This is one of those ethics stories that is so convoluted and unresolved that it is impossible to delineate who the villains are, except that, as in the famous case of the human toe found in the plug of tobacco, res ipsa loquitur. Someone has done something wrong.
I’ll try to explain this mess in sequence, with what conclusions I can safely draw noted along the way.
1. May, 2020. The Harvard Crimson, the daily student paper, publishes the results of investigative reporting showing that the college’s esteemed Anthropology Dept. had a history of covering up sexual harassment allegations and incidents on the part of some of its most renowned professors. Among them was Prof. John Comaroff, then 75. The paper reported,
Three current female students told The Crimson this month that they are actively in communication with Harvard’s Title IX office regarding allegations against Comaroff. Last November, the department asked Comaroff not to use his office in the Tozzer Anthropology Building and removed him from an Anthropology course he was scheduled to teach, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Crimson….
In a May 26 emailed statement, Comaroff denied ever having engaged in sexual misconduct or retaliated against a student.
“I have not behaved inappropriately toward any Harvard student, nor ever engaged in professional retaliation. I am at a loss as to why such things should be alleged, let alone reported in The Crimson in the absence of any due process, if there is to be one,” he wrote. “For the record, I have not been banished from the Department of Anthropology, my office, or my teaching, nor informed of any formal charges.”
… [D]ozens of people who passed through the department over the last two decades told The Crimson that the problems women face there stretch beyond the allegations against individual professors.
Observations: Who are we supposed to believe? The reporters are students: are amateur journalists more or less trustworthy and ethical than professional journalists? The professor’s accusers were anonymous in the story. University cover-ups of faculty stars who prey on students are far from rare, and Harvard has had its share. That does not mean that this particular claim (two other anthropology professors were implicated in the article) is accurate.
2. August, 2020. Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay placed Anthropology and African and African-American Studies professor John L. Comaroff on paid administrative leave following the Crimson story, saying,
Due to the seriousness of these allegations, and in accordance with University and FAS policies, I write to announce that the FAS has placed Professor Comaroff on paid administrative leave, pending a full review of the facts and circumstances regarding the allegations that have been reported…
I believe that sexual harassment constitutes a form of discrimination that is both personally damaging for those who experience it and is an assault on our faculty’s fundamental commitments to equity and academic excellence.
Professor Comaroff continued to deny the allegations. “Today’s announcement is prejudicial to the fair determination of any claims against him, punitive without any factfinding, defamatory, and a violation of the Harvard University Sexual Harassment Policy and Proc[e]dure’s confidentiality rules,” he wrote.
Observations: In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, #MeToo and the Obama DOE “Dear Colleague” letter, universities operate using a guilty until proven innocent standard. This is unethical. As with any situation where someone is accused of wrongdoing, there has to be transparency and due process before any sanctions occur. This action by Gay was a punishment in and of itself.
3. January, 2022. Harvard placed Anthropology and African and African-American Studies professor John L. Comaroff on unpaid administrative leave after University investigations determined that he violated the school’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies. He will be barred from teaching required courses and taking on any additional graduate student advisees through the next academic year, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay announced in an email.
The professor’s legal team responded that a separate inquiry stemming from Title IX complaints found Comaroff responsible for a single incident of verbal sexual harassment “arising from a brief conversation during an office hour advising session, and that investigators found “no sexual or romantic intention.” The press release went on to state that
“Upon receipt of these results, Harvard opened a second, kangaroo court process – lacking the most elemental aspects of due process and artificially limited to a defective record – to reexamine conduct already thoroughly investigated in the Title IX process…This process resulted in an illegitimate finding that Professor Comaroff was responsible for alleged unprofessional (but entirely non-sexual) conduct in another office hours advising session. Even in the latter proceedings, the factfinder concluded that the alleged harm ‘may not have been intended.’”
Observations: Yes, he was on leave for more than a year as Harvard investigated.
In matters of sexual harassment, intentions are irrelevant. That spin makes me suspicious of the vociferous defense by Comaroff’s lawyers. Continue reading →
Ethics Alarms 
Steve-O-in NJ’s Comment of the Day inspired by the discussion of “Black Lives Matter” (and Black Lives Matter without quotes, which thrives on the confusion) requires no introduction. Here it is, a comment on “Ethics Quote Of The Week: American Thinker…(With A Flashback And Regrets)”:
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“There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Prophet!”
“Deus vult!”
“Workers of the World, Unite!”
“The World Must Be Made Safe for Democracy!”
“Peace, Bread and Land!”
“Asia for the Asians!”
“Make Love, not War!”
“Give Peace a Chance!”
“Black Lives Matter!”
On their faces, all these slogans sound benign and inspirational. Maybe even the intent behind them was good, or at least the true believers thought so. Muhammad was looking to move the Arab world, forward, not back, when he introduced his own brand of monotheism, and I don’t doubt he thought he was creating a framework for a good and honest life when he wrote it all down and proclaimed this the complete record, with nothing more to come. However, there is no doubt he was also using it to cement his own power, and the evil that was later done in his name and that of his early slogan is history.
When Pope Urban shouted “Deus vult!” (God wills it!) on that hill outside Clermont, there is no doubt he thought that he was doing the right thing by rallying the attending nobles and knights to form and army and take back the Holy Land from the Muslims, who had stolen it away from the Byzantines and were not respecting the rights of Christians there. History also tells us what happened after that, and none of it is humanity at its best.
When Karl Marx wrote “Workers of the World, unite!” he probably meant it, but it was clear he hadn’t really thought it through. He himself was no working-class hero, just an expatriated writer and philosopher who avoided bankruptcy more than once because his well-to-do fellow traveler Friedrich Engels bailed him out. In 1848 he published the Communist Manifesto, fuel to the fire of the already smoldering problems that became the Revolutions of 1848, which you can look up. We all know what came later as a result of his crazy and unrealistic ideas.
“The World must be Made Safe for Democracy!” So shouted Woodrow Wilson to Congress as he led this country into a war that he had campaigned months before to keep it out of. I don’t doubt he really meant to do this world some good as a missionary for his rigid, hypocritical morality. I also don’t doubt that America’s contribution to WWI was a net positive for many people in Europe who would have suffered longer or more without it. However, it was also the first of a series of dominoes that led this world into a lot bigger problems later on, and arguably made the world less self for democracy in the long run.
Continue reading →