(To the right, University of Mississippi pro-Palestinian protesters. From widely shared videos on social media)
The recent anti-genocide protest and counter-protest at the University of Mississippi have received international attention. Some three dozen Ole Miss students showed their support for the Palestinians in Gaza who are under genocidal assault by the Israeli military—tens of thousands, many of them women and children are dead as a result of that assault. The students were met with some 200 counter protesters who threw objects at them and mocked and shouted at them. One of the counter protesters jumped about like an ape in front of a black pro-Palestine protester who happened to be a former graduate student of this writer.
(Counter demonstrators at the University of Mississippi taunting the pro-Palestinian protesters. Screenshot from video by Stacey J. Spiehler for the Mississippi Free Press.)
The counter protesters evoked painful memories of the racist and violent throng that tried to prevent James Meredith from enrolling as the first black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962.
(James Meredith, accompanied by U.S. marshals, on the Ole Miss campus in 1962)
Pro-Palestinian protests at universities across the United States are a clear indication of a galvanized youth movement unseen since the 1960s and may spell major trouble for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. Biden’s military support for Israel has made this nation a party to the genocidal destruction of Gaza as well as the murderous actions of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Pro-Palestine protesters aren’t defending Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7. They’re standing against Israel’s murderous reaction to it.
Prompted in part by this writer, a charter member, the University Campus Workers of Mississippi-Communications Workers of America Local 3565 has issued a statement of support for the Ole Miss pro-Palestine demonstrators that I’ll copy below. Organized labor should stand shoulder to shoulder with these brave young people who’ve risked their college careers and possibly jail or injury to stand against this nation’s complicity in what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people.
Here is the statement:
United Campus Workers of Mississippi - CWA Local 3565
To UCWMS Members and the University of Mississippi Community:
On Thursday, May 2, a small and peaceful group of University of Mississippi students gathered to exercise their First Amendment right to protest on behalf of Palestinians facing a months-long genocidal assault by the Israeli Defense Force. This group of students were overwhelmed by a crowd of more than 200 counter-protestors, most of whom were also University of Mississippi students. Many of these student counter-protestors made explicitly racist remarks, shouting “hit the showers” and “your nose is huge” at the protestors; taunting a Black woman protestor by imitating a monkey; and equating the protestors with the terrorists in the 9/11 attacks. Others threw half-eaten food and water bottles at the students protesting against genocide. Several journalists, including student journalists, captured this abhorrent behavior on film, much of which is publicly available. Ultimately, police had to escort protestors off the premises for their own safety.
The unabashed racism displayed by the overwhelmingly White counter-protestors is unacceptable behavior for University of Mississippi students. It is out of step with our university’s creed, and violates the University’s own student code of conduct. Moreover, the counter-protestors’ throwing of food and drink at students engaged in a peaceful demonstration violated those students’ constitutional rights to free speech and to free assembly.
We, the United Campus Workers of Mississippi, applaud the Chancellor's willingness to uphold the values of the university by condemning the racism at the protest and opening a student conduct investigation against one of the perpetrators. We call on the Chancellor and other university administration to continue their investigation to ensure that all students who behaved similarly are held accountable. The counter-protestors’ behavior, if left unchecked, sets a dangerous precedent for our students, as well as for any campus worker wishing to exercise their own First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate on or off campus.
