Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher has caused a firestorm of controversy by tweeting how “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.” He then followed up with a taunting clarification that “To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian revolution, that was a good thing indeed.” Drexel has said that it respects the professor’s right to free speech but has called him into for a meeting. Ciccariello-Maher maintains that he was using satire to taunt white supremacists.
The university denounced the comments as “utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing, and do not in any way reflect the values of the University.”
Ciccariello-Maher said that racists need to get a sense of humor and that “It is a figment of the racist imagination, it should be mocked, and I’m glad to have mocked it.” The question raised by some academics is whether the reversal of the satirical tweet — calling for the genocide of blacks — would be treated as a matter of free speech or discipline by the university.
As we have previously discussed (including the recent story involving an Oregon professor), there remains an uncertain line in what language is protected for teachers in their private lives. The incident also raises what some faculty have complained is a double or at least uncertain standard. We have previously discussed controversies at the University of California and Boston University, where there have been criticism of a double standard, even in the face of criminal conduct. There were also such incident at the University of London involving Bahar Mustafa as well as one involving a University of Pennsylvania professor.
As is well known on this blog, I tend to favor free speech rights in all of these cases. In my view, this view does seem to be satire — bad satire but satire all the same. However, the standard remains entirely uncertain for academics as to whether their conduct or comments outside of school will be the basis for discipline. As a private institution, Drexel falls under a different standard than schools like the University of Oregon. Yet, free speech demands a bright line to avoid a chilling effect on those who want to challenge the status quo or popular views. Academics often write to challenge students and the public in exploring the edges of norms and beliefs.
What do you think?
Pick on some red skins
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 38 DAKOTA PUT TO DEATH BY HANGING THAT WAS ORDERED BY LINCOLN
On December 26, 1862 on the day after Christmas, 38 Dakota (Santee Sioux) were put to death by hanging. The deaths were ordered by President Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator.
The hangings were the result of the Dakota War of 1862, which terminated the rights of Dakota people from living in Minnesota at that time.
“All I want for Christmas are my two white teeth…
My two white teeth!”
And the song goes on. And the blog goes on. The the story of weenie colleges and universities goes on.
What friggin school is this?
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald 12m12 minutes ago
Almost 7,000 people have signed the petition defending the academic freedom of Drexel’s George Ciccariello-Maher
His academic freedom isn’t in danger from people pointing out that Drexel hired and tenured an ass. (And, while we’re at it, his twitterblather does not advance any academic program.
5,000 signatures to support George Ciccariello-Maher
Cynthia Walker Brooklyn, NY
“George is outspoken and witty and fiercely anti-racist. He is being extensively harassed as the target of a racist internet troll campaign out of Breitbart (Stephen Bannon’s rag). They are harassing him at his place of employment. Preserve academic freedom (and wit and intelligence and anti-racism) in this nasty new era of living in the United States of Internet Trolls. Support George. Let Drexel know–in the midst of the deafening, organized troll-storm–that racist trolls deserve no platform in dictating academic discourse, let alone the off-duty tweets of academics. They are being VERY noisy; we can’t be silent.”
I can’t speak to the professor’s intelligence, but his purported wit leaves much to be desired. When the whole world misses the joke, it’s time to lay off the humor. He should confine his efforts to being the straight man. Let everyone else deliver the punch line.
He says asinine things and she impugns the character of people skewering him in various ways. What’s this prove, bar that his friends don’t merit being taken seriously either?
It is not satire. I think when the s**t hit the fan one of his buddies in the lit dept. told him that satire was protected speech and he went with that defense. Is he not familiar with /sarc off?
Paul — Yet another example of you just inventing an explanation without any basis in reality (or evidence or facts) just because it fits your imaginary narrative. When you followed the words “I think” with what came after, it became immediately apparent that you were not doing any kind of thinking that resembles serious or critical thinking.
ScientificSkeptic – it is a logical explanation based on the way academic institutions function. I lived their far too long and learned the secret handshake.
BTW, the professor’s tweet is not satire. When my first thought is why doesn’t he kill himself? it is an actual statement of intent.
“Paul — Yet another example of you just inventing an explanation without any basis in reality (or evidence or facts) just because it fits your imaginary narrative.”
Yes, Skeptic, Paul S. does this all the time. His posts are beyond laughable.
Especially when ‘their’ is used instead of ‘there.’ Most people would call this mistake a typo, but the letter ‘i’ is nowhere close to ‘e’ or ‘r’ so it seems he is not so well read as he claims.
