(This weekend I’ve selected a guest essay from Naya Lekht, a young teacher, author, and speaker. The piece speaks for itself. I do not necessarily agree with every single claim here, but I admire the courage and insight. --Ayaan)
Give a college student a slogan to chant or a poster to carry and witness the incredible force of student activism erupt. Students have always cared about changing the world. Fixing the climate and racial justice have lately been the causes célèbres; were they not those, they would be something else equally urgent-sounding. Add to this a map of the world wrapped around the framework of oppression and a blinkered fixation on decolonization, and we see clearly how the Hamas-Israel conflict – one spanning a tiny area the size of Raleigh, North Carolina – managed to capture the minds of America’s youth.
The slogan “all eyes on Rafah,” hatched earlier this week as the IDF entered the city, raises the question: Where were these eyes when 619,910 were killed in Syria; 150,000 killed in Yemen; 6 million killed in Congo since 1996; and nearly 20,000 Ukrainian civilians killed as of February 2023? And for those who want to end “systemic racism,” how many of those have their eyes glued to the African continent, where an estimated 7 million black people are enslaved today?
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