Steve Kerr was not embarrassed to stand up for his beliefs. That continued Tuesday night as the Warriors head coach wore a Harvard basketball shirt at a postgame press conference. He issued a strong statement about education freedom.
“I believe in academic freedom. I think it’s important that all our institutions can handle their business the way they want their business. And they shouldn’t be shaken up, they said what to teach and what our government should say.
The fight between Harvard University and the Trump administration continues after schools refused to cooperate with the Department of Education on government initiatives. The federal government has argued that it will fight anti-Semitism at universities, but critics believe it is attempting to violate First Amendment rights by banning students from protesting Israel’s occupation of Palestine and Gaza. Additionally, Harvard President Alan Gerber said the government’s initiative aims to limit intellectual freedom and to shape what universities can do and not teach.
As a result, $2.2 billion has been withheld from Harvard, and President Trump has quipped that schools should lose their tax-free status because they are AA political entity.
This problem hits especially close to home for Carr. His father, Malcolm, president of the American University in Beirut, was speaking out about conflicts in the Middle East. Malcolm Kerr, widely seen as a centrist who was equally critical of Israeli and Arab politics in the 1970s and 1980s, was assassinated outside his office in 1984 when two gunmen shot him outside his office on university campus. The Islamic Jihad organization has argued for responsibility, but their motives are still unknown. It assumes that Kerr’s outspoken criticism of Hardline Arab politics may have contributed to his assassination.
Steve Kerr essentially knows that the dangers of universities will become visible to governments, regardless of whether they are in the university. That’s why Harvard University’s issues are likely to be very important to him.
