Vanderbilt 'wokescientist' defends 'any means necessary' from Hamas
The clinical fellow behind the post describes herself as, among other things, a 'nonbinary' 'meme creator' who wants to destigmatize suicide and charges $75 for a workshop on healing from capitalism.
The post referred to those who take issue with Hamas' violence as 'privileged.'
A Vanderbilt University (VU) clinical fellow recently took to Instagram to defend Hamas.
Ayesha Khan, a clinical fellow of microbiology at VU, is known as “wokescientist” on Instagram and describes herself as “an Afro-Indian, nonbinary (any pronouns), queer, Hindu-Muslim-Animist, divergent artist, mentor, meme creator, lover and community caregiver” who “guides people in their journey to cope with and divest from capitalist/ colonial systems.”
On Oct. 8, 2023, Khan posted a ten-page infographic on Instagram. “The Palestinian people are resisting 75 years of settler colonialism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid & a violent, brutal military occupation,” the infographic began. “This is what decolonization looks like. This is what a revolution takes. This is what land defense means.”
Khan’s Instagram post
The post showed a graphic of three people parachuting, one of the parachutes bearing the image of a Palestinian flag. This is a reference to Hamas’ Oct. 7 manner of attack on Israeli civilians attending a music festival.
“If you care about social justice, equity, liberation in any form– then support the Palestinian push for total liberation by any means necessary,” the post continued. “The oppressed deserve to resist their oppressors by any means necessary.”
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“Quite frankly, the opinions of privileged people who don’t have to experience the brutality that Palestinians are faced with… don’t matter. But I assure you, this is what you would [do] if you were in their shoes,” the post went on to say. “The real violence is the settler colonial state of Israel - how it was created & the ongoing genocide that it engages in to continue to maintain its power.”
“For the more privileged, watching death and destruction on the news might irk you. It might feel more ‘moral’ to condemn it without any context. But that is because your privilege has shielded you from such over [sic] violence that Palestinians have been fighting for 75 years.”
Since that post, Khan has created seven more Instagram posts supporting Hamas, including one in which she promoted an “All Out For Palestine” rally and another in which she instructed protesters to “[w]ear a mask, for both health and anonymity.”
Khan’s other Instagram posts.
On her website, Khan expresses her support for “police & prison abolition, Palestinian liberation, South Asian minority rights, land stewardship, and building local autonomous community-based food and healthcare systems.”
She has also called to remove the stigma from suicide, stating that “[s]uicide is caused by oppressive systems & also isn’t a mental disorder or an immoral, irrational choice.” She additionally offers workshops, including one titled “Unlearn, Divest From & Cope With Capitalism,” for $75, now at a discounted price of $45.
Campus Reform has reached out to VU for comment and will update accordingly.
