Rudolph "Butch" T. Ware III (born 1974) also known as Bilal Ware in the American Muslim community,[1][2][3][4] is an American associate professor and hip hop artist who was the 2024 vice presidential nominee for the Green Party. He is one half of the hip hop duo Slum Prophecy.
Butch Ware | |
|---|---|
 Ware in 2024 | |
| Born | 1974 (age 49–50) |
| Education | University of Minnesota (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MA, PhD) |
| Political party | Green |
Education
Ware received his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota in 1997.[5] He received his PhD in history in 2004 from the University of Pennsylvania.[6]
Career
A historian of West Africa at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he first began teaching at Northwestern University, and later at the University of Michigan.[7][8]
Ware is also one half of the hip hop duo Slum Prophecy. Less than two weeks before he began running for vice president, Slum Prophecy released an album titled Aqsa Flood.[9]
In August 2024, he was selected by Jill Stein as the vice presidential nominee of the Green Party in the 2024 United States presidential election.[10]
On November 11, 2024, Ware announced that he would be running in the midterms to become the Governor of California.[11]
Political positions
Israel–Hamas war
Ware has likened Hamas's 2023 surprise attack on Israel to Nat Turner's Rebellion, viewing Hamas as a resistance group against Israel's illegal occupation.[12] On October 11, tweeted his support for the resistance, posting that "...Oppressed people don’t have a RIGHT to resist occupation, we have a RESPONSIBILITY to resist."[9]
Informed by Black radical tradition, Ware is an anti-Zionist and believes that Zionism is rooted in white supremacy.[13]
LGBT+ rights
In an interview with The Black Authority in late October 2024, when asked "do you agree with the idea of biological males playing in female sports",[14] Ware stated: "I don't think that biological males should play in female sports. I think it gives an unfair [...] competitive advantage."[15][16] Ware has stated that his comments were taken out of context by media outlets, Tweeting, "The remarks in question, presented in a hostile interview, were misrepresented through selective editing to suggest otherwise. In context, I was engaging in what I thought was a discussion of a nuanced policy on Olympic inclusion based on information shared by the IOC, not making a statement against trans inclusion."[17]
Abortion
When questioned[a] on legal limits for abortion in the United States, Ware has said that he "think[s] a lot of the kind of common sense regulations that most Americans agree on is essentially 60/40 issues … something like 16 week[s]. I won’t go into the finer points of it, but of course there have to be limitations."[16]
Personal life
Ware is a Muslim convert.[18] Ware stated in a podcast with The Thinking Muslim that he converted to Islam at the age of just 15 after being introduced to it by an autobiography of Malcolm X and then reading the Quran. He follows West African Sufi traditions and stated that "the Sufi tradition that I know tethers together spirituality with social justice".[19]
Electoral history
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote[20] | Electoral vote |
Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote | ||||
| Donald Trump | Republican | Florida | 73,349,446 | 50.83% | [b]301 | JD Vance | Ohio | [b]301 |
| Kamala Harris | Democratic | California | 67,676,608 | 47.53% | [b]226 | Tim Walz | Minnesota | [b]226 |
| Jill Stein | Green | Massachusetts | 636,737 | 0.45% | 0 | Butch Ware | California | 0 |
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Independent | California | 619,232 | 0.43% | 0 | Nicole Shanahan | California | 0 |
| Chase Oliver | Libertarian | Georgia | 570,843 | 0.40% | 0 | Michael ter Maat | Virginia | 0 |
| Other | 498,132 | 0.35% | — | Other | — | |||
| (Uncalled) | — | — | — | — | 11 | (Uncalled) | — | 11 |
| Total | 142,380,403 | 100% | 538 | 538 | ||||
| Needed to win | 270 | 270 | ||||||
Discography
- Aqsa Flood (2024)
Selected publications
- Ware, Rudolph T.; Wright, Zachary Valentine; Syed, Amir (2018). Jihad of the Pen: The Sufi Literature of West Africa. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-977-416-863-5.[26]
- Ware, Rudolph T. (2014). The Walking Qurʼan: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-1431-1. Project MUSE book 31232.[27]
References
- ^ 48:57 [...] [Interviewer:] do you believe there should be any limits on
49:03 abortion then[?] [Ware:] of course there should be limits on everything there there isn't there's almost nothing that should be
49:08 left you know completely un unregulated um you know uh but you know I think that that a lot of the kind of common sense
49:15 um you know uh uh uh regulations that most Americans agree on as a you know
49:21 essentially 6040 issues you know something like 16 weeks and and and other such you know I won't go into kind
49:28 of the the the fine points on it but of course there have to be um limitations there have to be regulations of of of
49:34 abortion without any question [...][14] - ^ a b This tally only reflects projections made unanimously by ABC,[21] Associated Press,[22] CBS,[23] CNN,[24] and NBC.[25]
- ^ "Dr. Bilal Ware".
