December 29, 2017

Drexel professor resigns, citing "harassment by right-wing, white supremacist media outlets and internet mobs."

George Ciccariello-Maher, a professor of politics and global studies, says his "situation has become unsustainable," and "Staying at Drexel in the eye of this storm has become detrimental to my own writing, speaking, and organizing," CNN reports.

He became a target after he tweeted this joke last December: "All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide." What's funny about that joke, he explains, is that racists are paranoid about white genocide, which, in fact, "does not exist."

He also tweeted that when he saw someone on an airplane give up a first-class seat to a soldier, he was "trying not to vomit." People should have understood that he meant that he opposed the killing of civilians in the Iraq war.

Now, he says, "the forces of resurgent white supremacy have tasted blood and are howling for more," and universities should "refuse to bow to their pressure, intimidation, and threats." But he himself is resigning. If I assume Ciccariello-Maher is rational, I infer that he means to imply that his university did not support him enough.

ADDED: On reflection, I identify with this guy (or at least with one image I have of him). He leaves his university job because he wants to be free to speak in a challenging way, using sarcasm and surprising concision. You have to stop and think: What's he really saying? Or: Not sure exactly what he means, but here's what he's making me think. Or: He's making me so mad but if I try to say why he's got a way to tell me I'm wrong.

Trump does similar things, but he won't withdraw to a safe distance from which to freely gibe.

100 comments:

Greg Hlatky said...

"Assuming rationality..."

Well, that's your first mistake.

iowan2 said...

Snowflake

stevew said...

It takes courage to run away.

-sw

Mattman26 said...

"What's funny about that joke, he explains, is that racists are paranoid about white genocide, which, in fact, 'does not exist.'"

My goodness, that is high-larious. How sad to be so unappreciated.

Darrell said...

White supremacist = anyone not a raving Lefty lunatic. George Foreman, for example.

Larry J said...

"What's funny about that joke, he explains, is that racists are paranoid about white genocide, which, in fact, 'does not exist.'"

If you have to explain your joke, it isn't funny.

David Begley said...

Maybe it was resign or be fired.

mezzrow said...

"stop me before I kill myself!!!"

(crickets)

*puts gun in pocket and goes out for coffee at Starbucks*

whitney said...

There's nothing rational about tweeting controversial statements unless you're in a position where you cannot get fired

DavidD said...

I forget. Are European Jews white?

Chuck said...

I don't think I was ever aware of any part of this story before this Althouse post. Yet another reason that she is such an interesting blogger.

Anybody know the reason for the guy's hyphenated name? There was the history of double-barreled names among the mid-level English aristocracy; I've never quite understood it in modern America.

Chris N said...

What’s a totalitarian, fascist, racist, supremacist, violence-threatening Ideologue supposed to do?

It’s hard out there for a Commie...

Beth B said...

When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
He's the brave, brave, brave, Sir Snowflake...

Chris N said...

In my experience, hyphenated names are typically found amongst feminists and women signaling some resistance to the entire ‘system’ of patronymics.

I’m going to guess our Communist friend is similarly against ‘the system,’and signaling solidarity to related ideological constructs, perhaps as much for the advancements it can bring. I could be wrong.

Thanks for not trying to shit in the punch-bowl today, Chuck.

Humperdink said...

Saw this on the news this AM. He quit because he was getting death threats after calling for white genocide. Oh the irony!

Professional lady said...

There was the Armenian genocide also. The Ottoman Empire exterminated 1.5 million people. This guy does not know much about history. The Nazis also systematically exterminated the Gypsies. The Slavs were next on the list. I'm sure there are many more examples.

rehajm said...

One down.

stlcdr said...

I fully expect the threats to be quite minor social media bullying (someone called him a moron in more colorful terms) and he is making the whole thing into something it isn’t to prove his point.

This maybe obvious, but it’s what totalitarian leftists do. With the current political state, we see that democrats and those on the left are actually pretty nasty people (a lot are simply clueless, though, mindlessly repeating what the media tells them).

White supremists exist - completely ineffectual, of course, even with the vast reaches of the internet - the majority of them exist only in the leftist mind.

Bay Area Guy said...

Another dipshit leftist college professor.....

DavidD said...

...and the Holodomor.

Curious George said...

"Chuck said...
I don't think I was ever aware of any part of this story before this Althouse post. Yet another reason that she is such an interesting blogger.

Anybody know the reason for the guy's hyphenated name? There was the history of double-barreled names among the mid-level English aristocracy; I've never quite understood it in modern America."

