In calling for a boycott, our students are following in the footsteps of the generations before them who protested and called for a boycott to hasten the end to South Africa’s apartheid regime in the early 1990s.
The conflict over Israel’s obliteration of Gaza and the Palestinian people, and the American funding and munitions behind it, should have been what we professors call a “teachable moment” that could have taught lessons about war and conflict, justice and genocide.
Instead, our University’s silencing of some of its students has now led to the cancellation of the general commencement, impacting all students. This, too, is a teachable moment, although one taught by self-inflicted injury rather than intentional pedagogy. The lesson is that silencing those we disagree with can end up silencing everyone.
olddogthoughts 