- ^ "Ep. 79: Slavery and Islam Part 2: Islam & the Abolition of Slavery - Bilal Ware – Studio". www.almadina.org.
- ^ Ebbiary, Alyaa (November 16, 2022). "Prof. Rudolph Bilal Ware". Journal of Education in Muslim Societies.
- ^ "Hub Foundation". www.hub-foundation.org.
- ^ "Meet Butch - Jill Stein 2024". Retrieved September 16, 2024.
- ^ "Butch Ware – Department of History, UC Santa Barbara". Retrieved January 15, 2024.
- ^ "EIHS Lecture: 'Visionaries: Second Sight and Social Change in West Africa Since 1800'". U-M LSA Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies (Press release).
- ^ Ebbiary, Alyaa (November 16, 2022). "Prof. Rudolph Bilal Ware". Journal of Education in Muslim Societies. 4 (1). ISSN 2641-0052.
- ^ a b Staff, J. I. (October 28, 2024). "Jill Stein's running mate celebrated violence against Israelis". Jewish Insider. Retrieved October 29, 2024.
- ^ Buchman, Cassie (August 16, 2024). "Green Party candidate Jill Stein selects Dr. Butch Ware as running mate". NewsNation. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
- ^ "Butch Ware, former Green Party VP nominee, announces next run for office". TAG24. November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
- ^ Flegenheimer, Matt (October 23, 2024). "Jill Stein Won't Stop. No Matter Who Asks". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 4, 2024. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
- ^ Middle East Eye (May 11, 2024). How exemplary violence is used by colonisers and is being used in Gaza | Rudolph Ware | UNAPOLOGETIC. Retrieved November 3, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ a b The Black Authority (October 30, 2024). Butch Ware Calls The Black Channel. Event occurs at 50:32 and 48:57. Retrieved November 7, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ Ring, Trudy (November 1, 2024). "Jill Stein's running mate, Butch Ware, makes transphobic remarks". The Advocate. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
- ^ a b Hansford, Amelia (November 4, 2024). "Jill Stein's Green Party running mate opposes trans inclusion in women's sport". PinkNews. Archived from the original on November 4, 2024. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
- ^ Ware, Buch (November 2, 2024). "My full statement as a single thread:". Twitter. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
- ^ Anderson, Brooke (August 17, 2024). "US: Jill Stein announces Muslim convert as VP running mate at online event". The New Arab. Archived from the original on November 4, 2024. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
- ^ The Thinking Muslim (November 1, 2024). US Elections: Why We Must Be Radical - Professor Butch Ware. Retrieved November 7, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ "2024 Presidential Election by State", The Green Papers, November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
- ^ "2024 US Presidential Election Results: Live Map". ABC. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
- ^ "2024 Presidential Election Results". Associated Press. November 5, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
- ^ "Presidential election results 2024 data". CBS. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
- ^ "Presidential election results 2024". CNN. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
- ^ "Presidential Election 2024 Live Results: Donald Trump wins". NBC. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
- ^ Reviews of Jihad of the Pen:
- U Chinedu Amaefula, African Studies Quarterly, ProQuest 2424657574
- Wendell Marsh, The Journal of African History, doi:10.1017/S0021853721000153
- Eliza Tasbihi, Journal of Islamic Studies, doi:10.1093/jis/etab038
- ^ Reviews of The Walking Qur'an:
- Anouk Cohen, Bulletin critique des annales islamologiques (in French), [1]
- Emad Hamdeh, American Journal of Islam and Society, doi:10.35632/ajis.v32i1.961
- Muhammed Haron, African Historical Review, doi:10.1080/17532523.2016.1227605
- David E. Skinner, Islamic Africa, doi:10.1163/21540993-00602010, JSTOR 90017388
- Alden Young, "A Revisionist History of West Africa", Books & Ideas, [2]
External links
- Faculty website
- "Christopher Brown and Rudolph Ware". The New York Public Library.