Adding fuel to the flames of debate over the American Studies Association (ASA)’s controversial decision to boycott Israeli universities, right-wing magazines such as Frontpage and
Grumpy Opinions have accused the ASA of being an "Anti-American"
American Organization. These publications have claimed that the ASA has
given “explicit endorsement of Puerto Rican terrorist groups,” citing
talks by the civil rights attorney Jan Susler of the People’s Law Office and the popular Puerto Rican poet Giannina Braschi who
both addressed the association’s “Empire and Resistance” conference
held in San Juan in November 2012. That well attended event honed in on
the subject of American imperialism in Puerto Rico and elsewhere and did
not address issues of the boycott.
According to the the
website of the American Studies Association, the majority of its members
have endorsed the Association’s participation in a boycott of Israeli
academic institutions. In an election that attracted 1252 voters, the
largest number of participants in the organization’s history, 66.05% of
voters endorsed the resolution, while 30.5% of voters voted no and 3.43%
abstained. The resolution was in solidarity with scholars and students
deprived of their academic freedom and it aspires to enlarge that
freedom for all, including Palestinians. The ASA’s endorsement of the
academic boycott emerges from the context of US military and other
support for Israel; Israel’s violation of international law and UN
resolutions; the documented impact of the Israeli occupation on
Palestinian scholars and students; the extent to which Israeli
institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that
violate human rights; and finally, the support of such a resolution by a
majority of ASA members.
Frontpage
Magazine pulled the Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi into the fray
for having read gruesome scenes of black humor from her novel “United
States of Banana” which dramatized the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11th as
a metaphor for the fall of the American Empire. Widely considered one
of the most revolutionary voices in Latin American letters today,
Braschi is the celebrated author of the Spanglish classic "Yo-Yo Boing!"
and the postmodern poetry trilogy "Empire of Dreams." Her statements
which stirred controversy included:
“Banks are the temples of America. This is a holy war. Our economy is religion.”
“The suicide-bomber kills
the anonymity of the crowd. Nobodies suddenly become somebodies with
names, nationalities, stories, and faces. The crowd has an individual
rage that is awakened when its collectivity is attacked. It’s the fear
that it could happen to you—or to me—or to any one of us anytime the
crowd gathers. The government worries that the roll call of the death
toll will storm the polls and overturn elections and cars, businesses
and samenesses. When the government proclaims war against terrorism it is proclaiming war against the awakening of the masses.”
“It doesn’t matter how
often I hear: religion, religion, religion. I know deep in my heart that
it is not about religion. It is about the battle of matter and
spirit—the battle of the oppressed that are dispossessed—and want to
possess—because they feel possessed. And they are possessed of spirit.
It is the call of the oppressed to be possessed by something higher than
material dispossession. After all the schisms of isms—after capitalism,
socialism, marxism, communism, feminism—after separation of church and
state—it is an anachronism to call it a religious crusade when it is a
global conflict between the ones who have too much and the ones who have
too little, too little to lose.”
“Success can be measured by
numbers—and not just by the number of dead and wounded—but by the
number of spectators around the world who witnessed the fall of the
American Empire on TV.”
The
Chicago based Civil rights attorney Jan Susler, who also spoke at the
2012 ASA conference in San Juan, was accused by the same magazine of
aiding terrorists for her years of work on behalf of political prisoners
of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.
Both Susler and Braschi have both argued for the independence of Puerto
Rico: Susler through high-profile legal battles and Braschi through
award-winning books of poetry and fiction. Giannina Braschi has often
stated that liberty is not an option, but a human right.
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