Syracuse Professor Declares the Sept. 11th Attacks a Response to “Heteropatriarchal Capitalistic Systems”

Many of us who lived through September 11th terrorist attacks have used today to share the painful memories of that day. In addition to losing a friend on one of the flights, the Pentagon plane hit just after I passed next to the impact side of the Pentagon in my car on the way to work. I ended up being cut off by another car and blowing my front tire and fixing it as the huge plume rose over the Pentagon. For others, the anniversary carries a different meaning from religious extremists murdering thousands in the name of Allah. For Syracuse University political science professor and Washington Post contributor Jenn M. Jackson,  the attacks were really about destroying the “heteropatriarchal capitalistic systems” supporting the United States and Western powers. Would that make Osama Bin Laden a champion in intersectional homotransnationalism?

Jackson wrote

She added that “White Americans might not have really felt true fear before 9/11 because they never felt what it meant to be accessible, vulnerable, and on the receiving side of military violence at home. But, white Americans’ experiences are not a stand-in for ‘America.’”

What is curious about Jackson, who teaches gender and African American studies, is that she ignores the attacks of Al Qaeda in other countries, including other Muslim countries. Likewise, ISIS has brutally repressed other Muslims and religious minorities in its own reign of terror. These groups openly work for the creation of Islamic rule and the establishment of a Caliphate. They seek to establish theocratic authoritarian regimes.

In those regimes, Professor Jackson may find that Al Qaeda is only intersectional to the extent that its religious values overlap with homicidal inclinations.