Nick "Million Mogadishus" De Genova wrote the Columbia Daily Spectator and complained about being quoted out of context
In my brief presentation, I outlined a long history of U.S. invasions, wars of conquest, military occupations, and colonization in order to establish that imperialism and white supremacy have been constitutive of U.S. nation-state formation and U.S. nationalism. In that context, I stressed the necessity of repudiating all forms of U.S. patriotism. I also emphasized that the disproportionate majority of U.S. troops come from racially subordinated and working-class backgrounds and are in the military largely as a consequence of a treacherous lack of prospects for a decent life. Nonetheless, I emphasized that U.S. troops are indeed confronted with a choice--to perpetrate this war against the Iraqi people or to refuse to fight and contribute toward the defeat of the U.S. war machine.
Oh. So you're not a hysterical anti-American then? No way no how, says Nick, trotting out a version of the Arabs don't-you-dare-call-me-an-anti-Semite-because-Arabs-are-Semites-too line
Is this a tirade against "anything and everything American"? Far from it. First, I hasten to remind you that "American" refers to all of the Americas, not merely to the United States, as U.S. imperial chauvinism would have it. More importantly, my rejection of U.S. nationalism is an appeal to liberate our own political imaginations such that we might usher in a radically different world in which we will not remain the prisoners of U.S. global domination.
Gotcha. You don't hate "America" at all. It's the United States that sucks. Except for that part of the United States that Columbia University sits on since they pay you tons of money to vomit up this twaddle. |