Myron Clifton
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thread 1/14
Harvard University President Claudine Gay should not have stepped down. She should not have used lawyer-word-smithed statement before Congress. And she should have been supportive of her Jewish students.

All fixable.

Not fixable: being a Black woman.
01:06 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 2/14
And it should be acknowledged that she wasn’t presented an option *not to use those lawyer’s words. She didn’t have that institutional power.

We rarely do at hers if any level. We aren’t trusted like that by boards and the power givers & power takers.
01:06 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 3/14
Her plagiarism was “low level”& accepted by the hiring committee- as they’ve done for centuries, & as they will do again for the *right candidate

Black is the perfect color in the natural world but in society it’ll always be rejected by folk trained to see blackness as wrongness
01:07 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 4/14
Many Black folk who’ve reached a certain level can tell their story of how they were told what they can say, do, or not. They’ve followed rules and lost jobs while seeing other, non Black coworkers do the same without consequences.
01:08 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 5/14
We are trained from birth to know “We can’t do what they do” and on the occasion we can and do, there’s always backlash and consequences.

Ask your Black friends- especially your Black women friend.

They got stories.
01:08 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 6/14
I once had to host a nation gospel choir contest at the Oakland arena. Choirs from across America were there to compete.

The stadium had 15k folk. I worked in marketing as the only local Black guy so naturally I was asked to host 🤷🏾 the event.

But I was given a huge caveat.
01:09 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 7/14
I could not mention the presidential race or candidates.

This was in 2008.

A certain Barack Obama was the candidate.

The event was in East Oakland.

I was born & raised there.

And it was gospel choirs just like the ones I was raised in by my Bishop grandfather/family.
01:09 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 8/14
Like many Black folk, I’ve got preachers all throughout my family and though I’m not religious I learned from those preachers and all the aunties, church mothers, and my own mother that..

I will never listen to anyone tell me what I can or cannot say.
01:09 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 9/14
I was at the highest level corporate job I’d ever have.

But I was home and home in East Oakland and Obama was running for president.

So I did what we do.

I rallied the crowd to should YES WE CAN YES WE CAN in between each choirs performance.
01:10 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 10/14
Then because I’m a terrible student I told the crowd I wasn’t supposed to talk about Obama 😇

The laughs and boos were loud and wonderful.

I didn’t care about what the mealy mouthed executives thought because it was historical.

I talked voter registration and voting for B.O.
01:10 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 11/14
I got reprimanded/ written up by my VP boss & chastised by him & the VP of HR-a white man and white lady.

I thanked them for their time, signed the warning, and casually said “I’m always Black first, middle, and last.”

Claudine Gay did what was expected of her & dictated to her.
01:10 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 12/14
At her level doing defiant acts like I did are technically optional but not realistically optional because she’s working for all who come after.

Remember how guarded Obama & Michelle had to be for 10 years? How mentioning Trayvon or campus police caused so many problems?
01:11 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 13/14
Harvard the institution has a damaged reputation having nothing to do with Claudine Gay.

Trump lawyers, insurrectionists, politicians who don’t know law or history, pundits who are liars, racists, & misogynists, etc continue to do damage to Harvard and other Ivy League schools
01:11 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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Myron Clifton
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thread 14/14
I wish Claudine Gay peace, grace, a massive severance package, and a vacation on an island with friends & family among people who look like her.

This is 2024 election tactics in full swing

As we like to say and as racists hate so much -stay woke.

And never give up your voice.
01:11 AM - Jan 03, 2024
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