a former tenured professor at MIT had her own plagiarism scandal. Business Insider reported that Oxman plagiarized multiple parts of her dissertation.

Neri Oxman Aftermath

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 19: Founder and CEO of OXMAN, Neri Oxman attends The Future of Everything presented by the Wall Street Journal at Spring Studios on May 19, 2022 in New York City.

Oxman apologized on Thursday for not properly citing her sources. She said that she was no longer at MIT as of 2020 and had started a company.

Patricia Smith

A security guard stands in front of the Boston Globe.

Boston Globe Columnist Patricia Smith, who is Black, admitted to fabricating people and quotes in several of her columns in the 1990s.

Patricia Smith Aftermath

CHINA - 2023/02/15: In this photo illustration, the American daily newspaper The Boston Globe logo seen displayed on a smartphone with an economic stock exchange index graph in the background.

Smith was ousted from her job after admitting to the fabrications. Before the scandal, Smith was a celebrated and talented poet in the poetry slam scene and a beloved columnist, who nearly won a Pulitzer prize. Smith’s career as a journalist ended with her firing. Although she continued to be successful in her poetry career — winning the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, she has kept out of the spotlight eversince leaving the journalism.

Mike Barnicle

Mike Barnicle with Matt Storin, editor, in background at The Boston Globe press conference.

Mike Barnicle was a peer of Smith’s at the Boston Globe also working as a columnist. The Boston Globe reportedly concluded that he had repeatedly stolen lines from comedian George Carlin and not come clean about it to the paper. The alleged plagiarism was discovered within weeks of the Smith ousting. He was also later suspected of potentially fabricating the existence two boys with cancer for a column.

Mike Barnicle Aftermath

MORNING JOE — Decision 2010 — Pictured: (l-r) New York Magazine’s Mike Heilemann, MSNBC Contributor Mike Barnicle

Barnicle was initially suspended from the paper for a month, according to a contemporary Washington Post article. He was later asked to resign, but ultimately was allowed to remain on at the paper. Weeks later, he was eventually forced to quit after his editors were unable to determine whether two boys with cancer in his columns were real. Even at the time, the handling of his case drew comparisons to Smith’s. Unlike Smith, he maintained a career in journalism. He was hired as a columnist at the Boston Globe and became a regular contributor to MSNBC and the Today Show.

Janet Cooke

Original Caption) Janet Cooke, the former Washington Post reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for a contrived story on an eight-year-old heroin addict, blamed the episode on “stupidity” rather than ambition during a taped interview with Phil Donahue. The taping will be broadcast on 02/05. She said she worked on the bogus story for months, that it was not one of her prouder moments. She is still unemployed.

Janet Cooke, a Black Washington Post reporter, admitted to fabricating a story about an 8 year-old boy who was addicted to heroin. She had won a Pulitzer Prize for the story.

Janet Cooke Aftermath

Janet Cooke was forced to resign from her position at the Washington Post. Cooke never worked as a journalist or writer again. The one-time Pulitzer Prize winner was later interviewed about her life, and said she was working at a department store for around minimum wage because she couldn’t get other work. “I don’t think that in this particular case the punishment has fit the crime. I’ve lost my voice. I’ve lost half of my life. I’m in a situation where cereal has become a viable dinner choice,” she told the Washington Post in 1996. Her current whereabouts and career are unknown.

Honorable Mention: President Joe Biden

Democratic politician Joseph R. Biden Jr, the United States Senator from Delaware, circa 1980. He became the US Vice President in 2009 under President Barack Obama.

Speaking of allegations of plagiarism, the President of the United States had his own run-in with plagiarism allegations. During the 1980s, the New York Times reported that the then-Senator had plagiarized several parts of his speeches from British politicians.

President Joe Biden Aftermath

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 06: U.S. President Joe Biden gestures to members of the press prior to his departure from the White House May 6, 2022 in Washington, DC. President Biden is traveling to Hamilton, Ohio, to visit United Performance Metals.

President Joe Biden did face consequences for the New York Times report. He left the 1988 Presidential race. However, that (obviously) didn’t tank his political career. He’s now the President of the United States.

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