Politics

Petition claims Ciccariello-Maher victim of troll campaign by Breitbart

Maher tweet white genocide breitbart petition
Source: YouTube

According to a petition posted to change.org, George Ciccariello-Maher, the Drexel University professor who tweeted a wish for “white genocide” on Christmas Eve is the victim of a “troll” campaign allegedly led by Breitbart News.

The petition reads:

George is outspoken and witty and fiercely anti-racist.  He is being extensively harassed as the target of a racist internet troll campaign out of Breitbart (Stephen Bannon’s rag).  They are harassing him at his place of employment. Preserve academic freedom (and wit and intelligence and anti-racism) in this nasty new era of living in the United States of Internet Trolls.  Support George.  Let Drexel know–in the midst of the deafening, organized troll-storm–that racist trolls deserve no platform in dictating academic discourse, let alone the off-duty tweets of academics.  They are being VERY noisy; we can’t be silent.

We looked through the Breitbart.com web site and found nothing to support that claim, although the site does have an article about Ciccariello-Maher’s offensive tweet and another article that explores the far-left ideology that perhaps inspired his tweet:

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

…to dismiss Dr. Ciccorioello-Maher’s statement as anything other than a literal call for violence shows a deep ignorance about the revolutionary ideology of both the professor and one of his obvious key influences, Franz Fanon.

Based on his website, a central part of Ciccariello-Maher’s ideas revolve around the concept of “decolonization” and the major proponent of the concept of decolonization was Franz Fanon.

Who is Ciccariello-Maher’s idol Franz Fanon and why is he central to understanding why the professor isn’t being ironic when he talks about “white genocide.?”

As Breitbart News has reported before, Franz Fanon was a Marxist revolutionary philosopher, and he’s been a central influence to both the black liberation movement of the 1960s—Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver said that ”every brother on a rooftop can quote Fanon.’’—and the current incarnation of the Black Liberation movement: Black Lives Matter.

Again, nothing in the post encourages anyone to harass Ciccariello-Maher or the school where he teaches.

Drexel University responded to Ciccariello-Maher’s message, saying:

Drexel became aware today of Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher’s inflammatory tweet, which was posted on his personal Twitter account on Dec. 24, 2016. While the University recognizes the right of its faculty to freely express their thoughts and opinions in public debate, Professor Ciccariello-Maher’s comments are utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing, and do not in any way reflect the values of the University.

The University is taking this situation very seriously. We contacted Ciccariello-Maher today to arrange a meeting to discuss this matter in detail

As Christopher Collins noted on Monday, Ciccariello-Maher now says those calling him out for what he claims was a “satirical” tweet are violent racists.

According to the Daily Caller:

“This satirical tweet became fodder for online white supremacists to systematically harass me,” he said. “I teach regularly on the history of genocidal practices like colonialism and slavery -genocides carried out by the very same kind of violent racists who are smearing me today.”

The professor also denounced Drexel, saying the school was giving in to fascism by denouncing his advocacy of genocide.

“On the university level, moreover, this statement – despite a tepid defense of free speech -sends a chilling message and sets a frightening precedent,” he said.

One video shows just a few of his tweets:

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Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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