Prof who said Hamas terrorism was 'exhilarating' is back to teach Cornell courses on socialism and the 'African American Vision of America'
A professor at Cornell University has returned to teach classes this semester after describing Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre as 'exhilarating' and 'energizing' late last year.
Russell Rickford, is slated to teach classes on the 'African American Vision of America' and 'Socialism in America.'
A professor at Cornell University has returned to teach classes this semester after describing Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre as “exhilarating” and “energizing” late last year.
Russell Rickford, is slated to teach classes on the “African American Vision of America” and “Socialism in America.”
“Last October, Professor Russel Rickford made a horrific comment at an off-campus rally in downtown Ithaca,” Cornell Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina said in a statement provided to Campus Reform. “As then-President Pollack and Board Chair Kayser noted at the time, his comment was reprehensible and demonstrated a complete disregard for humanity. Professor Rickford apologized for his comments and took a voluntary leave of absence for the remainder of the academic year.”
“Consistent with well-established principles of academic freedom, Cornell has a process for considering whether public statements such as those expressed off campus by Professor Rickford at a political rally fall under the category of protected speech, or rather demonstrate prohibited bias, discrimination, or harassment,” the statement continued. “Given that Professor Rickford’s comments were made as a private citizen in his free time, the university’s academic leadership has concluded that Professor Rickford’s conduct in relation to this incident did not meet that high bar.”
A New York state representative has criticized Cornell’s decision to retain Rickford in comments made to The New York Post.
“I am deeply disgusted by Cornell’s decision to continue employing Mr. Rickford after his horrific statements that celebrated the murder of innocent people and incited violence,” Claudia Tenney said.
“Regardless of one’s views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the loss of human life, especially the lives of women, children, and the elderly, including Holocaust survivors, should never be referred to as `energizing’ or `exhilarating,’” she added.
According to his biography on Cornell’s website, Rickford is an associate professor of history at the university, specializing in “African-American political culture after World War II, the Black Radical Tradition, and transnational social movements.”
In April, Rickford published an op-ed in The Cornell Daily Sun in favor of the pro-Palestine encampment that students had erected on the university’s campus, titled, “The Encampment as a Beloved Community.”
“In the few hours I spent at the encampment recently, I witnessed a safe, dynamic, radically inclusive space,” Rickford wrote. “Indeed, I saw an expression of what civil rights workers once called ‘the beloved community’ — a society that enshrines the practice of fellowship, mutuality and agape love.”
“Prototypes of insurgent democracy will flourish as long as anticolonialism and principled internationalism are heretical and silent complicity in genocide remains the price of normalcy,” Rickford concluded.
Campus Reform has contacted Russell Rickford for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
