The son of legendary music artists John Lennon and Yoko Ono joined the fray of the ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion discourse following the resignation of former Harvard President Claudine Gay, in a Wednesday afternoon post on X, formerly Twitter, writing, “Have you guys heard of DEI? It stands for ‘Dumb Evil Idiots.’”
Sean Ono Lennon’s remark came just after he quote-posted billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman’s long-winded essay demanding Harvard University shut down its DEI office and fire its staff.
The songwriter seemed to agree with Ackman, who said in a 2 a.m. post on Wednesday, that Harvard’s Corporation Board “failed to create a discrimination-free environment on campus, exposing the University to tremendous reputational damage, to large legal and financial liabilities, Congressional investigations and scrutiny, and to the potential loss of Federal funding, all while damaging the learning environment for all students.”
The pair seeing eye-to-eye is perhaps not surprising as both share privileged backgrounds, with one being born into music royalty and the other backed by a real estate fortune.
“To make a long story short: the people who claim to be fighting ‘institutional racism’ are doing so by creating institutional racism. (And absolutely no one should be surprised by this.),” Ono Lennon wrote. “And you can also supplant the word ‘racism’ with ‘oppression.’ It’s both.”
Ono Lennon has needlessly forced his way into debates in the past where he defended the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, despite FDA warnings. “People saying Ivermectin is for horses here have never looked into this at all,” Ono Lennon wrote. “It is not ‘for horses.’ Especially not the ivermectin humans take. In fact it is ‘for humans.’ And the one for horses is ‘for horses.’”