His name was George Maher. Ciccariello is his wife Abbey’s last name. So he's a cuck. And based on your first sentence, like you.

rhhardin said...

If life hands you insects, make insecticide.

rhhardin said...

It probably doesn't help that teachers are accorded respect by their even more uneducated students. It goes to the teachers' heads.

No course corrections in their courses.

rhhardin said...

A mind brimming with ignorance, to mimic Lautreamont.

Fritz said...

#4 "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."

1775OGG said...

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm, what happened to his safe space? Too crowded?

rhhardin said...

Alinsky depends on women voting for his stuff to work. If you're not a woman, it's the wrong way to better the world. You still have crazy unreflective women.

rhhardin said...

Conspiracy Theory (1997) with Julia Roberts, what happens when one of a conspiracy nut's theories turns out to be true.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"What's he really saying?"

Except that he likely really wants white, conservative genocide.

Eleanor said...

My nephew recently graduated from Drexel. He started out as a nice, well-balanced kid and graduated a blithering idiot.

mezzrow said...

Saw this on the news this AM. He quit because he was getting death threats after calling for white genocide. Oh the irony!

Gotta start somewhere.

"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." - Mao Tse-Tung

wild chicken said...

Sarcasm for effect is overrated. Esp by the left.

I mean that's all they ever do, isn't it?

traditionalguy said...

The darling Japs perfected cruelty in exterminating every other race on the planet except Japanese.It seems they were descended from a Sun god who demanded they do it for him or die trying. And the creep seriously hated white Anglos and their American cousins who were fighting back. The Bridge Over the River Kwai softened the Japsimage of cruelty to exterminate white POWs. The Bataan Death March was done to American POWs for sport. And Nanking China's civilians were slaughtered slaughtered for sport.

Here in North America, the indigenous tribes also worked hard for the title of Savages, with a savagery that made the Japs 50years later look like nice guys in comparison. The Comanche Empire held absolute power over 30 % of the Continent we wanted by using a Calvary force that was better than Genghis Khan's golden hoard. And they could not be defeated until the 1880s, when the White settlers in Texas coastal areas finally got Samuel Colt back in Connecticutt to design for them a superior firearm for killing Comanche Calvary.

White guilt is a mental illness.

JAORE said...

"He leaves his university job because he wants to be free to speak in a challenging way, using sarcasm and surprising concision."

Sounds like he had that. But he also wanted his speech to both be provocative AND consequence free.

Toodles.

The Godfather said...

You can't really evaluate this story unless you know -- or at least can infer -- what the harrassment was to which this guy was subjected. If "death threats" means a horse's severed head in his bed, that's one thing; if it means blog comments that say, "I hope you die, a**-hole", that's very different. Anybody out there have any information about this?

Quaestor said...

Let's see now, a guy who tweets deaths threats to an entire race is outraged by death threats tweets directed at him.

Got it.

Levi Starks said...

Has he considered the possibility that the paranoia of white genocide is precisely the thing that has protected whites from it?

wendybar said...

WAHHHHH!!! Actions and words have consequences. Maybe lefties should look to what happened to that really funny comedienne...Kathy Griffin for how NOT to act.

TrespassersW said...

SOP: Make an outrageously mean-spirited statement, and then retreat whimpering about mean people when the public is outraged.

What a damned pantywaist.

tcrosse said...

Well, if you strive to piss off the squares, you shouldn't be surprised if the squares are, indeed, pissed off.

Jersey Fled said...

For anyone interested, his latest book is #300,089 at the Kindle bookstore.

As to his bio, his previous teaching gigs were at UC Berkley, San Quentin State Prison, and the Venezuelan School of Planning in Caracas.

Great job down in Caracas, bro.

richlb said...

Death threats? Has this guy rushed to the defense of the FCC Chairman?

Amadeus 48 said...

And on the way out the door, the good prof. insults and smears those who criticize him as "the forces of resurgent white supremacy."

Two points:
1. Althouse, you say you identify with one image you have of this man. Were you similarly insulting to your colleagues and critics when you left academia (via retirement) to be free to speak in a challenging way? I doubt it.

2. Professor Ciccariello-Maher is the ugly face of racial separation and hate-filled, pseudo-progressivism. Good riddance to him.

Michael K said...

Is he " of color?"

Maybe they were trying to help if he is white.

dbp said...

"What's funny about that joke, he explains,"...Let me stop you right there champ: If you have to explain why a joke is funny, it isn't.

