An earlier commenter voiced similar concerns. Allow me to tell you what I replied.

"Well, I'll leave the politics--for now-- and focus on her academic records. Truth is, Gay is a very brilliant scholar. She wouldn't be a tenured Harvard professor if she wasn't. But her scholarship doesn't stand out. She is an average Harvard professor--if they have anything as average over there--so her detractors had plenty of cause to wonder why she was appointed in the first place.

At the end of the day, she did a sloppy job of citation and referencing, and this gave her detractors an opening.

But I wonder though, if she wasn't Black, if she wasn't a Black woman, would they have had much incentive and enthusiasm to dig so hard for dirt on her? I can only wonder"