Statement From President Gay

About

Statement From President Gay refers to a December 2023 tweet relaying a statement from Claudine Gay, the former President of Harvard University, made during a Congressional hearing. The post has subsequently been cropped to "Statement from President Gay" and used as a reaction image meme on social media.

Origin

On December 6th, 2023, the X^[1] / Twitter account for Harvard University (@Harvard) made a post relaying a statement made by its President, Claudine Gay, during a congressional hearing on the University's response to cases of antisemitism on campus. The post (shown below) started with the phrase "Statement from President Gay:"

Later on the same day, X^[2] user @timerube quoted the post with the phrase, "new quote tweet image dropped," posting a cropped version of the tweet edited down to just "Statement from President Gay:" (shown below). The post gained over 8,400 reposts and 97,000 likes in two months.

Spread

In the following weeks, the image achieved initial use on X / Twitter as it appeared in several viral posts. For example, on December 17th, 2023, X^[3] user @jpbrammer captioned the image, "responding in the family group chat." The post (shown below, left) received over 970 reposts and 13,000 likes in one month. On December 22nd, X^[4] user @DanManCarney captioned the image, "Saying this anytime my brother tries to talk at Christmas." The post (shown below, right) garnered over 2,900 reposts and 73,000 likes in the same period.

The image saw more use in early 2024 as it gained further popularity as a reaction meme. For example, on January 5th, 2024, X^[5] user @billydyson_ used the image to quote tweet a engagement bait post calling nipple piercings unattractive. The quote post gained over 12,000 reposts and 212,000 likes in three weeks (shown below).

Related Events

Claudine Gay's Harvard Resignation

Claudine Gay's Harvard Resignation refers to academic administrator Claudine Gay stepping down from her position as the 30th president of Harvard University in early January 2024 following criticism of her response to the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and several allegations of plagiarism. Gay's resignation garnered significant media coverage shortly after, as well as viral discourse and memes appearing online.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References