The New York Times is running a story on the potential flight of C-Dub and Skip Gates from Harvard’s Halloweds to the Tiger Cage of Princeton U. West and Gates are threatening to leave Harvard over (yawn) racial “concerns” — shorthand, in racespeak (vis-a-vis the academy) for something like “affirmative action or bust”:

‘It’s absolutely critical that the president make an unequivocal public statement in support of affirmative action,’ [said Charles J. Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School who is representing Dr. West in his dealings with the university] ‘That would be encouraging for those scholars who came to Harvard and were recruited because this was going to be the premier institution of black intellectual inquiry.’

What “unequivocal public support for affirmative action” has to do with making Harvard “the premier institution of black intellectual inquiry,” Ogletree didn’t say — though were he to consult with Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom, also Harvard Profs, he’d likely come away confident there’s no connection whatsoever…

Still, new Harvard Prez Larry Summers, who famously scolded Dr. West early this year, says he is “taking the [Princeton] challenge seriously and [will] rise to it:

‘We are proud of the Afro-American Studies program at Harvard, collectively and individually… We would very much like to see them stay at Harvard and will compete vigorously to make this an attractive environment.’

Let ’em go, Larry. You can find bad rappers just about anywhere — maybe even ones who can both think and spell! Hell, even Tali-boy’s mastered the street rhyme, as evidenced by his 1995 classic, “JOHN DOE’s Almighty Bicoastal Armegaddon Starchild Flow With Extra Sprinkles On Top & Sides” — and he was educated in a freakin’ Madrassah…

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