Summary
The Cornell history professor who, in Matthew Abraham’s “On the Ground” section, created controversy by chanting “Free Palestine” at a knee-in protest at Cornell honouring Black athletes who took a knee during the national anthem (Recognizing and Saving Black Lives, Recognizing and Saving Palestinian Lives: The Power of Transnational Rhetorics in Locating the Commonality of Liberation Struggles, PDF p.8 / printed p.84).
Details
- Rickford was accused of bringing in a wholly irrelevant issue to the protest by using the chant; he explained that the colonization of Palestine is wholly about white supremacy, suggesting Zionism is grounded in a racialist supremacist logic that meshes with white supremacy (PDF p.8 / printed p.84).
- As the article describing the protest explained, in Abraham’s quotation of it: “Rickford said his rhetorical strategy in leading the crowd in the chant ‘Free Palestine’ was precisely aligned with the aim of the protest” (Yoon, as quoted) (PDF p.8 / printed p.84).
- Abraham records that pro-Israel supporters excoriated Rickford and balked when the analytical lens shifted to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, and that the blog Legal Insurrection accused him of “hijacking other social justice causes” (note 4) (PDF p.8-9, 11-12 / printed p.84-85, 87-88).
Related pages
Recognizing and Saving Black Lives, Recognizing and Saving Palestinian Lives: The Power of Transnational Rhetorics in Locating the Commonality of Liberation Struggles, Colin Kapernick, Black–Palestinian solidarity, White supremacy