The Dig: George Cicariello-Maher on Violence and Free Speech

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2017

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

George Cicariello-Maher is professor of political science at Drexel University and author of several books, including Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela, published by Verso as part of the Jacobin Series. He recently drew the ire of white supremacist, "alt-right" trolls after a mocking tweet about "white genocide," including death threats to his family.

Perhaps more concerning was the response from Drexel Administration, which almost immediately released a statement calling his tweets “utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing,” and stating that they “do not in any way reflect the values of the University.”

Drexel eventually backed off after a public campaign in defense of Cicariello-Maher. He discusses the incident as well as issues of violence and free speech in the United States.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Dig, a podcast from Jacobin magazine. My name is Daniel Denver and
0:10.0	I'm broadcasting from AS-220 in Providence, Rhode Island.
0:14.0	On Christmas Eve, George Tickerel-O-Marr, a professor of political science at Drexel University,
0:19.4	tweeted,
0:20.4	All I want for Christmas is white genocide.
0:23.0	On Christmas, he doubled down with, to clarify,
0:27.0	when the whites were massacred during the Haitian Revolution,
0:30.0	that was a good thing indeed.
0:32.0	In response, Pepe the Frog-aligned internet creatures from the
0:35.8	white supremacist Alt-Write made him a target, and George, the father of a young child,
0:42.1	received a deluge of death threats.
0:44.0	Perhaps even more concerning was the response from Drexel's administration,
0:48.0	which almost immediately released a statement calling his tweets
0:52.0	utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing, and stating
0:55.8	that they do not in any way reflect the values of the university.
1:00.8	As George has noted, it's obvious that he wasn't calling for the murder of all white people.
1:06.0	Rather, as he wrote, white genocide is an idea invented by white supremacist and used to denounce everything from interracial relationships to multicultural
1:15.6	policies.
1:16.6	George, welcome to the dig.
1:19.3	I'm glad to be on.
1:20.3	Thanks for having me, guys.
1:21.4	So I guess let's begin with the facts that the people who
	...

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