One of the Shock Exchange’s favorite movies is Coming To America, starring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. One of the scenes shows a Miss Black Awareness Pageant where Reverend Pork Chop praises each of the contestants. He speaks in this cadence that a lot of southern Black preachers use to “move the crowd.” Apparently, Reverend Pork Shop has re-emerged to the defense of embattled Harvard President Roxane Gay:
Reverend Pork Chop: Leave that drug alone. Leave that hallucinant alone that has you hooked on the myth of white supremacy. Stop giving your oral to he, she or it that does not love you. Stop running from your true identity and selling out your people and allowing yourself to be maneuvered and manipulated for someone that may not remember your name next week … How do you handle that? … First thing I would tell you is Keep your receipts … Sooner than later they gon’ come for you when you didn’t send for them … Keep your receipts like the reverend Claudine Gay … they say she’s not qualified to be the president of Harvard University …
The sista said I’m a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy. I have a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Stanford University. I earned a Phd from Harvard University. I was a professor at Stanford, but then I was a professor at Harvard and now I am the president at Harvard University … Somebody shout keep your receipts. Sooner than later they gon’ try to tell you that don’t deserve what god has given to you …
That’s when you whip out your receipts and say, ‘I may not have done it for myself, but the god who is on my side lifted me while I’m down …
Reverend Pork Chop was exactly right. One must keep receipts. If you are Black and talented, someone will hate on you and try block your path. The speech moved the crowd and was poignant. However, it may not necessarily apply in Claudine Gay’s situation.
Gay was accused of plagiarizing her dissertation to become a professor and several articles to help her gain tenure at Harvard. The evidence appears overwhelming that Gay plagiarized several other scholars without attribution. The plagiarism happened over years, and demonstrated a pattern of behavior. During his chanting, Reverend Pork Chop never acknowledged Gay’s plagiarism or Harvard’s attempt to cover it up.
Dr. Carol Swain – another Black professor – has accused Gay of building a career off of her research with no attribution.
There is chatter that Gay hurt the careers of Black professors at Harvard like Roland Fryer and Ronald Sullivan. Reverend Pork Chop sure knows how to move the crowd. However, he should gather receipts before he speaks on certain matters.
