In the decade I have known George Ciccariello-Maher – as a colleague, co-author and personal friend – he has always excelled at exposing and challenging injustices in sharp, uncompromising terms that highlight hypocrisy with passionate and often blunt wit. He inspires friends and enemies alike; while I openly count myself in the former group, it is unfortunately the latter group which has made George the topic of conversation this week. On Christmas eve Ciccariello-Maher jestingly tweeted “All I want for Christmas is White Genocide” – a clear and direct satire of a white supremacist trope through which neo-Nazis and other racist groupings argue that things like immigration and interracial marriage are “undermining the Aryan race.” Ciccariello-Maher’s simple, sarcastic comment stoked the ire of Breitbart (and the even further fringe-Right social media) bringing this manufactured controversy to the inboxes of Drexel administrators on Christmas day, who have thus far capitulated to this attack, an effort concocted in the cesspool of racial hatred attempting to re-brand itself as the so-called Alt-Right.
I am angered by this situation, but honestly not terribly surprised. This contrived ‘hate-speech’ controversy ironically stems from George pithily retorting to the long-established racism of the individuals and groups now attempting to repurpose liberal notions of political correctness against a longtime…