The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial staff should be ashamed. But it's pretty much a given that they have no shame.
George Ciccariello-Maher, a Drexel University associate prof of Global Studies took a break from stroking his mustache and appearing on prog TV to defend Venezuela to lay it all out on the line.
An admitted “actual communist,” the radical political theorist tweeted on Christmas Eve evening “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.”
Inga Saffron at the Inquirer takes on the task of defending Maher. Her whitewashing is predictable...
1. Maher was just being sarcastic. His critics just don't get the joke
2. His critics just don't understand the language of academic discourse. No seriously...
As the rhetoric on social media escalated, Drexel issued a statement calling the professor's tweets "utterly reprehensible."
But just as quickly, a backlash against the backlash began, as academics from around the country criticized Drexel for overreacting and taking the tweets out of context. By midday, a Change.org petition was demanding that Drexel condemn the "troll-storm" and respect Ciccariello-Maher's academic freedom.
The academic freedom to call for white genocide. And to condemn anyone criticizing a call for white genocide.
Yes, this is what the left has become.
Ciccariello-Maher, who has 10,000 Twitter followers, set off the furor late on Christmas Eve when he wrote, "All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide," a provocative play on the classic holiday chestnut.
Somehow I rather doubt that if the races were reversed, the description would be "provocative". People have been lynched for saying far less than that.
To those unfamiliar with the language of academic discussions on race and inequality, the statement was surely shocking.
But to those like Inga, calls for white genocide are part of the language of academic discussions. Which raises serious questions about what we should do about it.
And about media outlets that run pieces whitewashing hate. Because this is very much hate that would never have been tolerated if directed the other way.
On Sunday, Ciccariello-Maher said that the massacre of whites during the Haitian Revolution was a “good thing.” During the Haitian massacre in 1804 as many as 4,000 whites were killed.
Ciccariello-Maher’s anti-white tweets, however, did not start this weekend. On Feb 3, 2013, the Drexel professor said that “Yacub made a lot of white folks.” According to Nation of Islam theology, Yacub is a black scientist who created the white race to be a “race of devils.”
Then on June 8, 2015, Ciccariello-Maher said, “Abolish the White Race.”
So provocative.