Drexel University professor resigns amid death threats from right-wing forces
By
Trévon Austin
30 December 2017
Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher was forced to resign after a year of death threats made his position at the university “unsustainable,” according to a statement that he released this week.
Ciccariello-Maher, a professor of politics and global studies, was harassed after several tweets he made were criticized on various right-wing outlets. Throughout the ordeal, Drexel University has criticized the professor and refused to support him.
The threats began last year in December, when Ciccariello-Maher tweeted that all he wanted for Christmas was “white genocide.” The tweet went viral, with many right-wing websites calling for Ciccariello-Maher to be fired. Drexel University condemned the tweet, calling it “utterly reprehensible” and “deeply disturbing,” and arranging a meeting with Ciccariello-Maher to discuss the matter.
Cicariello-Maher stated that the Tweet was satirical, intended at mocking the concept of “white genocide.” He said at the time that it was a “satirical jab at a certain paranoid racist fantasy,” and that white genocide is an “imaginary concept” to marshal support for right-wing forces.
In April, the professor made headlines again after tweeting his reaction to a first-class passenger giving up his seat to a soldier. “Some guy in first class gave up his seat for a uniformed soldier. People are thanking him. I’m trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul,” he wrote.
The comment came two days after a US airstrike in Mosul, Iraq killed 200 civilians, one of the deadliest massacres of civilians in Iraq.
Cicariello-Maher said his Tweet was intended to question the way many Americans support the military…