Radicals Speak Out At Columbia 'Teach-In'

New York Newsday ^ | March 27, 2003, 7:29 PM EST | Ron Howell

[G. Chapman]

At an anti-war "teach-in" this week, a Columbia University professor called for the defeat of American forces in Iraq and said he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" -- a reference to the Somali city where American soldiers were ambushed, with 18 killed, in 1993.

"The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," Nicholas De Genova, assistant professor of anthropology at Columbia University told the audience at Low Library Wednesday night. "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus."

The crowd was largely silent at the remark. They loudly applauded De Genova later when he said, "If we really believe that this war is criminal ... then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine."

At least two of the speakers who followed De Genova distanced themselves from his comments. One of them was teach-in organizer Eric Foner, a history professor, who disagreed with De Genova's assertion that Americans who called themselves "patriots" also were white supremacists.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Foner went further in his criticism, calling De Genova's statements "idiotic."

"I thought that was completely uncalled for," Foner said, referring to De Genova's allusion to the Mogadishu ambush and firefight, portrayed in the film "Black Hawk Down" and known for the graphic image of a slain American soldier being dragged through the streets. "We do not desire the deaths of American soldiers."

Foner said that because of the university's tradition of freedom of speech, it was unlikely De Genova would suffer professionally in any way because of what he said.

"A person's politics have no impact on their employment status here, whether they are promoted, whether they are fired or whether they get tenure," Foner said.

Foner said he did not know whether De Genova had tenure. De Genova was not available Thursday for an interview.

More than 3,000 students and faculty attended the Wednesday teach-in, which lasted from 6 p.m. until about midnight, and featured more than two dozen professors and other scholars.

The applause at De Genova's call for the defeat of U.S.-led forces in Iraq reflected widespread frustration at the inability to reverse President George W. Bush's Middle East policies, Foner said.

"A kind of flamboyant statement like that will get an applause in the heat of the moment," the history professor said.

By turns, the speakers Wednesday night said the Bush administration's actions in Iraq were bullying, illegal, deceitful, corrupt and murderous.

Some argued that Bush administration officials had ties to companies that stand to profit from the war.

Using a reference to Nazi Germany, a history professor, Barbara J. Fields, said like-minded Americans should vigorously oppose Bush.

"The 'good Germans' of the Nazi era were the few who said, 'No,'" Fields declared.

[G. Chapman]

Can you say "aid and comfort to the enemy"? I would only wish that someone in academia would put their foot down and stand up to these scumbags. Dissent is a fine American value, but this is beyond dissent and past treason in my eyes.

[kimmie7]

Just goes to prove that getting a little piece of paper from a college or university doesn't make you smart.

[Paleo Conservative]

Anyone have the UTM coordinates for the room? Sounds like a target rich environment to me.

[demosthenes the elder]

hey, Mike? How do you react to being judged a racist by a Columbia U. Anthropology assistant-professor?

[Cindy]

"ARE THEY FOR US OR AGAINST US?" (Updated Daily - Click Here.)

[Iwentsouth]

These idiots really think this will be recieved like the 60's.

Most Americans would not have learned about what they were saying then.

Now with 24 hour news, radio, and the internet millions of Americans will hear this and be disgusted.

[Blue Screen of Death]

"A person's politics have no impact on their employment status here, whether they are promoted, whether they are fired or whether they get tenure," Foner said.

Then, I assume, about 50% of the faculity are conservative Republicans. Right?

[NFOShekky]

Here is a bio from Columbia on Comrade Professor. Send him an e-mail and let him know what you think:

NICHOLAS DE GENOVA, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Telephone: (212) 854-0199
office: 416 Hamilton
email: npd18@columbia.edu
The central concerns of my research and teaching include: labor and class formation, racialization, the production of urban space, nationalism, the politics of citizenship, and transnational social processes, especially migration. My ethnographic research explores the social productions of racialized and spatialized difference in the experiences of transnational Mexican migrant workers within the space of the U.S. nation-state. More specifically, I examine transnational urban conjunctural spaces that link the U.S. and Latin America as a standpoint of critique from which to interrogate U.S. nationalism, political economy, racialized citizenship, and immigration law. This work contributes to a reconceptualization of Latin American, Latino, and "American" (U.S.) Studies. Likewise, I am interested in the methodological problems of ethnographic research practice and the limits of anthropological disciplinary forms of knowledge and modes of representation.

Representative Publications:

1995 "Gangster Rap and Nihilism in Black America: Some Questions of Life and Death." Social Text 43: 89-132.
1995 "Check Your Head: The Cultural Politics of Rap Music." Transition 67: 123-37.
1996 "Split-Level Bedlam: Chicago at the End of the Twentieth Century." Public Culture 9:1: 114-25.
1997 "The Junkyard of Futures Past." Anthropology and Humanism 22:2: 171-79.
1998 "Race, Space, and the Reinvention of Latin America in Mexican Chicago." Latin American Perspectives 102: 25:5: 87-116.

[Coroner]

Do anarchy to the anarchists!! I work with some muslims. Needless to say they showed their true colors. Now one of them is experiencing some trouble with their auto.....its kind of funny how that works out!!!!

[Arpege92]

I hope they all sprain their tongues!

[BfloGuy]

Interesting article and I can't disagree with any of the previous postings.

But why list it as "excerpted". It was good enough that I wanted to read the rest.

Upon clicking the link, I find out that you'd posted the whole article. There's an "excerpt" epidemic brewing here on FR. Annoying.

[Mr_Magoo]

[atomic conspiracy]

I suppose it didn't occur to gangsta-prof that "a million Mogadishus" would equal a billion dead Muslims; the American troops in the Mog battle killed at least 1000 Somalis, and there is good reason to suspect that the actual number was much higher. See "Blackhawk Down" (the book, not the fictionalized movie).

Like the Somali militia, Saddam's fedayeen are being killed like ants, yet the left still hail their feeble successes as a great victory. Who is it who has little regard for human life?

[Anamensis]

He sounds like the type who wears a "What Would Paulo Freire Do?" bracelet.

[Wormwood]

Hmmm. A billion dead Muslims?

A thousand year peace.

[spectre]

"A person's politics have no impact on their employment status here, whether they are promoted, whether they are fired or whether they get tenure," Foner said.

"As long as you hate America, Foner continued"

[Anamensis]

If the photo I saw of this guy is for real, this is someone who has... special problems, if you know what I mean. Like... birth defect or something.

[rmlew]

Prof De Genova's comments are worse than presented here. He equates patriotism with genocide and white nationalism.
A liberal Columbia Student wrote this account for the Columbia Spectator.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/03/27/3e82ec7193097?in_archive=1

The good news is that Columbia's students are split about 50-50. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/SEC/War+in+Iraq
There will be a pro-war rally at Columbia on Wednesday at 12:15. The location is Low Plaza, at which is 116th street between Amsterdam and Broadway It is open to students from around the metropolitan area.

The CU College Republicans, Columbia College Conservative Club, and Students United for America are sponsoring the rally.

Cordially,
Ron Lewenberg,
Founder, CCCC
President 1999-2001

[Starstruck]

No. It wasn't muslim arabs that were killed in Mogadishus. It was Africans. This racist bastard is calling for the deaths of a billion blacks. This is more than Sen. Byrd ever
hoped for.