MadisonMan said...

I'm not sorry for him, but I feel like I should be. But he made his bed with his tweets. Not everyone can Tweet masterfully like Trump. A good professor has to be a stellar communicator, and if he is having to explain jokes, then a good communicator he is not. How much of class time was spent saying "That's not what I meant..."

I'm imagining what he looks like. (Goes to google image to see)

Younger than I thought. Of course he has a soul patch. Doofus.

Otto said...

He is white and dumber than dirt. So much for white supremacy.

mockturtle said...

Godfather wonders: You can't really evaluate this story unless you know -- or at least can infer -- what the harrassment was to which this guy was subjected. If "death threats" means a horse's severed head in his bed, that's one thing; if it means blog comments that say, "I hope you die, a**-hole", that's very different. Anybody out there have any information about this?

The old 'horse's severed head in his bed' ploy would be most frowned upon today by the animal rights groups. No self-respecting white supremacist would stoop so low as to decapitate a horse. Even Hitler loved animals.

Kate said...

I definitely saw both of his tweets get chatter, but it was the soldier tweet that raised more ire. Even the most anti-war Leftist knows that you don't attack our troops when you intend to protest. This guy's explanations are CYA after-thoughts.

CWJ said...

That's not funny.

RMc said...

He became a target after he tweeted this joke last December: "All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide."

What could possibly go wrong?

mockturtle said...

From the OED:

Asshole, n: An irritating or contemptible person, e.g., George Ciccariello-Maher.

LordSomber said...

My father, a Drexel grad, is turning over in his grave.
Chuck Barris probably is too.

CWJ said...

Actually, I think this story more illustrates the bubble in which this fellow and presumably everyone he personally knows lives. His tweets are characterized as controversial when in fact they are patently insulting. Only someone who did not recognize that fact would feel free to share them with the outside world, and then be surprised and shocked by the reaction they received.

mtrobertslaw said...

How anyone could ever believe that the highly regarded scientific concepts of "Whitness" and "White Privilege" might someday lead to the extermination of the white population is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

mockturtle said...

White people will exterminate themselves by negative population growth.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has said that people who murdered white farmers during a government-sanctioned purge in the 2000s will never be prosecuted."

Of course, Mugabe killed a lot of blacks too. If he had limited himself to murdering whites, he'd still be in office.

I really enjoy how SJW whites like this tool act as if they are not white themselves, as if guys like Mugabe would actually exempt Ciccariello-Maher and other pallid academics from race-based slaughter because they're "good whites."

Richard Dillman said...

Let’s see, white genocide. The Soviet forced starvation of 5 to 10 million Ukrainians in the 1930s under Stalin might
qualify. Of course, the Soviets attributed it to the unfortunate consequences of rapid industrialization.

Anne Applebaum’s Red Famine provides a comprehensive history of the Terror Famine. Bitter Harvest, a highly romanticized film
about this famine, provides a good introduction.

cubanbob said...

I suspect he got fired. Unless he is independently I rather doubt he gave up a job with good pay and benefits and job security. I doubt he can find a gig as good as the one he had.

Richard Dillman said...

He may have been an adjunct, which means he would have given up very little.

Fritz said...

Eleanor said...

My nephew recently graduated from Drexel. He started out as a nice, well-balanced kid and graduated a blithering idiot.


That's the process for becoming one of the elites.

PB said...

Organizing? That's like the highest form of liberal virtue signalling. It's nominating and ordaining yourself as a high priest in the Church of Liberalism.

Obama called himself a "community organizer", and all loyal liberal, progressive Democrats consider that a high calling, but being from Chicago myself, the only thing he organized was his political career. With a little help from his friends, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, and Emil Jones, of course

Bandit said...

His going away party was held in a phone booth

holdfast said...

Has Justine landed yet?

Oso Negro said...

@traditional guy - We got the Walker Colt in 1847. It helped a lot, but we couldn't get rid of the Comanche problem until so late because they were being protected by the Federal government. They would raid south and then repair to reservations in Oklahoma overseen by Quakers. It wasn't until General Sherman happened upon the scene of a massacre that a stop was put to that.

chickelit said...

How do we know this wasn't just his reaction to an adverse tenure decision?

Yancey Ward said...

He had to resign since his plan is to play victim for pay.

glenn said...

“Trump does similar things, but he won't withdraw to a safe distance from which to freely gibe.”

Maybe he will have to. And it promises to be a lot mor fun to watch than prof what’s-his-name.

n.n said...

