Just the (more than) One about "what is going on at Columbia?"
Given that Columbia University administration, Board of Trustees, and its shadow cabinet in Congress has completely lost control of the campus by not negotiating with student tuition-payers/protestors, called in S.W.A.T., locked down the campus completely, welcomed the militarization of the students’ learning space and my workspace until at least May 17th, lolol, I have time to share some random thoughts.
LUCKY YOU.
MLK wrote, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Minouche Shafik wrote a loving, “Letter to the NYPD.” 🤡
Friends and lovers who have checked on ya gurl, I appreciate you. So much.
Parents and relatives who led with, “You in jail? Where are you? How are you?” and then dropped of unparalleled insights you know my brand—there are a range of tactics to stop a genocide and me in the hoosegow ain’t one of ‘em. An Aunty M. h/t: “The university is driving these students to the south [of campus] with nowhere to go. Just like Israel drove the Gazans into the south.”💥
Friends who’ve not checked on me…and are just business-as-usual…
The moment for equivocating on what is being done to the Palestinian people, “Well, it’s complicated…I don’t know enough…” is soooo far gone. If you can’t educate yourself and get on the right side of history, just admit, “I don’t care,” so the rest of us can get on with things.
No inconvenience—NAN-ONE—is worse than being starved, bombed, or buried in mass graves with hands tied like the people of Gaza. TERRIFYING. Still, the deep antipathy I now have for 6am wake ups due to helicopters and drones is UNparalleled.🖕🏾🚁🖕🏾
The worst part (short of being the target of an genocidal ethnostate’s disproportionate murderous rage) has been watching the so-called news media and cops clustered together clogging the streets, drawing political extremists and politicians who are one-in-the-same scourge profiting from disinformation. That ain’t news, baby—that’s a circle-jerk.🧴🧦
Never have I been more proud of Barnard students (some of whom are using the social movement theories we discussed in class to build a movement) putting their futures on the line to make sure someone else has a future at all.
The misconception that this current student movement is a bunch of rich kids is so ludicrous. You know how much college costs. You know how shitty financial aid is. Every generation before them has sold them a bill of crappy goods. Now it’s come due in the form of demands for accountability for creating weapons and conditions that destroy human life. Never have I seen principles tested and pass the test so stunningly.💯 Student protestors and non-protestors who live on campus were locked out of their dorms, unable to access their meal plans, denied study space for exams, still have exams, and were then told, “Here’s $80 for some GRUBHUB” and now…
Oh. So you’re just fucking MONSTERS now, eh?
I have never seen anything like it. Not even when we protested South African apartheid.
Get the real story from Columbia University’s Apartheid Divest or listen to WKCR, student jazz DJs who have been lauded for doing an incredible job of unbiased reporting. Well, their bias is all students and they were starting to unravel a bit, but that’s to be expected after no food, reporting for 36 hours, scant sleep, and being given zero useful information. Still, Sarah needs to chill. She’s giving me look-at-vibes. No, you cannot break in.🥹
Clearly, I am having trouble with Buddhist principles of “Right Livelihood” and “Right Effort.” I vacillate between, “There is no ‘good’ place to labor,” “Do what you can. Live your ethics. Put your most effort elsewhere,” and
“There is no saving this soul-destroying, fresh hell of a real estate company you’ve engaged yourself with.”
But, a silver lining: my workplace “leadership’s” completely anodyne and explicit rejection of advocating for us as staff if it involves “gOiNG agAInsT ThE ADMiNIstratiON” was the push many of needed to break out of our bureaucratic siloes. We have come together beautifully to do our duty to keep the libraries open and accessible…unless locked out. It has renewed my faith in collective action by almost 54.6%! People still be people-y, but oh yeah, it feels energizing to see and feel the interconnections.
Being required to condemn Hamas’ kidnapping, murdering, raping, and instigating State fury as a prerequisite to having compassion for Palestinian people living under the practices of an apartheid regime funded with my tax dollars is akin to the singleminded heartlessness that requires Black people murdered by cops to be the “perfect victim” before even considering securing justice for them. We’re really averse to holding multiple truths these days, aren’t we?
I said it before, I’ll say it again, but this time with a how-to link: watch the film Israelism for a $5. I’ll cop to a one- or even two-dimensional perspective on Jewish identity before watching the film. The machinations of State propaganda and how painful it is for people to undue their own indoctrination is an empathy generating tool for understanding the sheer madness behind things like the State-generated, AI ads on Hulu.
Be grateful for what you have.
Move in the world so others can have the same.
FREE PALESTINE.
tl;dr What’s happening at Columbia? A major attempt by a consolidated elite power to distract from the destruction of the Palestinian people and their pending destruction of the U.S. with another Frump stint in the Whitest of Houses. They are doing this by making you think that student uprisings are the story, that they are irrational actors.
I have witnessed within mine own peepers these students are, in fact, historically-informed, taking care of one another, leading with integrity, adept at mining the archives for useful strategies, and sticking to their demand for humanity in the face of disproportionate repression. If you raised these particular humans, THANK YOU. I’m, and other educators who give a shit, are trying to look out for them.
