Harvard Canceled its Best Black Professor. Why?

Roland Fryer was an unlikely Harvard superstar. Abandoned by his mom at birth and raised by an alcoholic dad, Fryer became the youngest black professor to ever secure tenure at Harvard and won the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, the prize for the best economist under 40 in the world.

Fryer’s research routinely upended the woke orthodoxies dominating academia. But not on purpose; Fryer isn’t partisan. He’s only interested in digging up truth, no matter what it is. Truth, he says, is the key tool for improving the lives of black boys and girls.

Then, in 2018, Fryer’s career was suddenly cut short. Harvard had an official line on why: he’d sexually harassed his staff. Fryer was banned from campus and his multi-million dollar lab was shut down. The few legacy media outlets that did cover the case, such as the New York Times, dutifully repeated the university’s narrative: this punishment was overdue MeToo justice.

No, it wasn’t. Drawing on previously unreported documents and interviews with dozens of Fryer’s friends and colleagues, we reveal his cancellation for what it was: an ideological purge.

CREDITS:

Interviewees:

Glenn Loury
Tanaya Devi
Alex Bell
Stuart Taylor

Animation:
Lex Villena
NODEHAUS Media

Senior Creative:
Josh Oldham

Creative Consultant:
Erin O’Connor

Director of Photography:
Dan Quattro

Music:

Sally and Jase – Reggie Gordon
Hell Loose – SLMN
In My Math – Mos Dub
Best Believe – P Rock
Visual Audio – Insight
Blood of the Goat – A Bronson
No Days Off – Armand Hammer
Blowser – SLMN
Broken Past – SLMN
You Know what I mean – Jake One
Cazi in lubire – Morloc

Director and Host:
Rob Montz

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