My guess is that he is both an abortionist (e.g. wicked or final solution) and a diversitist, who welcomes opening abortion fields in social justice adventures (e.g. targeting native populations), immigration reform (e.g. refugee crises, population displacement), and denies individual dignity when he judges people by the "color of their skin". In many ways, denying lives deemed unworthy, mass exodus, and denying individual dignity, is comparable or worse than color supremacy or bias, because it is bigotry (i.e. sanctimonious hypocrisy) promoted through ignorance.

MacMacConnell said...

"Trump does similar things, but he won't withdraw to a safe distance from which to freely gibe."

Very true, but President Trump has yuuuuge balls, while George Ciccariello-Maher, a professor of politics and global studies is still waiting for his testicles to drop.

Rusty said...

Is "gibe" the right word here?
'That doesn't gibe." Make sense, mesh.
To unintentionally tack into the wind.
"to freely gibe" doesn't make sense to me in this context.

mockturtle said...

The Left has been unintentionally tacking into the wind for two years now.

Amadeus 48 said...

Maybe Althouse meant gripe, grieve, grump, and gibber.

Gahrie said...

The Left has been unintentionally tacking into the wind for two years now.

I'd say that they are "in irons".

mockturtle said...

I'd say that they are "in irons".

Yep.

Rae said...

The social justice left is the biggest recruiter of white supremicists there is. Action and reaction.

Ann Althouse said...

I recommend looking up “gibe” before opining that I’m wrong.

Big Mike said...

He became a target after he tweeted this joke last December: "All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide."

That's. Not. Funny.

CWJ said...

Richard Dillman & chickelit,

His title is Associate Professor. That implies tenure, but today who knows.

FIDO said...

Is he really how you want the Academy to be seen, Ms. Althouse?

Anonymous said...

What's funny about that joke, he explains, is that racists are paranoid about white genocide, which, in fact, "does not exist."

Ah! So, let's play a mental game here:

1: We know that the racists of the Left are paranoid about black genocide and (anti-)Islamic genocide, which, in fact, "do not exist."

2: So, what do we think would happen to an Associate Professor at Bob Jones University, or University of Wisconsin at Madison, who tweeted out "All I Want for Christmas is Black Genocide" , or "All I Want for Christmas is Islamic Genocide"?

What is it, that makes Leftists incapable of thinking through actions? Are they hideously stupid? Are they so sociopathic they just can't see anyone to the right of them as being a real human being? Are they just so arrogant that they firmly believe "the rules don't apply to me!"?

No sympathy. What you deny to others, you don't get yourself. In a world where James Damore gets fired for writing up a solidly researched paper on male-female differences, no one from the Left side of the aisle gets to be offensive, either.

mockturtle said...

Gregq asks: Are they hideously stupid?

Well, yes. That's why they are Leftists.

Jupiter said...

The article is interesting reading. He was a tenured professor. He was suspended from teaching in October, because of the threats he had been receiving. He did not agree with the suspension, but has now resigned.

I have been wondering what we are going to do about the universities. They give tenure to vermin like this guy, while actual scholars get paid pennies to teach the courses as adjuncts. It had not occurred to me that a campaign of internet death threats might be this effective. This is indeed encouraging.

Jupiter said...

I like the idea that it should require physical courage to be a University Professor. Get 'em some sidearms, and put in a shooting range in the basement of the Faculty Club. Heh.

Darkisland said...

What's funny about that joke, he explains, is that racists are paranoid about white genocide, which, in fact, "does not exist."

He might want to run that statement by the Poles (3mm non-Jewish & 3mm Jewish Poles murdered in the camps) The 6-8mm Ukranians (See Holodomor) the 20-40mm Russians murdered in the Gulags, the Armenians and plenty of other genocides in the 20th century.

ANd he's a prof of politics and global studies? Who doesn't know about these genocides? The man is too ignorant for words.

He should not have been allowed to resign, he should have been fired. I hope his next job is in a Starbucks.

John Henry

Jupiter said...

White genocide is taking place, now, in South Africa, where large numbers of Boer farmers are being murdered by blacks, usually their neighbors. Of course, it is difficult to determine whether they are being killed because they are white or simply because they own something the blacks want to steal.

Spaceman said...

It is far more likely that Drexel was embarrassed by Ciccariello-Maher's antics (he was reprimanded by the university for the White Supremacist "joke") and invited this guy out the door before they had to boot him. Of course I can understand the safety aspect; right wingers are notorious for bumping off professors.

