While the reactionary extremists who control the Republican party were initially motivated by Christian fundamentalism, many were also motivated by racism.
And that is the other subtext to the attacks on Claudine Gay: Anti-black racism.
the right constructed a myth of "meritocracy" in which ANY black success is automatically suspect.
It's an obviously false narrative which assumes that not one qualified black person could be found to lead Harvard in 400 years. https://thegrio.com/2023/12/13/claudine-gay-white-outrage-and-the-myth-of-the-diversity-hire/