When it comes to heroes who have helped expose and end the toxic practice of DEI in America, one of the biggest is Christopher Rufo. He revealed how DEI turned the once-proud Boeing corporation into a miserable environment where no one took pride in their work. Eventually, Boeing reversed its DEI policies thanks to Rufo's efforts (and others like Robby Starbuck).
But Rufo's biggest passion has always been ending DEI in education. We all remember how he was one of the first to expose Claudine Gay at Harvard as an unqualified plagiarist. Now, with the Trump administration hitting back at Harvard by withholding federal funding due to the university's continued DEI practices and its refusal to protect Jewish students, we can understand why Rufo was one of the people standing up and cheering the loudest.
Yesterday, he responded to an unintentionally hilarious headline and article from The Atlantic about how Ivy League universities (all of whom have endowments in the tens of billions of dollars and shouldn't be receiving federal funding anyway) are suddenly the victims.
Good. It should be difficult for anyone to preside over an institution that is guilty of widespread racial discrimination, scapegoating, and segregation.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2025
No quarter for left-wing racialists within America's institutions. pic.twitter.com/9a1rB1Y3dm
Gosh, who would want to take home a $500,000 (or more) salary at a job where you can't be fired, you can discriminate at will, and you need no qualifications other than checking DEI boxes.
Who will think of the poor college presidents?
But then things got good. Things got REALLY good.
Jeffrey Flier was the Dean of the Medical Faculty at Harvard University from 2007-2016 (the Obama salad days when DEI truly began to take a nearly unbreakable foothold in academia). Yesterday, he randomly (and snarkily) replied to one of Rufo's posts from last week that called out Harvard for refusing to protect students' civil rights.
Deep thinking! Very impressive! 😂
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) April 21, 2025
Wow. Big mistake, Jeffrey. HUGE.
It was SO on from there. Rufo then proceeded to destroy Flier in a series of back-and-forth tweets that probably made even Mark Cuban feel sorry for the former Harvard administrator.
Grab some popcorn, Twitchy readers. You are about to witness a murder on social media.
There is a certain type of Harvard administrator who presided over racial discrimination and ideological corruption, but then comes out as a "critic" and presents some incremental solution to shift the blame and the guilt. Why didn't they fix the problem when they were in charge? https://t.co/VnUqvA5yIf
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2025
That's a great question.
Unsurprisingly, Flier had no answer to it, only more weak snark.
Your ignorance is increasingly displayed. Playing to a crowd that doesn’t care. And apparently neither do you.
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) April 21, 2025
Someone should have taken Flier's shovel away at this point so he couldn't dig any deeper, but we're happy no one did.
When you were dean of Harvard Medical School, what did you do to stop racial discrimination in admissions, hiring, and programs? Why can't I find any record of you speaking out against your department's illegal DEI practices when you were in charge?
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2025
Again, all good questions.
Flier then posted one of the most ridiculous replies we have ever witnessed.
Are you ignorant of the fact that 2007-2016, when I was dean, affirmative action in admissions and various DEI programs were not illegal? Surely you must. Since leaving deanship, I wrote several articles criticizing aspects of DEI. You should be able to find them if you cared.
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) April 21, 2025
So, discrimination was OK when Flier was dean because it was legal? Got it.
He only spoke out about it when it would no longer impact him or his cushy Harvard salary.
That was Rufo's cue to hit Flier with the flying elbow from the top rope:
Wow, the former dean of Harvard Medical School admits that he presided over "affirmative action in admissions and various DEI programs" that rewarded and punished individuals on the basis of race. He says it was okay because it wasn't technically illegal at the time. Scandalous. https://t.co/9f0gvJg6Od
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2025
The reality is that DEI-style discrimination is now, and has always been, incompatible with the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act. The argument that "it was morally permissible because it was technically legal" is completely bankrupt.https://t.co/gMBbvK59DN
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2025
And then an even more devastating finishing blow:
1866: "It was okay because slavery was legal at the time"
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2025
1965: "It was okay because segregation was legal at the time"
2025: "It was okay because discrimination was legal at the time" pic.twitter.com/Fo97KYYkd7
BOOM.
At this point, Flier was reduced to little more than a blabbering mess when former Georgetown law professor Ilya Shapiro chimed in.
“My racial discrimination was legal at the time” isn’t a very strong argument, Jeff.
— Ilya Shapiro (@ishapiro) April 21, 2025
thanks not "my argument". It's a factual correction. There is a difference.
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) April 21, 2025
Oh, honey. He really should have quit while he was behind. We almost feel bad for him at this point.
... Almost.
Rufo then brought receipts, in the form of Flier's own words, expressing his cowardice.
Jeffrey Flier claims that he could not have opposed diversity statements as dean of Harvard Med School, where he oversaw a vast system of affirmative action and DEI discrimination. This is false: he could have opposed it, but chose not to, out of fear—an act of cowardice. pic.twitter.com/QQkenpvuIR
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2025
OOF.
At this point, we're picturing Apollo Creed's manager desperately begging for the fight to be called as Ivan Drago was pummeling the former champ into a bloody pulp.
Too late. It was over, The former Harvard medical dean flatlined before the paramedics even arrived.
When one more person joined the conversation to point out Flier's cowardice, he didn't even know what was happening.
Brilliant! 😂.
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) April 22, 2025
Yeesh. Talk about a self-awareness fail.
Fortunately, Rufo was still around to help Flier understand that the passage was all about him.
He’s describing you, Jeffrey. You supported DEI discrimination as dean, then lightly dissented when it no longer required moral courage or institutional conflict. You didn’t want to disrupt your career, so you kept the discrimination wheel spinning. Contemptible.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 22, 2025
It had already been long over, but this was sort of the final nail in the coffin.
Flier's brutalized body attempted a few more replies after that, kind of like involuntary nerve twitches, but he soon ran away and resumed his TDS posts on his own timeline.
It was gracious of Rufo, however, to offer one final valediction for the man he had just obliterated in public.
A form of eulogy, we suppose.
“I arrived at moral truth at precisely the same moment it no longer required moral courage. Please clap.” https://t.co/E8kufKxvkP
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 22, 2025
LOL.
No, no one will clap for Jeffrey Flier and his cowardice about DEI at Harvard when it mattered, when he held a position of influence at the university.
We are, however, once again giving a standing ovation to Chris Rufo for another brutal -- and entirely accurate -- takedown of DEI and its advocates.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is not backing down from removing federal funding, so we suppose Harvard will just have to rely on its $53.2 billion endowment instead of our taxpayer money anymore.
Those poor dears.
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