Columbia's De Genova responds -and it's worse than we thought!

Columbia Spectator ^ | Nicholas De Genova

[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.

[Ignatz]

My reply in the Spectator forum:

"De Genova,
Your response to the patriotic outcry over your remarks is worse than the remarks themselves. Now that you have put them in context, they are even MORE anti-American. As long as you remain in the United States, suckling at the teat of the country you so despise, you are a hypocrite and a coward. I challenge you to stand up for what you believe and LEAVE THE U.S. NOW!

And Mr. Foner: a whole "teach-in" bashing American foreign policy does not automatically equivocate with "presentations of high intellectual caliber". You are covering your exposed butt hoping you do not lose your departments funding, that much is obvious. (by the way, until De Genova finds his cojones and leaves this country, I would avoid the use of words like "caliber". It could give some real, honest, Americans some rather radical ideas! Please do not construe that as any kind of threat by me. To do so would be remarkably decontextualized and inflammatory)."

Ignatz Kleistershtroven
Indianapolis, Indiana

[SGCOS]

Pardon me if I'm a week behind, but is this the anonymous professor that Cavuto lambasted on his show last week?

[=Intervention=]

I could not agree more. Quoting him without his context actually did him a service. Now the world can see his contempt for America in all its ugliness.

-=I=-

[wideawake]

The newspapers say that he's "in hiding." From a personal safety perspective, that's probably a good idea.

[OpusatFR]

I love the "decontextualized" - that one is straight out of the Big Book O'Communist Slang.

This is my absolute fav: "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..."

Where I'm standing, this ain't Argentina or even Mexico.

Boy is this one ever delusional. And to think it's teaching....

[My2Cents]

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

Oh no, he's not biased...

[FreeTheHostages]

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.

Looks like a tirade against all things American to me. He wants a revolution. The only thing he appears to want from the old America is its land and resources and the radical 10 percent he seeks to lead.

[Moose4]

Simply unbelievable. This man needs to be run out of Columbia on a rail. Academic freedom has its limits, and one of those limits must be employing those who actively wish that our troops die and lose a war.

}:-)4

[Mihalis]

...I outlined a long history of U.S. invasions, wars of conquest, military occupations, and colonization...

I am curious to know what he's referring to. Does anyone have his list of invasions?

P.S. Ignatz, excellent response !

[CaptainAwesome]

how does this jack ass think that his full explanation is going to make him look better than what that paper quoted? why would an american academic institution want someone teaching who has such a hatred for america? this jack ass doesnt belong here.

[Shermy]

The Onion couldn't write a better satire of Post-modernist deflection than this guy defending himself.

[American Soldier]

Vietnam was a stunning defeat for U.S. imperialism; as such, it was also a victory for the cause of human self-determination.

Victory for self-determination? Would that be self-determination for the Catholics they spy on an throw in jail? Oh wait no, it's self determination for the Hmong tribesmen they massacre, right? Ahh, I get it, it's self-determination for the Chinese families who had all their possessions seized and got the crap beat out of them by Red mobs? Or is it just the self-determination of the individual, everyday Vietnamese who lives in fear of his own government?

Why liberals in academia so STUPID as to assume they know better the effects of foreign revolutions than those who are forced to live through them? The biggest defenders of Castro's Cuba, the Communist Vietnam, and Maoist China are all wealthy professors in Manhattan with no family links to those nations and no first-hand experience with what life is like in them.

If my kid scores 1600 on the SAT he can still forget about attending ANY of these America-hating Ivy League schools. I'm not going to let some chump making $60,000 a year to work 8 hours a week tell my kid his dad is a fascist because he has enough dough to send him to college.

[conservativeinbflo.]

What a flaming pile of dung. You can see RIGHT through this guy. He CLEARLY thinks he's far more deep and worldly than the peasantry surrounding him. He lives in an ivory tower bubble with a silver spoon stuck up his buttocks, spewing drivel that I'm sure he finds thought-provoking and challenging, even though we ALL know this type of rhetoric has grown extremely trite.

If I were a Columbia alum, I would be outraged. This cowardly, pandering, arrogant waste of flesh and oxygen needs to be fired, pronto.

[wideawake]

Two questions for Mr. De Genova.

(1) Was the Civil War an exercise in nation-state formation? Most dispassionate commentators would say that along with the War of Independence, it was one of the two most essential events in forming the US nation state.

(2) Was the Civil War an exercise in white supremacy?

[Mike K]

The newspapers say that he's "in hiding." From a personal safety perspective, that's probably a good idea.

I disagree, it's the left that practices violence against those they can't convert. Di genova has nothing to fear except intellectual humiliation from the right.

[3AngelaD]

Classic marxist language. Trotsky could have written it for him. He may as well draw a big, red hammer and sickle on his forehead. I'm sure the school couldn't get rid of him, if it wanted to and that I doubt, because of the tenure umbrella that these kind of people (such as Sami Al-Arian) hide behind. He is a traitor; the people who attended the event at which he spoke are what the Soviets called "useful idiots."

[lilylangtree]

Why is this slimey professor still employed by Columbia? Send this joker to live with Saddam Hussein since he's a mouthpiece for Hussein.

[always vigilant]

That whack job has consumed way too many mind altering drugs.

[SauronOfMordor]

Vietnam was a stunning defeat for U.S. imperialism; as such, it was also a victory for the cause of human self-determination.

I would love to see a Vietnamese "boat-person" respond to this guy. Does he feel the subsequent "Killing Fields" of Cambodia to also be "a victory for the cause of human self-determination"?

[Trust but Verify]

No, it was some other guy who Cavuto did not name but who had called Cavuto a 'disgrace to his profession'.

I have the transcript of that on my wall here at work. It's a beaut. Cavuto really outdid himself!