[constantly]

She can just be a bad person, but my sense from scanning the comments is that a bad person artificially propped up by a social framework is worse because in theory it made it easier for the bad person to achieve a position of power where otherwise it’s less likely they would have achieved such a position. At least that’s my take on what people are arguing without diving in too deeply.

[notaustinpowers]

But what of her past indicates she's propped up by a social framework like DEI? She's related to NYT best-sellers, she lived in Saudi Arabia with a father that worked with the Army Corps of Engineers. She attended a private boarding school in New Hampshire, completed her undergrad at Princeton and Stanford, and earned her PHd at Harvard. If anything, she sounds like a privileged rich kid who's a legacy hire. Now some DEI-supported "token".

[nkurz]

You've used "legacy hire" in a couple comments here. I'm not familiar with the term, and searching doesn't find it used much: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22legacy+hire%22

Are you consciously trying to create it as a new term, or is it in common use in some circles that I'm unfamiliar with? I don't think it's a good parallel with "legacy admission" unless it were to refer to hiring the child of an a previous employee, but this doesn't seem to be what you mean.

[notaustinpowers]

It's used in many circles for higher-class employment. But also "Legacy Preferences" may be the better term here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences

Granted, her legacy is that she received her PhD at Harvard, then worked as a Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, on top of many other positions with various organizations.

My main point is that people claim that she's terrible because she was just a DEI hire and is not qualified for a position as Harvard President. When her resume shows she's more than qualified for the role.

This isn't a DEI issue, this is an issue of Harvard not doing the proper research on her dissertation & research and attempting to act like it's not a big deal for a President to be caught plagiarising works.

[Izkata]

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences

The secondary term here, "legacies" and "legacy students", are probably where most people have heard it, it's used in movies that involve sororities, when the snobby characters are gossiping: "How did she get in?" "She must be a legacy." and such.

[constantly]

I’m curious too! I’m not making the argument, just distilling a little of what I’m sensing from others.