Dr. Ibram X. Kendi took to Twitter to express his outrage following the recent decision by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s (BCRI) Board of Directors to rescind scholar-activist Dr. Angela Davis’ invitation to receive the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award.
“When we do not have the courage to honor our greatest freedom fighters, we should not wonder why we are not free,” tweeted Kendi, who is scheduled to be in conversation with Davis on Thursday at the Nourse Theater in San Francisco.
As the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, Kendi’s remarks add to the growing concerns of some academics who note an increasing attack on activists and intellectuals of color who support justice for Palestine. These scholars argue that attempts to conflate pro-Palestinian support as anti-Semitism promote censorship of conversations that link the Israeli treatment of Palestinians to other human rights injustices.
“That’s an absurd conclusion,” said Dr. Raymond Winbush, research professor and director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. “What you have is the successful attempt by Israel to mute criticism of their treatment of the Palestinians, which is kin to the treatment of Black people during apartheid.”
To equate pro-Palestine with anti-Israel is to say that someone is against African dictatorship but is somehow anti-African, Winbush added, saying that it is possible to disagree with nearly seven decades of Israeli occupation and not be anti-Jewish.
In 2014, the University of Illinois withdrew its offer of employment to American Indian Studies professor Dr. Steven Salaita after he was critical of Israel and Zionism in a series of tweets. Salaita later sued and reportedly settled with the university. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) censured the school.
In late November, CNN fired Dr. Marc Lamont Hill and Temple University’s board of trustees condemned the media studies scholar’s comments after he spoke at the United Nation’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