Jupiter said...

"Johan Burger, an independent policy analyst based in Johannesburg, warned against the perception that only white farmers were killed during attacks on farms.

"It is true that, if you look at just farmers, it is still mostly white farmers who get attacked. But that does not mean that black farmers and black workers are not killed," he told local media."

So you see, it's nothing personal. Or maybe I mean, nothing political. Anyway, they're just killing you, is all, so don't get all wrapped around the axle. Of course, some of those pictures of Boer women massacred in their beds with machetes make you wonder if this is really about property. Awful lot of blood in those pics. Could be some misogyny involved.

Jim at said...

I want you dead!

No. We won't let you kill us.

How DARE you push back at me! I am a victim! I quit!

.....

Only in the mind of a leftist.

Bruce Hayden said...

“@traditional guy - We got the Walker Colt in 1847. It helped a lot, but we couldn't get rid of the Comanche problem until so late because they were being protected by the Federal government. They would raid south and then repair to reservations in Oklahoma overseen by Quakers. It wasn't until General Sherman happened upon the scene of a massacre that a stop was put to that.”

I think that the other thing was population density. Comanches and some of the Apaches were last because their land was some of the poorest. Whites, depending on agriculture over hunting, could support much more dense populations. And did.

Jupiter said...

Of course, when you go to kill someone with a machete, unless you are really skillful, you're probably going to have to hack one or both of their arms off first, before you can get at the head or neck. So, yeah, probably that's why there's so much blood in those photos. I mean, there's blood on the walls, on the floor, all over the bed. Thick, congealed pools of blood. Old gal must have put up quite a struggle.

Merry Christmas, Professor Ciccariello-Maher!

Jim at said...

Are they hideously stupid? Are they so sociopathic they just can't see anyone to the right of them as being a real human being? Are they just so arrogant that they firmly believe "the rules don't apply to me!"?

Yes.

mockturtle said...

Jupiter observes: White genocide is taking place, now, in South Africa, where large numbers of Boer farmers are being murdered by blacks, usually their neighbors. Of course, it is difficult to determine whether they are being killed because they are white or simply because they own something the blacks want to steal.

This occurred wholesale by Mugabe in Rhodesia.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Althouse, you are entitled to apprehend this fellow in any way that you like, but I think you're giving him too much credit. He's a garden variety religious fanatic, no different than the wild-eyed Christian fundamentalist who daydreams about killing abortion doctors. He deserves no more respect than you would give that guy. Because he has some supposed whiff of respectability/credibility that comes with the professor role says much more about the cheapness of the university system than about whether he is a serious thinker making serious decisions.

RichardJohnson said...

George Ciccariello-Maher has published several books and numerous articles defending the Chavista regime ruling Venezuela.Perhaps he should put his money where his mouth is and move to Venezuela. One difference between Venezuela and the US is that the murder rate in Venezuela is over 10X that of the US. So Ciccariello-Maher would need to worry less about death threats and more about actually being murdered.

Georgie-boy informed us he was merely using satire when he tweeted about "white genocide." Why couldn't he conclude that those death threats he informs us he was receiving were also done in the spirit of satire?

Conclusion: if you can't take it, then don't dish it out.

RichardJohnson said...

Chuck
I don't think I was ever aware of any part of this story before this Althouse post. Yet another reason that she is such an interesting blogger.

Those of us interested in Venezuela have been aware of him for quite some time, as he is an unabashed defender of the Chavista regime.

RichardJohnson said...

Ahthouse:
You have to stop and think: What's he really saying? Or: Not sure exactly what he means, but here's what he's making me think. Or: He's making me so mad but if I try to say why he's got a way to tell me I'm wrong.

Ciccariello-Maher has gone on record claiming that his tweet of "“All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide,” was a joke, was satire.Drexel professor reprimanded for 'White Genocide' tweet claims it was satire.


He then wrote on Sunday: "To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian revolution, that was a good thing indeed."

Was that also satire?

chickelit said...

Althouse has always had a soft spot for purveyors of white guilt. In 10 years of reading here, I’ve never figured that out.

Big Mike said...

@RichardJohnson, his statement that he wanted to vomit when he saw a woman give up her first class seat to a soldier is no satire. (Though it makes me want to vomit.)

mockturtle said...

Althouse has always had a soft spot for purveyors of white guilt. In 10 years of reading here, I’ve never figured that out.

Chickelit, I suspect it's because she, herself, suffers from that affliction.