Paul S. always demands references, yet rarely offers any in support of his statements. Paul S. is an anecdotal man — much said, little believed.
Jose Haversham – actually I make fewer grammatical errors than JT does. However, I do make errors and I hit the comment button too fast before they are corrected. I only ask for cites if it doesn’t fit with my world vision. And I learned to not cite from Po. BTW, I haven’t seen any cites from you or an original thought.
If he has written a “satire” relating to black genocide, his pink slip would already have reached his desk.
As to his satire defense, I don’t believe it. Nevertheless, free speech is precious and should be protected.
‘Self-hating’ blacks, ‘self-hating’ Jews,
And now ‘self-hating’ whites.
How very vogue of him.
Humor, whether satirical or otherwise, is the most difficult genre to master. If your audience isn’t getting the joke, its time to either get a new joke or forego the humor altogether. My guess is that the latter is more appropriate for this guy.
He has too much time on his hands. Give him another course or two to teach.
http://drexel.edu/coas/faculty-research/faculty-directory/GeorgeCiccariello-Maher/
He teaches in the faculty of arts and sciences and he’s a red haze twit. Large swaths of higher education have turned into a sandbox for articulate jack-wagons who fancy employment in business enterprises or the defensible components of the civil service are beneath them and can persuade philanthropic funds to finance their quest not to have a supervisor to whom to report nor to be evaluated according to robust operational measures of competence.
These people are expendible. It’s time to lance and drain the higher education carbuncle.
DSS,I’ve come to the conclusion that you are Polonius/aka Step Step Step on Toads.
If not, you two sure do write in similar ways both in content and delivery.
Just a hunch.
But his real blog-commenter name is Art Deco.
As for academic administrators, if they didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.
At least he didn’t do anything really transgressive, like dress as Al Jolson.
Ayn Rand nailed this mental disorder so correctly when she accused these people of having drunk too deeply from the well of Emanuel Kant and his search for the perfect altruism. Add to that their deficit IQ and give them a professorship. What a phony shallow enterprise this attempt to show how much more spiritual you are than the next person..why you even wish yourself out of existence..how high is that? (sic)
Unfortunately major portions of this blog are turning into:
Portals of Accusations.
Thanks for the pseudo-erudite non sequitur.
It’s not a non sequitur given that Chrisinte’s comment is but one example of many instances here where commenters make sweeping, generalized statements insulting such things as the IQ of those who hold an opposing political viewpoint without offering even a smidgen of evidence to establish that the claim is true.
Several of the supporters of George Chiccariello-Mather were among those calling for the resignation of Univ. Oregon law prof. Schultz. This is significant because in the case of Schutz, they insist that the professor’s intent does not matter. She sought to imitate a black author whom she admires. George C-M wishes for white genocide, and we are implored to grant wide latitude of context and intent, as well as a presumption that it could not negatively affect the Drexel learning environment.
The leftoid embrace of double standards is despicable and telling.
Joseph Sobran put it thus: “Behind every double-standard is an unconfessed single standard”.
And, yes, it is quite common for a White hard Leftist to be racist against whites, having internalized the oft repeated mantra that whites are oppressors and bad.
Strange. But I’ve been told that any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton was self-misogynisitc, and that didn’t even require any open declaration of self hatred such as White hard Leftists declare against Caucasians.
This is the generation that will be infamous for being neurotic.
The Left almost always means what it says. They love to project their own flaws on to the right as a way of coping with their own self loathing and lack of emotional control.
And your proof is?
Sorry, but I think you are just Making Stuff Up.
No, he’s reading what comes out of the mouth of George Ciccariello-Maher. No ordinary adult talks that way. He’s pathological.
“No, he’s reading what comes out of the mouth of George Ciccariello-Maher. No ordinary adult talks that way. He’s pathological.”
Uh, look who’s calling the . . .
Try harder, pumpkin.
And…a swing and a miss!
The hard Left is often racist, anti-Semitic, and bigoted against conservatives. They excuse this deplorable behavior for some reason. I recently had someone earnestly explain to me that I was born racist because I’m white. Tiresome divisiveness.
An actual racist attack on a minority is almost universally condemned. But the extreme racist view that all whites are bad just alienates and divides, as racism always does. It’s an angry, hateful, bigoted view.
Extremism ruins everything, including politics. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just get along?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just get along?
