A ‘genius’ black Harvard professor was forced out of his $600,000-a-year job after colleagues angered by his anti-woke views trumped up sexual harassment claims against him, a new documentary claims.
Roland Fryer, 44, came under fire after it emerged in 2018 that he’d made inappropriate comments to two former assistants, with six of those complaints against him upheld, Rob Montz’s documentary claims.
But his refusal to kotow to common woke doctrines put him in the sights of Harvard’s social studies dean Larry Bobo and African-American studies scholar Claudine Gay.
They ignored recommendations that Fryer be given workplace sensitivity training following a 2019 investigation into his behavior, and effectively ended his career.
Fryer’s career was effectively-ended after he escaped an impoverished and abusive childhood to become Harvard’s youngest tenured professor ever in 2007, aged just 30.
His writings were wildly-popular, and credited with attracting $33.6m in grants to the money-hungry Ivy League college – but it wasn’t enough to save his career.
Recalling the allegations of the first assistant, Montz said: ‘And this woman, the overwhelming impression you get is not sexual tyranny.
‘It’s like just, straight up camaraderie. Roland is talking to this woman about how much he wants to be a great dad and how he absolutely hates all the attention.
The doc explores the suspension of tenured Harvard professor Roland Fryer,(pictured) a prominent economist who was considered one of the rising stars of his field
Harvard academics Larry Bobo (left) and Claudine Gay (right) felt that Roland Fryer’s anti-woke studies posed a ‘mortal threat’ to their preaching, and sought to destroy his career, a new documentary claims
‘Like occasionally mildly sexual.
‘He jokes that if he were single he’d need a better bed.
‘You know it’s reciprocal. She tells him about the three unsolicited phone numbers she got on a recent work trip.
‘I mean she’d sent him pictures of herself at a work party and reported that she was getting a little intoxicated.’
Recalling the bawdy ‘office culture’ that landed Fryer in further trouble, Montz continued: ‘So he once joked about how a senior administrator hadn’t had sex since black people were slaves and he once said he learned his negotiating skills trying to get laid in high school.’
Fryer, who is married to Harvard biology professor Franziska Michor, is also said to have texted another assistant to ‘joke’ about his desire to bite her.
The brilliant academic’s career began to unravel after he fired the first assistant in 2015, having complained about her work slipping.
College bosses slashed the severance offered to the unnamed woman by $25,000, and she came forward with harassment allegations soon after. The woman who made the allegations about the biting comment emerged shortly after that.
Fryer’s lawyers are said to blame that instance of penny-pinching as the catalyst for the allegations that ultimately destroyed his career.
Fryer is married to Harvard biology professor Franziska Michor, pictured
Montz argues that Fryer was ‘cancelled’ because he challenged norms at Harvard and that while some of his behavior was unprofessional, it did not warrant suspension
In March Brown University grad Rob Montz (pictured) released 25-minute documentary entitled ‘Harvard Canceled Its Best Black Professor. Why?’
He was accused of more than 30 instances of wrongdoing, with six complaints ultimately upheld.
But instead of following Harvard’s own guidelines to offer workplace sensitivity training, Bobo and Gay are said to have set out to destroy Fryer’s career.
Bobo ordered the closure of Fryer’s lab and suspended him for two years, while Gay – unsuccessfully – sought for his tenure to be removed.
Fryer is still a Harvard staffer, but the actions taken against him have rendered it impossible for him to teach.
Montz attacks Bobo and Gay as born into far greater privilege than Fryer, who they felt presented a ‘mortal threat’ to their agendas.
The documentary says Montz’s work comprises ‘an empty endless recitation of victimhood that gives ample moral pleasure to the audience but actually accomplishes nothing.’
Turning his attention to Gay, Montz adds: ‘She’s a silky smooth corporate operator. Her signature accomplishment is a Harvard-wide inequality initiative.
‘The world is awake to inequality and systemic racism and anti-black racism in particular really like never before.
‘It’s a standard array of task forces, symposiums, buzzwords, promising equity and inclusion.
‘A way of bringing this all together into it into an agenda that feels complementary and synergistic’
