The saga of Claudine Gay — the outgoing president of Harvard, who lasted a record-breakingly brief six months — has become a news story hall of mirrors, in which everyone sees in it exactly what they want. According to the BBC, “Dr Gay — who is black — represents much of what [the right-wing] loathes about modern American higher education”. Others blame the influence of Harvard donors, who over the past month became increasingly critical of her. The Rev Al Sharpton insisted that Gay’s resignation “is an attack on every black woman in this country who has put a crack in the glass ceiling”.