Well, yeah. But GC-M’s self-concept would be injured if he were compelled by circumstances to acknowledge his own ordinariness. So, you get antic exercises in self-aggrandizement (n his case, displays to demonstrate he’s better than badwhites).
I am not a good person and confess I would be far more sympathetic to the professor if he can show the many times he has fought for free speech for non-academics, free speech for conservatives, free speech of Christians, free speech for anyone who may have disagreed with him.
In general I don’t think idiot public statements or idiot public behavior should be grounds for firing from an employer, on the other hand if this professor if of the social justice shaming variety, well, karma is a bitch.
Clearly this wasn’t an isolated incident. Ciccariello seems to be obsessed w/violence of the white race (2015) Many countries (Netherlands, Germany, Israel) have or are considering actions against “hate” rhetoric & employees have been fired for social media commentary. This professor should be discharged.
“White genocide” is a trope in alt right circles (or more simply, white supremacist circles). People positing a simple reversal as some kind of thought experience clearly are unaware of the term as racist code and its luggage and so, miss the context of the remark. Drexel admin seem to be in the group of people who are unfamiliar with the term as code. It isn’t bad satire. It’s three dimensional chess satire and that’s clearly more than our culture can manage at this moment.
The attack method favored by the left today is snarky passive aggressive insults in which the Left imagines they are smarter than everyone else and thus nobody will comprehend the joke.
The reality is, the Left is ignorant, narcissistic, rude, typically mentally ill and with great delusions about the level of their own intellect. They are incapable of admitting that most of what they spew is how they actually feel and instead disguise it as satire. They do not fool anyone but themselves.
G.Mason — More than just little projection in this rant.
” It isn’t bad satire. It’s three dimensional chess satire and that’s clearly more than our culture can manage at this moment.”
I am not sure I agree with this. But if you do, then clearly the professor has communicated a threat to most who read him.
By PC standard, the professor’s speech and that threat should be curtailed due to the concerns it raises in its readers – how could anyone feel safe when a pillar of the community is calling for genocide.
Further, even if his original remark started as satire, he clarified: “To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian revolution, that was a good thing indeed.”
There really was a massacre of 1804 with thousands murdered, including entire families. The entire revolution took maybe 160,000 lives on all sides.
I would argue that his clarification with reference to a real event takes this far beyond satire.
Do you not understand satire? If the comment was meant as satire (I do believe it was) then it was not an actual or implied threat. Satire is a form of mockery, not to be taken as an actual threat. I have no doubt that the professor who made the remark wants white genocide any more than do you.
“Do you not understand satire? If the comment was meant as satire (I do believe it was) then it was not an actual or implied threat. Satire is a form of mockery, not to be taken as an actual threat. I have no doubt that the professor who made the remark wants white genocide any more than do you.”
I do understand satire. But the comment was that most people did not understand the “three dimensional chess” satire. I am not sure I agree with that comment. But apparently many do.
As I pointed out, if most people do not understand the satire then it seems likely that the comments in question was taken as a threat or at least caused extreme emotional distress.
If the comment was taken as a threat and caused distress then the proper PC response would be to censure the speaker – right?
We don’t know you political point of view. But PC people must call for discipline of the professor – according to their standard – after all feelings have been abused by this thoughtless professor.
If calling for genocide of a particular race is not criminal hate speech, then no such crime exists. Does tenure protect criminal acts?
Jay Jay: Get a girp! Oh, seems you already have a grip on something. Never mind.
Contrary to the views espoused by many, thereally is no such thing as criminal hate speech. Our Constitution does not allow such a limitation. There are very few exceptions to the First Ammendment, and hate speech is not one of them.
Joseph Jones — So am I to understand that you support hate speech laws? If you do, then I hope that you are consistent in your remarks about them and call for them to be applied to anyone who engages in hate speech. If you don’t support them, then it is rather peculiar for you to imply that they should be used in this case. Someone who actually opposes them as an infringement on free speech would, so I think, criticize even the suggestion that they be applied in this instance or any other instance.
Sooo, like the dude looks white to me. Why doesn’t he start with himself???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeek,
I forbid you to post logical replies from now hencforth!
Go to your room! And no desert for you!
Dad
/sarc off
I’m reminded of those demanding population control. Start with killing yourself, you lying hypocrites!
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Really. Sincerely.
Can I have dessert now???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
That was my first reaction also..don’t let the door bang you on the ass and all that.