Posted on 03/31/2003 12:06:24 PM PST by Ignatz
To the Editor:
Spectator, now for the second time in less than a year, has succeeded to quote me in a remarkably decontextualized and inflammatory manner. In Margaret Hunt Gram's report on the faculty teach-in against the war in Iraq (March 27, 2003), I am quoted as wishing for a million Mogadishus but with no indication whatsoever of the perspective that framed that remark. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that your Staff Editorial in the same issue, denouncing the teach-in for "dogmatism," situates me in particular as the premier example of an academic "launching tirades against anything and everything American."
In my brief presentation, I outlined a long history of U.S. invasions, wars of conquest, military occupations, and colonization in order to establish that imperialism and white supremacy have been constitutive of U.S. nation-state formation and U.S. nationalism. In that context, I stressed the necessity of repudiating all forms of U.S. patriotism. I also emphasized that the disproportionate majority of U.S. troops come from racially subordinated and working-class backgrounds and are in the military largely as a consequence of a treacherous lack of prospects for a decent life. Nonetheless, I emphasized that U.S. troops are indeed confronted with a choice--to perpetrate this war against the Iraqi people or to refuse to fight and contribute toward the defeat of the U.S. war machine.
I also affirmed that Iraqi liberation can only be effected by the Iraqi people themselves, both by resisting and defeating the U.S. invasion as well as overthrowing a regime whose brutality was long sustained by none other than the U.S. Such an anti-colonial struggle for self-determination might involve a million Mogadishus now but would ultimately have to become something more like another Vietnam. Vietnam was a stunning defeat for U.S. imperialism; as such, it was also a victory for the cause of human self-determination.
Is this a tirade against "anything and everything American"? Far from it. First, I hasten to remind you that "American" refers to all of the Americas, not merely to the United States, as U.S. imperial chauvinism would have it. More importantly, my rejection of U.S. nationalism is an appeal to liberate our own political imaginations such that we might usher in a radically different world in which we will not remain the prisoners of U.S. global domination.
Nicholas De Genova
March 21, 2003
The author is an assistant professor of anthropology and latina/o studies.
Well put. As I read the comments of Asst. Prof. DeGenova, what comes to mind is "give someone enough rope, and...." (grin)
Care for some more rope, prof? Now, tell us what you _really_ think of us!
But not to worry, even after Columbia fires him (is he _tenured_? this is surely an important issue), _some_ other college, somewhere, with like-minded administration, will hire him and provide him with safe refuge -- from REALITY.
However, before he is ridden out of town on a rail, Mr. DeGenova should be escorted down to the big hole in the ground where the World Trade Center once stood, and be forced to give his speech in front of the survivors of that attack. It would prove interesting.
Cheers!
- John
LOL. Not the one I was thinking of, actually. I think he called us "mmmerkins" ;) - I was originally referring to Ford's "...our long national nightmare is over..." speach. I thought I remembered Nixon using the "My fellow Americans" line, but couldn't find a quote. Kennedy used it in his "...ask not what your country can do for you..." speach, too.
BTW. The more De Genova is allowed to speek (j/k), the more his radical opinions rub off on the image of the anti-war/anti-Bush crowd. Not necessarily a bad thing IMO. He seems to hold himself in high enough regard to not STFU under pressure, and the FReepers appear to be doing a great job of applying that in quantity.
Much of his professional work has focused on the effects of racialized differences on Mexican migrant laborers in the city of Chicago. He has also studied gangster rap in black America and published several prize-winning photo essays.
MY response to the POS:
Another case of left wing elitist exploitation of the upwardly mobile economically disadvantaged classes. Using their culture and their experience to get a job teaching 3 hours a week. Why doesn't DiGenova actually go and work and live in the barrio for a few years the POS? Better yet, he should be sent to the kurds in Northern Iraq for a crash course in re educating the limp wristed, effete, leftist intellectual snob that he is.
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