How Civil Rights Law Became a Weapon Against Dissent—on Palestine and Beyond

As the assault on Gaza continues and the crisis deepens, our individual freedom to critique Israel’s actions has become more and more fraught. We have a deep commitment to anti-racism in all its forms on Unruly Subjects, including antisemitism. But we find ourselves in a place where condemning the actions of a country is falsely - and often frighteningly - equated with being anti-semitic.

Darryl Li is an anthropologist and lawyer teaching at the University of Chicago. He's the co-author of a new study that puts this current moment in context. The study is titled  “Discriminating Against Dissent: the Weaponization of Civil Rights Law to Repress Campus Speech on Palestine”, published by the AAUP and Middle East Studies Association. We discuss the history of Title VI, academic freedom, and the ways that both Democratic and Republican administrations have been implicated in the suppression of free speech. 

Also in this episode: Following last week’s conversation with Daniel Coates about resisting ICE with Hands Off NYC, Chenjerai and his wife Saadiqa attend an action in Washington Square Park in NYC. 

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod 

Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Buy After Savagery at Haymarketbooks.com Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions