Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill is a Native American activist of Cherokee heritage, co-chairman of the American Indian Movement in Colorado, and a tenured professor of Ethnic Studies at University of Colorado at Boulder. He is very vocal on all Native American issues, the FBI and police states. His published work characterises the United States as an imperialist power with a history of genocide.
Controversy
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His latest book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens deals with claims that the United States is imperialist and its consequences, especially regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. The "Roosting Chickens" of the title comes from a Malcolm X speech about the assassination of president JFK, as the violence that Kennedy did not stop came back to "roost". Churchill refers to this speech in the essay "Some People Push Back", included in the book. Some portions of this essay, written shortly after the attacks, have, as of January 2005, become more widely known and controversial. Attention was drawn to the essay after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College. The appearance was changed after protests began to surface to a panel on free speech, but utimately cancelled for security reasons. For example, in the quote below, Churchill questions the innocence of the victims of the attack:
- As for those in the World Trade Center, well, really, let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly.[1]
In response to what he calls "grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks", Churchill later clarified his views:
- I am not a "defender" of the September 11 attacks, but simply pointing out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned. I have never said that people "should" engage in armed attacks on the United States, but that such attacks are a natural and unavoidable consequence of unlawful U.S. policy. As Martin Luther King, quoting Robert F. Kennedy, said, "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable."
The essay has received significant media attention, including mention on the January 28, 2005 edition of the Fox News Channel program The O'Reilly Factor who suggested that listeners email the college. A flood of 6,000 emails resulted. Following the mention on Fox, Churchill has become a focus of attention by local media in Colorado with a special meeting scheduled of the Board of Regents of the University of Colorado Thursday, February 3, 2005 and a call by the Governor of Colorado for his resignation. Churchill has support of members of his department and a portion of the student body on the basis of academic freedom. Student demonstrations and statements pro and con seem evenly divided.
Ward Churchill has been praised by Noam Chomsky: "Ward Churchill has carved out a special place for himself in defending the rights of oppressed people, and exposing the dark side of past and current history, often marginalized or suppressed. These are achievements of inestimable value."
Following the uproar provoked by his comments, Churchill resigned his position as chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department. He continues to hold a position as professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado but his annual income has been reduced to $94,000 from $104,000 as the result of his resignation as head of the department. The scheduled appearance at Hamilton College was cancelled for security reasons. Although Hamilton College has a history of welcoming controversy, it turns out that those who invited Churchill to Hamilton had been unaware of the most controversial aspects of his writings.
Media
Books
- On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality, 2003. ISBN 1902593790.
- Struggle for the Land : Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide, and Colonization, 2002. Hardcover ISBN 0872864154, paperback ISBN 0872864146.
- From A Native Son: Selected Essays on Indigenism 1985-1995.
- Acts Of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader.
- A Little Matter Of Genocide: Holocaust And Denial In The Americas 1492 To The Present, 1998. Hardcover ISBN 0872863433, paperback ISBN 0872863239.
Audio
- Doing Time: The Politics of Imprisonment
- Life In Occupied America
- In A Pig's Eye: Reflections on the Police State, Repression, and Native America
- US Off The Planet!: An Evening In Eugene With Ward Churchill And Chellis Glendinning
- Pacifism and Pathology in the American Left
See also
External links
- Churchill's answer to FOX news controversy
- ZNet
- AK Press
- South End Press
- CU prof's essay sparks dispute: Ward Churchill says 9/11 victims were not innocent people
- Full text of "Some People Push Back"
- New York Times article Feb 2, 2005 registration and nominal payment required
- BACKGROUND: The United States Government War Against the American Indian Movement